RAM Dakota emerges as new HiLux fighter

RAM’s first mid-size dual-cab 4x4 ute in a decade appears to be on track with news that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles applied to trademark the Dakota name two weeks ago.

The trademark application, uncovered by MotorTrend, was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office by FCA on April 29 and relates to “Parts for vehicles, namely, automotive exterior decorative trim”.

First deployed in 1985 but last seen on a Dodge/RAM pick-up sold in the US until 2011, the Dakota nameplate is now odds-on to appear on the “metric-tonne mid-size truck”  confirmed by FCA in the five-year business plan it revealed in June 2018.

At the time, former company chief, the late Sergio Marchionne, said FCA’s all-new one-tonne ute would be a global model produced in Mexico from 2021 and was expected to help drive a million annual sales for RAM worldwide by 2022.

He also said the new RAM mid-sizer, positioned below the full-size RAM 1500 pick-up including the upcoming TRX version also confirmed for production in 2018, would be sold in “every global market”.

At the time, global RAM chief and now FCA boss Mike Manley said the new ute would be sold as both a RAM and a Fiat in various global markets.

FCA has previously sold the Mitsubishi Triton wearing RAM 1200 badges in the Middle East and the Fiat Fullback name in Europe. Both those names and RAM Dakota have long been mooted for the new model, which is not to be confused with the small Fiat Strada-based RAM 700 ute.

Manley said at the 2019 Detroit motor show that the smaller RAM pick-up would be very different to the upcoming Jeep Gladiator dual-cab, which is built in Ohio and lacks the payload a towing capacities of vehicles like the Toyota HiLux.

But he also stressed that a cost-effective platform and manufacturing site had yet to be found.

“A gaping hole in our portfolio is a metric-ton pick-up,” he said. “Do you fill that individually or fill that in partnership? We are looking at what can we do individually and if we partner with someone what would that look like?

“The Gladiator is perfect for the US market, but because of its content it’s not perfect for Thailand.

“Being able to find a cost-effective platform in a region where we can build it with low cost and it still being applicable in the market is what they're struggling with at the moment,” admitted.

Right-hand drive production of the RAM Dakota is yet to be officially announced, but FCA said the majority of sales would be in countries outside the US and insiders told us that as the world’s fourth largest ute market Australia would be near the front of the export queue.

If not, it’s possible the RAM Dakota could still be converted to right-hand drive and sold here by RAM Trucks Australia, in the same way it contracts the Walkinshaw Group to ‘remanufacture’ the RAM 1500 and 2500, which are priced from $80,000 and selling in record numbers.

FCA Australia does not currently sell any RAM (or Dodge) products and would need to establish the RAM Professional brand here to do so.

A spokesman for RAM Trucks Australia would not discuss specific future products in its plan, but did say: “We would look at all products made available to us by RAM International.

“We work in close proximity with our US colleagues and would certainly take a close look at any new products on offer to us.”

It goes without saying that if it was priced in line with its competitors and offered with a similar range of body styles and drivetrains – unlike the dual-cab 4x4 petrol-only Gladiator, which is priced above $75,000, the RAM Dakota would be a smash-hit in Australia, where the HiLux has been the top-selling vehicle for the past four years.

What do you think? Would you buy a RAM Dakota ute (which probably won’t look like the Ford Ranger-based computer-generated image we’ve pictured here…)