New RAM Dakota ute production confirmed

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has confirmed that Stellantis will resume operations its Belvidere assembly plant in the US specifically to produce a “new” mid-size pick-up truck, which is almost certain to be the all-new RAM ‘Dakota’.

RAM’s first global mid-size pick-up and the American truck brand’s first direct rival for the all-conquering Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger has been confirmed for Australia in one form or another, whether it’s converted to right-hand drive alongside the RAM 1500 pick-up locally or made in RHD ex-factory.

Expected to be more utilitarian than the Jeep Gladiator, the ladder-frame dual-cab 4x4 pick-up is yet to be named but could look similar to the new car-based RAM Rampage ‘lifestyle’ ute (pictured) launched recently in Latin American markets.

UAW vice-president Rich Boyer dropped the bombshell news about the former Jeep Cherokee plant during the union’s latest YouTube address, in which he celebrated the reopening of the Illinois plant and subsequent establishment of around 1200 jobs that were axed when Belvidere was idled in February.

According to Boyer, the plant’s revival will be joined by the establishment of a “new battery plant” nearby, strongly implying the new model will feature some degree of electrification, which aligns with previous intel suggesting the pick-up will offer – and indeed be launched with – a battery-electric powertrain.

There’s been a lot of conjecture recently around whether the Brazilian-made, unibody RAM Rampage would end up being RAM’s long-promised global mid-size ute or if a different body-on-frame RAM pick-up was being cooked up instead, with the plot thickened by Rampage prototypes being spotted testing on US soil.

As carsales understands it, the eventual global model will be designed to offer all of the towing, payload and off-road capability of Australia’s most popular 4x4 utes, but will debut in battery-electric guise, which has already been shown to RAM’s North American dealer network in concept form.

RAM’s new global one-tonner is widely anticipated to be known as the Dakota and – unlike other RAMs – should be produced in RHD from the outset, at least according to RAM CEO Mike Koval.

“RAM is officially in the game with our electrified solutions. But I also want to keep eye on the global growth, not just domestic,” he told carsales at the New York International Auto Show earlier this year.

Release timing for the Dakota still hasn’t materialised and nor has a concept vehicle been shown to the public, suggesting the model is still at least a while away despite the news of Belvidere’s revival.

Boyer didn’t nominate a timeline for when the plant would restart in his address, but stressed that returning factory workers would receive benefits as the facility is retooled in preparation for the new RAM ute’s eventual production start.

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