Ram's new midsize pickup will be a body-on-frame truck built in the same plant in Toledo, Ohio, as Jeep's upcoming Wrangler-based pickup, supplier sources tell Automotive News.
The revelation means the Ram pickup, which will compete against the Chevrolet Colorado and upcoming Ford Ranger, will not be a Fiat-based unibody compact, such as the Ram 750 sold in Latin America.
Mike Manley, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' head of Jeep and Ram, promised the Ram pickup at the automaker's June 1 presentation in Balocco, Italy. But he provided few details about the truck, which is expected to arrive in U.S. dealerships in 2020 as a 2021 model. Manley is now CEO of FCA.
Production of Ram's last midsize pickup, the Dakota, ended in 2011 after a 25-year run.
Roughly half of FCA's sprawling Toledo Assembly Complex has been shut for retooling since late April, when the last JK Wranglers were built there. FCA is scheduled to begin recalling workers there next month. The line regularly built more than 230,000 JK Wranglers per year, well more than its planned capacity of 160,000. But the new Jeep pickup is not expected to sell in those volumes, leaving FCA with an underused plant unless it adds another body-on-frame product.
FCA declined to comment for this story.
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.
