The New Ram Dakota Has Been Cancelled
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As you hopefully know by now, GM Authority obsessively covers General Motors. But on occasion, we learn exclusive information about The General’s competitors, which is the case today. Specifically, the Ram Dakota project has been cancelled, GM Authority has learned from sources within Stellantis.
For those readers who may not know, Stellantis is a new automotive company formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler and French automotive giant Groupe PSA. It was originally believed that the new company would introduce a fresh midsize truck with the Ram Dakota nameplate, which was discontinued following the 2011 model year.
The new Ram Dakota was believed to be based around the Jeep Gladiator, with a 3.6L V6 gasoline engine under the hood connecting to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Both rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive would have been on the table, with an optional 3.0L V6 diesel powerplant also a possibility. An off-roader-spec Rebel trim also wasn’t out of the question, offering upgraded suspension, underbody protection, off-road-spec tires, and more aggressive styling.
Jeep Gladiator
For now, the exact motivation behind Stellantis’ decision to cancel the new Ram Dakota project is unclear.
Sales Numbers - Midsize Pickups - 2020 - United States
| MODEL | YTD 20 / YTD 19 | YTD 20 | YTD 19 | YTD 20 SHARE | YTD 19 SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOYOTA TACOMA | -4.02% | 238,806 | 248,801 | 41% | 41% |
| FORD RANGER | +13.30% | 101,486 | 89,571 | 18% | 15% |
| CHEVROLET COLORADO | -21.31% | 96,238 | 122,304 | 17% | 20% |
| JEEP GLADIATOR | +93.63% | 77,542 | 40,047 | 13% | 7% |
| NISSAN FRONTIER | -49.09% | 36,845 | 72,369 | 6% | 12% |
| GMC CANYON | -23.26% | 25,190 | 32,825 | 4% | 5% |
| TOTAL | -4.92% | 576,107 | 605,917 |
However, the Jeep Gladiator made great strides in the segment throughout 2020. Despite being priced higher than its competition, it accounted for 13 percent of the segment. Hence, it could be that the company is satisfied with the performance of the Jeep Gladiator, reasoning that another midsize pickup wasn’t necessary.
Sales Numbers - GM Midsize Pickups - 2020 - United States
| MODEL | YTD 20 / YTD 19 | YTD 20 | YTD 19 | YTD 20 SHARE | YTD 19 SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHEVROLET COLORADO | -21.31% | 96,238 | 122,304 | 79% | 79% |
| GMC CANYON | -23.26% | 25,190 | 32,825 | 21% | 21% |
| TOTAL | -21.72% | 121,428 | 155,129 |
GMC Canyon
Had Stellantis followed through with a new Ram Dakota, the resulting pickup would have served as a direct rival to the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon.
For their part, GM’s Colorado and Canyon accounted for 21 percent share of the midsize truck segment in 2020, down 4 percentage points from 25 percent in 2019. The Jeep Gladiator, along with the Ford Ranger, were the only two vehicles that saw segment share growth during the year.
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Many were looking forward to the new Dodge Ram, what a shame. But, the 3.0L EcoDiesel had been plagued with issued and is considered a Lemon by many. Dodge probably couldn’t decide if they wanted to offer the Pentastar V6 engine upgrade in the new RAM and knew the standard Pentastar had been around for quite a few years? Then they had those in the corporate world who just couldn’t see fit to offer the tried-and-true- Hemi V8 in a mid-sized work vehicle? Bummer!
Since 2011, Dodge and Ram are two different brands.
Dodge has 3 passenger cars on offer, Ram a range of vans and pickups.
Question is, what benefits would a V8 have in a “midsize work vehicle” that wouldn’t be better served by the same engine in a half ton application?
The V8 was used before and really only made a rare model for collectors today. The added cost and expense of offering the option kept many away in the first gen Colorado.
The truth is the V6 in my Canyon actually gets better mpg and is faster than the gen one V8; was and my truck is even heavier.
Mix that with the fact GM knows the trucks are next moving to a turbo 4 does not make the move any easier.
Automakers live in the future not in the present.
@C8.R:
» V8 was used before and really only made a rare model for collectors today.«
To produce collector’s items is not very profitable.
No wonder that a profit oriented manager as Tavares stops wasting money.
Not necessarily imo. Many do not need or even want a full size truck, but may still want or STILL need truck for the bed (when small-mid size bed all thats needed/wanted), but ALSO NEED a more powerful engine for any # of reasons (towing, smaller size for parking etc, better might, performance, etc.) . Since I mentioned performance, a mid size v8 powered truck by Ram would UNDOUBTEDLY be offered in various performance packages (as they’ve always done, and I’d assume this would be for off road 4×4 and street truck forms i.e. Warlock, Lil Red Express, Dakota RT, SRT-10 Ram, and NOW the Ram TRX. I realize dodge and ram are 2 seperate divisions now, but the trend has continued i.e. TRX. I mention all of this bc people LOVE performance trucks and will gladly pay hefty sums, and like the top trim of almost ANY model vehicle, these premium trim levels translates into enormous profits.). And probably the BIGGEST factor making a v8 powered mid size is THE PRICE TO PURCHASE. IDK if you’ve looked at full size truck prices lately, ESPECIALLY once even just a few of the desirable options r checked, but the FACT IS that full size trucks have morphed from being a utilitarian, almost PURELY functional vehicle to any given company’s flagship luxury vehicle, AND THAT FACT is clearly verified by the price! This fact means that the ENORMOUS # of people wanting/requiring a truck of any size but can’t afford a luxury vehicle w a truck bed, even when brand loyal, will have no choice but to buy one of the midsize offered by rams competitors (if buying a new truck vs used)
JoeC says it loud and clear:
»
FACT IS that full size trucks have morphed from being a utilitarian, almost PURELY functional vehicle to any given company’s flagship luxury vehicle, AND THAT FACT is clearly verified by the price!
«
or said in other words: those who need a productive, efficient vehicle for transporting goods, don’t buy apickup as a life style vehicle, but a Chevrolet Express, RAM ProMaster, Ford Transit or Mercedes Sprinter. Most of them are available as stripped down to the chassis and the cabin.
That is my humble opionion from afar.
As to the future of Chrysler, Dodge and Ram, I recommend a wait and see attitude. Their history with Carlos Tavaresat the helm of the international corporation has just begun.
Too bad for Ram. If Stellantis was smart they would have Jeep make full-sized light-duty trucks and leverage Ram frames. If Jeep could have separate styling in and out I would be a buyer.
Jeep is the “global SUV” brand in the Stellantis realm, with Christian MEUNIER as boss and Synergies Referent for all SUVs (I understand that also all non-Jeep SUVs are meant).
Separate from that are the
American Brands
Chrysler: Timothy KUNISKIS Interim
Dodge: Timothy KUNISKIS Synergies Referent1
RAM: Mike KOVAL
See the January 19, 2021 Stellantis press release “Appointment of the Top Executive Team to steer Stellantis” (see “Menu > News > Press Releases” on the Stellantis corporate web site).
To tear Jeep back into US only cars would be an error, even me thinks.
Jeeps world wide success unter FCA (increase of sales from around 300k to more than a million) was based on separating Jeep from US-Only products.
And separating RAM as the brand for commercial vehicles with pickups and global vans (ProMaster) from the passenger car brands Chrysler and Dodge.
It’s a significant loss considering Dakota would have been cheap to produce as a reskinned Gladiator giving Stellantis greater market share. Dakota would have also provided a lower cost global alternative.
I’m following GM thinking which maybe it’s flawed with rising fuel prices
I had a feeling this was coming considering the mess this company is in any more.
The Tacoma sells more than the 3 models below combined. No shock there
I hope this new French car company doesn’t change the Ram Trucks to much , like change the body style to look like some dumb looking foreign thing!!! , if they do I’ll either go to cheverlet or Ford !!
Chevy and Ford are selling on customer loyalty, not admiration of their freakish styling.
The only reason PSA merged was to get showroom space at Chrysler/Dodge. They’re not interested in trucks as Europeans don’t drive trucks. They’ll find their European cars don’t sell here. My dad bought a Renault Dauphin in1962 to drive to work, I got the displeasure of driving it when I came home from boot camp. That was the most under powered, poor handling POS I had ever been in, he didn’t keep it but a month and a half before he got rid of it.
I understand that all RAM trucks sell well in NAFTAland, both the ProMaster and the pickups.
One sees pickups in Europe, mostly at gardening and landscape companies, maybe because if the lower loading space than regular trucks, which are of course much more frequent.
I can’t see any use for a pickup, since the open trunk is open for anybody to take out valuabkes and put in trash, also because the passenger car body panels around the cargo space risk to be scratched again and again.
But let everybody to live and work as he or she pleases.
The merger of FCA and PSA poses a number of questions regarding merging the various lines of commercial vehicles (I wonder why with the naming of managers for the various brand line ups, they did not name one for the commercial vehicles).
I wrote up my thaughts in this comment to the post on the SRT subbrand of Dodge:
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2021/02/stellantis-dissolves-srt-performance-division/#comment-1088380
I believe that the reason for the merger was not this. Stellantis’ CEO himself has said that the group’s focus in the U.S. will be on reinventing Chrysler and not reintroducing Peugeot.
Europeans are not really big pickups, but some brands still have representatives in the segment. Peugeot, for example, partnered with Changan to develop Landtrek, inspired by Hilux’s worldwide success. This will be sold in some countries in Africa and Latin America, with production in Uruguay.
Perhaps Stellantis will adapt the Landtrek project to develop a medium-sized pickup to sell in some markets such as Jeep or Fiat, mainly in South America, where Jeep has a good reputation and Fiat is successful with its monobloc commercial vehicles, such as Strada and Toro.
The truth is you will get rebadged Peugeot’s as Chrysler’s and Dodges.
They will not be giving us anything totally different than what they offer globally.
This is false. The French will lend the platforms and EV technologies to those two and that’s where any badge engineering stops. The rest of the development job is up to Chrysler and Dodge
That is what you think. Time will prove otherwise.
@C8.R:
Methinks they will rather create a common platform for commercial vehickes, including pickups.
As part of the consolidation of Opel into PSA, they created a task force in the Rüsselsheim development center to lead the corporationwide development of such a platform (pickups were not mentioned). The existing compact and midsized vans at PSA reside on passenger car platforms.
PSA’s merger with FCA makes this task more urgent and enlarges the number of engineers who can contribute to this effort.
The future at The new company will be electric cars, CUV models and small delivery trucks.
Ram and Jeep can be self supporting here alone so they will be let to do as they wish.
The staff on the cars will be reduced over time and will become more centralized in Europe.
Opel and FCA cars in time will vanish as independent models. They will be more and more on a shared corporate platform. In other words they will go the way GM just tried to get away from where they will have too many similar cars on the same platform.
The names will go by region.
In the end they may survive but they are not a threat to the top automakers like GM, VW or Toyota.
I for my part do not try to be prescient. I watch and listen (have you watched Tavaresˋ presentation on Jan 19? Important!).
Common platforms are the present and future for all automobile producers. PSA seems to be very good with them. This is no badge engineering (this happens only between Opel and its brand for the UK, Vauxhall).
But look at the current Peugeot 208, Opel/Vauxhall Corsa and Citroen C3: sister cars on the same platform CMP, and the new Opel Mokka. Do you see that they are built on the same platform? In the fall, the Opel factory at Rüsselsheim will start production of the new DS D4 and Opel/Vauxhall Astra, sister cars on the same platform, but looking very different in everything what is visible and touchable for the customer (the production of the Astra is being moved from Gliwice (Poland), which is being enlarged and converted to be the 2nd site for the full size van which you know as Ram ProMaster. Opel will end the cooperation with Renault on the Opel/Vauxhall Movano and Renault Master.
What I still miss is the common software, an automobile operating system, as Mercedes is developing for their cars. So that in the end not all automobile makers are subsidiaries of Google.
BTW, GM is no longer a “top automaker” of world scale, after withdrawing to Americas, China, and the oil dictatorships on the Arab peninsula. How Stellantis will fare with her 14 brands — we’ll see. That company is just one month old, is in its early stages. By pre-Covid numbers, Stellantis is No. 4 by units sold.
It is also still an open question, how far the damage done by Brexit can be minimized. The factory in Ellesmere Port is underutilized, but its existence is considered essential for the credibility of Vauxhall as a British brand. While import duties have been avoided, but the customs border along the English Channel demands a lot of paperwork and loss of time.
We’ll see, keep your eyes open.
Yet this company has to merge to survive while GM is progressing to change the industry hmm….
It is no longer about how many cars you sell. GM went broke selling millions globally.
Today it is return on investment and profits.
GM is a major player as they are making money vs many others who are not profitable and seek mergers and sell outs to survive.
In fact GM is financing their own EV programs while others are looking for dance partners to get what they need.
GM could go it alone with out Honda but Honda needed a partner to move forward. GM’s net gain is cost savings.
The auto market has fundamentally changed and the old ways no longer apply.
Companies are no longer too large to fail and now have to find ways to be more profitable and efficient.
Even VW is looking for money now. Bugatti May be sold off and they are looking to take Porsche public to get more money. There is a great risk there as if thing don’t go as planned they can lose the company.
I fully expect GM to re enter markets once the EV programs are ready and when the markets will require them. There will be a need for sorted cars but not all makers will be ready or have well sorted products in a number of different applications.
With this:
»
It is no longer about how many cars you sell. GM went broke selling millions globally.
Today it is return on investment and profits.
«
C8.R joins with Carlos Tavares, and if others may be confused and worried about decisions becoming public after his recent visit in Detroit, they should look at the above quoted statement by C8.R. And again, watch Tavares’
Here in Germany we experienced this after PSA took over Opel from GM. At first, the ongoing development of the new Corsa was stopped, and restarted with the PSA platform CMP. Later 4 models were cancelled alltogether.
As an unnecessary move may appear today, that the compact sized Combo van was redeveloped from a badge engineered version of the Fiat Doblo aka Ram Promaster City to a badge engineered version of the new Peugeot/Citroen competitor. I guess, under Stellantis both will be replaced by a common successor some time in the next years.
As a result, Opel became smaller, but profitable after 20 years of losses. Unfortunately, thousands of workers of lost their jobs (with compensations) or went into early retirement.
Therefore again my recommendation: don’t jump to conclusions, but wait and see, or better: watch closely. I guess, this blog will reflect the coming events, too. My thanks go to Alex Luft and his team for enabling this exchange of views.
Oh how do you know that?
Well, the last time they tried it in the 80s it didn’t work. In fact every foreign designed american badged model failed or showed mediocre sales performance at best.
The Stellantis managers know that and won’t be doing same mistake twice, they know the Dodge brand has a certain image, identity, and breaking up with it would be a extremely dumb.
You better read some news first about the plans Stellantis declared regarding those brands.
Bob they merged for volume for their own cars. Also Jeep and truck profits from NA.
They will rebadge cars and struggle much like Fiat unless they can under cut pricing. But I would not hold my breath on that.
Take a closer look at the acutal facts: For Carlos Tavares always profits are more important than volume and market share. That might have been behind the desisions coming out of Tavares’ first trip to the FCA installations in Detroit, which this blog wrote about (how real they might be). He expects a rebound to came later on a more stable basis.
Look at what the others DO and listen to what they say instead of creating your own set of “facts” produced by your mind, but not reality.
My take is “Wait and see”, and watch, listen and try to understand.
What a shame . I’m not spending 50 grand on the gladiator. Read an article that the jeep was supposed to start at 27 when it came out.Dealerships had bidding wars so they kept the price up there.Fiat Suv is nice but it failed.
May be due to the announcement they just made about a 2 door Jeep Gladiator with a longer bed.
My exact idea before I even read your comment!
I really hope one of these days someone makes the true compact p/u again. A small truck for a person who wants to haul 10, 8′ 2X4’s, or 15 bales of pine straw, or haul a stack of brush to the landfill to be shred. It’s difficult to now find a pre-1975 Tacoma with decent miles for sale at a reasonable price, although there are still lots of them on the road. Everybody doesn’t need a massive 6000lb truck with 4WD, a V-8 that gets 14mpg and can haul 3/4 ton with 5 passengers inside. And a vinyl-clad interior with FM radio, A.C. and heater, 5-speed tranny with roll-up windows and 15″ tires would pretty much fit the bill. I’d swap my Silverado today for a new one.
FCA Brasil developed a pickup on the same platform as the Jeep Compass and Renegade, to operate in the segment below the medium pickups. It is sold under as Fiat Toro in most markets and RAM 1000, where the brand is strongest in the segment. It is sold with gasoline and diesel engines and front-wheel drive or 4×4.
Toyota didnt even make the tacoma in 1975.
I meant 1985. The small Tacoma was last made in ’84. And before the Tacoma name,, their small p/u’s were Hilux.
You are still incorrect. The first gen tacoma was introduced in 1995. Toyota sold small trucks in the usa in prior years but the were not called tacomas.
Here is the trouble.
Ram was looking to do a Fiat based truck when the Ridgeline came out. The sales settled back and so they looked at a re bodied Jeep. But the price is too high for the segment on this. Add to that FCA just did not have the money to do it with selling out.
The Jeep is not really in this segment as it is a Jeep thing. It is a little larger and cost beyond what most will pay for a truck but will pay for a Jeep.
Right now the mid size GM trucks can be had for $19k to just over $50k for a loaded diesel Bison.
The sweet spot is $27k to $38k.
Now if they made this truck smaller it would for sure carry less than it does now. It would lack the 4 passenger ability that is most chosen and still cost nearly the same price.
People want a bed no smaller than a crew version now. They want 4 passenger or more as the extra cabs sales are soft. Most do not have to have it all but few are sold as base models.
Now as you get over $40k many buyers go away. Only those who are looking for loaded trucks like a ZR or Denali tread but even then they can deal the truck down in price.
This is a tough segment as there is a limited ban you can sell in vs the full size truck has a wider range in price they can work in.
The other issue is here that neither company is all that well off. If they were would they be merging? The trouble is they have other problems and products that need funded that will create much more return on investment. Maybe in time they will revisit but at this time and with the virus making it even tougher I expect it will be a while if at all.
The days of the standard cab base S10 at $9,999 is long over.
I am a Dodge Dakota fan, owned 3 of them. my favorite was the 2001 Quad Can v8. I am very disappointed reading this article. Dodge is really missing the whole segment, too bad.
But I do have a 2019 Colorado that I really like. Gm did a nice job with these mid size pickups.
I have a 2001 SLT quad Cab,my 1st Dodge vehicle and I love it. Perfect size well equipped. I have had S10 and Rangers and all were just too undersized. The only problem is finding some replacement parts. I have no need for a full size pickup. If Dodge would build another Dakota I would be onboard.
Big mistake on Dodge and new owner Stellantis part a midsize Dakota with a shorter bed and lower price makes great sense. That Jeep cost too much and beds to long. If your putting Hemi and HellCat motors in everything, What the problem ?
Stella it’s is a global company so they are not focusing on trucks only for the American market that are limited even here.
As for the Hellcat. The future is closing on it and the Hemi. The new owners sell cars many places the Hellcat can’t be sold.
This is where Chrysler and Dodge just become names placed on global market cars.
I believe that the pickup project would not be focused only on the US market.
There were reports, where FCA leaders in South America said that the model could be produced in Brazil or Argentina to compete in the segment that is not explored by the group.
The trend is that most projects are or go global, like the Ford Ranger.
Colorado shares platform with S10 and according to information, the project of the next generations will be unified. There are rumors that Hilux and Tacoma will have their projects unified in the next generation.
Amarok will borrow Ranger’s development.
Only Nissan that chose to continue the development separate from the American Frontier in relation to the global project. Although Mitsubishi is part of the Alliance with Renault and Nissan, the L200 will not be fully developed in conjunction with the next generation of global Frontier.
What I mean is the products will be focused here but they will export or build them in smaller numbers for countries they are in now.
Don’t expect special trucks for Asia or Europe.
They will remain in South America, Mexico and the middle east as they require no changes.
But no special trucks like GM does for South America and Asia. They have a Colorado but share little with ours.
Yep, that’s what you said already 2 posts up.
Web issues sorry it was not showing posted.
You rarely see any last gen dodge dakotas – most are probably in the junk yard or in someones back yard growing roots !
Still driving my 2003 Quad Cab SLT 4×4 4.7L V8 that I purchased new. Get compliments on how nice it looks, some can’t believe the shape it’s in for being a Wisconsin road salt survivor.
In two years after the PSA,’s acquisition of Opel/Vauxhall from General Motors, all models were cancelled which for PSA boss Carlos Tavares did not generate enough profits: the convertible Cascada (exported to NA as Buick Cascada, also to Australia as Holden), the Karl (Viva as Vauxhall) imported from GM Korea (Chevy Spark), the lifestyle Adam, and the minivan Zafira (replaced by a passenger version of the mid size van). Opel lost marketvshare but became profitable.
Instead of closing plants, PSA retooled the Tychy, Poland diesel engine factory (openened in 1996 by Isuzu, closed by GM a year or so before selling it to PSA) to build 3 cylinder „Puretech“ petrol engines for the subcompact cars assembled in the PSA factory in Trnava, Slovakia, thus avoiding to buikd an engine factory for 200 million € in Trnava, in order to reduce the long transport from an engine factory in France.
The subcompact Opel Corsa whose new generation was in advanced stage of development, was newly developed on the PSA platform CMP, hit the market in 2019, and was in 2020 the best selling car of his segment in Germany.
So, while Stellantis CEO Tavares can’t produce miracles, his strategic decisions make a lot of sense and produce results. Tavares had recently visited the FCA factories in Detroit.
To those who care for the US Stellantis subsidiaries, I again recommend the presentation and long Q&A on January 19, available on the corporate website under Menu > News > Recent events.
This new company controlling Chrysler sucks , they already killed the SRT program, and now killed the new Dakota. I’m a loyal Mopar guy I wish someone in the U.S. would get Chrysler back before these fools ruin it.
I’ve owned 3 Dakotas with a V8. I reluctantly traded in the last one because I got tired of waiting on the next Dakota generation and I was pressed with a timeline. I purchased a GMC Canyon that I increasingly hate. At the time it was the only midsize with 300+ HP which I need for my hauling and towing and still fit in my garage and parking spaces with ease. I’m focusing now on the next generation Nissan (shocking for me) which really looks impressive but not enough details in the news. Adding a bed to a Jeep doesn’t make it a midsize pickup. It’s just a Jeep with a bed.