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Ram keen on one-tonne ute, ‘struggling’ with its platform

Thanks to new product and ever-growing proportions, sales of one-tonne utes – or mid-size trucks – are growing in the US after years of stagnation, and Fiat Chrysler (FCA) is keen to be a part of it.


Mike Manley, CEO of Fiat Chrysler, has told Automotive News and other outlets the company's Ram division is "focused on solving a metric tonne mid-size truck solution for us, because it's a big part of the portfolio and growth we want to achieve".

He did caution the company is still trying 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".

At present, FCA only builds the much larger Ram truck range, and the recently unveiled Jeep Gladiator.

Manley seemingly ruled out using the Gladiator or a derivative as the basis of the new one-tonne truck, stating the car has a "very, very different mission".

The FCA CEO's comments and determination to have this problem "fixed soon" seem to leave the door open for some form of platform-sharing agreement.

Fiat recently axed its Fullback ute (below) in Europe, which was based on the Mitsubishi Triton.

The Chrysler Group's last entrant in the mid-size truck segment, the Dodge Dakota (top), was withdrawn from the North American market in 2011.

Accepted wisdom at the time was the segment in the US was slowly dying, with most buyers preferring to a pay little bit extra for a full-size Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado or Dodge Ram ute.

When the American market Ford Ranger left the scene in 2012, the only mid-size models left were the Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, and the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Sierra twins.

Fast forward to 2019, and not only has the mid-size ute market been revived in the US, but similar one-tonne models are strong sellers throughout many parts of the world.

Locally, the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger have held the top two spots on the sales charts for the past few years.

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