Ram to build current 1500 pickup into '19

DETROIT -- Fiat Chrysler will build the current version of the Ram light-duty pickup well into 2019, even after it launches a redesigned Ram 1500 in early 2018, Automotive News has learned.

The added volume could allow FCA to make a low-cost play for added fleet business with the retiring pickups, while appealing to retail customers with the added features and technology due on the new trucks. It would also ensure that dealers have ample supplies of hot-selling pickups.

"Going into 2018, having more pickup capacity will allow us also to satisfy the fleet customers' demand on pickup, which we struggle to do today because we favor retail in the U.S. and Canadian volume, which have higher margins," CFO Richard Palmer said last week during a conference call. "As we realign our capacity, we're going to be able to continue to work on improving our fleet mix."

Sources say that the current light-duty pickup will continue production at Warren Truck Assembly in suburban Detroit and in Saltillo, Mexico, into 2019. Together, those plants would build a planned 200,000 of the pickups in 2018 and 65,000 in 2019 before transitioning to other products. 

In addition, nearly 325,000 units of the redesigned Ram 1500 are to be built in 2018 at Sterling Heights Assembly. 

Production of the redesigned pickup in 2019 is expected to grow 25 percent to more than 400,000. 

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity. An FCA spokesman declined to comment, though on a conference call last week, CEO Sergio Marchionne confirmed a capacity for the retooled Sterling Heights Assembly Plant of about 330,000. 

Continuing production of the existing Ram 1500 even after the launch of its replacement would follow the strategy FCA used to launch the 2017 Chrysler Pacifica when the automaker kept building the Dodge Grand Caravan. FCA uses the cheaper Grand Caravan extensively in fleet sales and as a low-cost alternative to the higher-priced Pacifica. 

Through September, U.S. Ram pickup sales have climbed 8.3 percent from the restated sales in the same period of last year. 

"We have taken a very hard look at our level of penetration in some of the key truck areas in the U.S., and we've been deficient," Marchionne said. "And I think a lot of this has been because of the fact that we have not emulated people who have a longer history of success in this sector."

Sterling Heights Assembly will begin an extensive retooling just after Christmas to transition from production of the unibody Chrysler 200 to the body-on-frame redesigned Ram 1500.

Ram is expected to continue to use steel for the majority of the body panels on the redesigned pickup, instead of switching to aluminum like its competitor, the Ford F-150. Using steel will allow Ram to use more complex shapes in its body panels, including a styling line front-to-rear around the top of the wheel wells to evoke a more muscular stance.

Under the hood, the redesigned Ram 1500 is expected to get an improved 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine with direct injection and optional turbocharging. FCA officials have said that the company plans to incorporate fuel-saving belt-start generators in its next-generation pickups to further improve fuel economy. 

The redesigned Ram 1500's exterior styling will be largely evolutionary, keeping the accentuated raised hood and mammoth chrome grille, but in a slightly different shape. The headlights will shrink and be more integrated into the grille, giving the vehicle's front fascia a toughened, squinty appearance. 

New technologies under the hood will require more air, forcing designers to include a new large air intake above the tow hooks on the front bumper. Horizontal fog lights integrated into the front bumper will largely mimic the styling of the headlights above, sources said. 

At the rear, the taillights will be smaller, with backup lights integrated vertically nearer the tailgate, instead of at the bottom of the taillights as they are now. 

Inside the cab, the biggest change is expected to come in a new, flattened center console design allowing for more storage space, sources said.

Continuing to build the current Ram 1500 at Warren Truck Assembly into 2019 helps explain FCA's successful request in September for state incentives to hire an additional 700 workers at Sterling Heights Assembly.

When Automotive News reported in September 2015 on FCA's plans to shuffle its North American manufacturing footprint, it was believed that excess workers from Warren Truck Assembly would transfer to Sterling Heights Assembly with their product, meaning few new jobs would be required. FCA told the state that the 700 jobs at Sterling Heights Assembly would be in addition to the current work force.

A decision to keep building the current Ram 1500 at Warren Truck Assembly into 2019 could also have implications for Jeep and Dodge.

FCA had planned to use a retooled Warren Truck Assembly to build its new luxury SUV, the Jeep Grand Wagoneer. But the Warren plant would have to be retooled for the unibody Grand Wagoneer, which will share a platform with the smaller redesigned Jeep Grand Cherokee. That would likely push Grand Wagoneer's introduction into 2020, unless the SUV is moved to nearby Jefferson North Assembly, where it could replace the current Durango and share a line with the redesigned Grand Cherokee.

Such a move would then allow for development of a large, body-on-frame SUV, to replace the Durango in Dodge's lineup, and give Warren Truck Assembly a body-on-frame vehicle to build.