Are Kohler Diesel Engines Still Being Made & Who Owns The Company?

The Kohler brand has a storied history of engine building, specifically diesel engines. Kohler Company was founded in 1873 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, by a man named John Michael Kohler. However, it wasn't until much later, in 1948, that the company began producing small engines. From there, Kohler continued to produce engines, and even recently earned the Diesel Of The Year award for its KSD 1403TCA engine.

As of today, the Kohler brand still exists and is still making engines, although it is doing so under a different name. In a press release on September 17, 2024, Kohler announced it is "ushering in a New Era of Sustainable Energy Innovation" by renaming the brand Rehlko. "Rehlko builds on a 100-plus-year legacy of powering an energy resilient world for a better future," the press release stated. This all came along when Platinum Equity, a private equity firm, helped establish the Kohler Energy company as a stand-alone business. From there, the Rehlko brand is now responsible for Kohler Power Systems and Kohler Engines.

If the name Rehlko seems oddly similar to Kohler, it's because the new brand name uses the same letters as the original. "This rebranding is more than just a clever name change," Francis Perrin, chief brand and sustainability officer at Rehlko, said. "The letters that comprise the name Rehlko reflect our 100-plus years of rich heritage under the Kohler brand."

The Rehlko brand makes a number of different diesel engines that can be used in multiple areas. One of the brand's diesel engines, the KDI2504TCR, offers 55.4 horsepower and can be used to power anything from a backloader to a pressure washer, and has 23 other listed uses on the Rehlko website. Regarding that engine, Rehlko states that they used "state-of-the-art technology to control the combustion process, we created a diesel that delivers more power and more torque in a smaller frame."

The engines the Rehlko brand builds are small diesel engines intended for use in tools, tractors, and construction equipment. There are no diesel engines built by the company that are meant to be fitted into automobiles. In fact, the most powerful engine the brand produces has just 141 horsepower, and it's one of the few engines offered with more than 100 horses. What the engine lacks in horsepower, it more than makes up for in torque, with 650 pound-feet of torque. The smallest engine the brand makes is the KD15-225. The small, 4.5-horsepower diesel engine is built for air compressors, lawn mowers, and water pumps. The single-digit horsepower engine provides 10.4 pound-feet of torque, which is pretty good given the low power.