New Ram Dakota – a Toyota HiLux rival – has been axed – report

The return of the Ram Dakota – a ute rival to the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger – has reportedly been scrapped.

The Ram Dakota was intended to help the company enter emerging markets where mid-size utes – rather than full-size US pick-ups – are sold. There was even a chance the Ram Dakota could have made it to Australia.

However, reports out of the US claim the project has been axed in its infancy.

US-based automotive blog, GM Authority – which claims to have information from sources inside Ram – reports the company has hit the pause button indefinitely, after exploring a new RAM Dakota proposal since 2019. 

While Ram never confirmed the return of the Dakota pick-up, the company did file a trademark application for the Dakota name in May of last year.

This could have signalled the company’s intent to revive the nameplate – or preserve ownership of the badge.

The Dodge Dakota mid-size ute was produced from 1987 to 2011.

If the Ram Dakota had gone ahead, it would have competed in the US against similar offerings from General Motors (Colorado) and Ford (Ranger) – and opened the brand to new markets where such vehicles sell in huge numbers, namely South Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

Interestingly, when the idea of a revived Dakota first surfaced in 2019, speculation suggested the Jeep Gladiator underpinnings would form the basis of Ram’s mid-size truck.

While Ram has offered no comment on the speculation, the existence of the Jeep Gladiator may have played a pivotal role in the axing of the project.

Jeep sold over 77,000 Gladiators in the US in 2020, and in Australia the model is selling better than expected.

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