A midsize Ram truck is coming, it's body-on-frame and we're stoked
The first midsize Ram since 2011 will be built alongside the Wrangler pickup in the Toledo, Ohio Jeep plant.
Fiat Chrysler's multitude of American marques has been without a midsize pickup in the US since it killed off the Dodge Dakota in 2011, opting to focus on full-size trucks instead, eventually folding them all under the Ram name. Now though, with a flood of domestic midsizers coming to market, Ram has decided to dust itself off and get back in the game, Automotive News reported on Monday.
The good news is that Ram's parent company Fiat Chrysler is doubling down on the midsize market with this as-yet-unnamed body-on-frame truck and the forthcoming Jeep Wrangler pickup. The two will be built alongside one another in the Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Newly minted FCA CEO and former head of Ram and Jeep brands Mike Manley promised the truck in a presentation back in June. He was a little light on detail, beyond assuaging the fears of truck fans that it wouldn't be related to the Fiat-based unibody-construction Ram 750, which is sold in Latin America.
We expect to see this new baby Ram sometime in 2020 as a 2021 model vehicle. It will be interesting to see how it will compete in this newly flush midsize market with the competition from Detroit and manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan , particularly if Ram brings the 48-volt E-Torque mild hybrid system over from the current Ram 1500 and Jeep Wrangler.
As of August, the best-selling midsize pickup by far is the Toyota Tacoma, with 23,534 vehicles sold during the month, according to data from GoodCarBadCar. The next best midsize is the Nissan Frontier with 4,573 and the Honda Ridgeline with just 2,792 sold -- but that doesn't tell the whole story. The small and midsize truck category has seen a 10 percent bump in sales over last year with 299,228 vehicles sold and with the new Ford Ranger getting ready to hit showrooms early in 2019, that number is likely to increase, which makes it easy to see why Ram has a renewed interest in the segment.
