Talk of a global mid-sized Ram ute to take on the top-selling Ford Ranger – potentially badged as the Dakota – has been around for at least five years, but the US brand’s returning CEO has now added more fuel to the fire.
“I want a mid-size truck so bad,” Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis told Motor1 at the Detroit motor show this week.
“Wouldn’t it be great if I had a mid-size that was an awesome, capable [truck] to fill in that gap? Yeah, I’d love to have one.”
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Ram Rampage
Mr Kuniskis, who was Ram’s global chief until he retired last May then returned in December, said a smaller and more affordable pickup positioned below the top-selling Ram 1500, the cut-price DS-series ‘Classic’ version of which has now been discontinued, would be vital for the American truck brand amid rising inflation.
“Everything is more expensive. Trucks are way more expensive – bread goes up, you still got to eat, right? Trucks go up, you start looking for alternatives.
“I used to have a price point alternative with the Ram Classic. I don’t have that anymore.”
Ram is the only major US brand not represented in the global mid-sized pickup market. Ford offers its Ranger globally, while GM competes in various markets with the Chevrolet Colorado and S10 and GMC Canyon.
In the US, this segment is led by the Toyota Tacoma.
Most recently in November, Chris Feuell – the CEO of the Chrysler brand and, from June to December of 2024, Ram – told Motor Trend that the model is still in the works and will be offered globally, saying: “It will be brought to market”.
Ms Feuell said Ram had weighed a couple of different platform options before arriving at a decision that she says will surprise.
Whether that means Ram will eschew a traditional ladder-frame construction for monocoque underpinnings like the Ford Maverick or its own Rampage, which was launched in Brazil last year, remains unclear.
Motor Trend says more details will be revealed this year and that multiple powertrains will be available, but it may be a while before a concept version is revealed.
United Auto Workers union vice-president Rich Boyer said in 2023 that a mid-sized Ram pickup would be built at the former Jeep Cherokee plant in Belvidere, Illinois, but according to the Detroit Free Press that factory won’t reopen until 2028.
Ram teased what appeared to be a Ranger-sized ute with an electric powertrain back in 2021, riding the STLA Large architecture, before then-CEO Mike Koval Jr told CarExpert in April 2023 that the concept received rave reviews at a North American dealer meeting in Las Vegas earlier that year and would almost certainly be sold in Australia.
He also confirmed the model was being developed with international and right-hand drive markets in mind. However, in a press release further detailing the STLA Large platform in 2024, Stellantis made no mention of the Ram brand, though it said the platform could support combustion, hybrid and electric powertrains.
The upcoming Ram ute could instead use the STLA Medium platform, or the STLA Frame platform that underpins the range-extender Ram 1500 Ramcharger and the electric 1500 REV.
Apart from the unibody Rampage dual-cab sold in Latin American markets with four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, Ram parent Stellantis also sells the Changan F70-based, body-on-frame Ram 1200 pickup for other non-Western markets including Mexico.
Stellantis also has the closely related Peugeot Landtrek for Africa and the Fiat Titano for Europe.
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