Ganser-Hydromag AG (est. 1995) in Oberägeri. The first common-rail-Diesel-engine used in a road vehicle was the MN 106-engine by East German VEB IFA Motorenwerke Nordhausen. It was built into a single IFA W50 in 1985. Due to a lack of funding, the development was cancelled and mass production was never achieved. The first successful use in a mass production vehicle began in Japan by the mid-1990s. Dr. Shohei Itoh and Masahiko Miyaki of the Denso Corporation, a Japanese automotive-parts manufacturer, developed the common rail fuel system for heavy-duty vehicles and turned it into practical use on their ECD-U2 common rail system mounted on the Hino Ranger truck and sold for general use in 1995. Denso claims the first commercial high-pressure common rail system in 1995. Modern common rail systems, although working on the same principle, are governed by an engine control unit, which opens each injector electrically rather than mechanically. This was extensively prototyped in the 1990s with collaboration between Magneti Marelli, Centro Ricerche Fiat, and Elasis. After research and development by the Fiat Group, the design was acquired by the German company Robert Bosch GmbH for completion of development and refinement for mass production. In hindsight, the sale appeared to be a strategic error for Fiat, as the new technology proved to be highly profitable. The company had little choice but to sell Bosch a licence, as it was in a poor financial state at the time and lacked the resources to complete development on its own. In 1997, they extended its use for passenger cars. The first passenger car to use the common rail system was the 1997 model Alfa Romeo 156 with a 2.4-L JTD engine, and later that same year, Mercedes-Benz introduced it in their W202 model. In 2001, common rail made its way into pickup trucks with the 6.6 liter Duramax LB7 V8 used in Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra HD models. Dodge and Cummins implemented this in 2003, and Ford adopted this technology in 2008 with the Navistar-built 6.4L Powerstroke. Today, all diesel pickup trucks use common rail systems. Applications The common rail system is suitable for all types of road cars with diesel engines, ranging from city cars (such as the Fiat Panda) to executive cars (such as the Audi A8). The main suppliers of modern common rail systems are BOSCH, Delphi, Denso, and Siemens VDO (now owned by Continental AG). Acronyms and