2025 Ram Dakota Hybrid Attacks Tacoma i-Force Max, Albeit Only in Fantasy Land

Obviously, it's pretty hard to dethrone the Ford F-Series after all this time – even though overall, GM sent customers a bit more pickup trucks when bundling the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra lines together. On the other hand, there's simply no competition – aside from the Hyundai Santa Cruz – that can stop the Ford Maverick unibody compact pickup truck.

In the mid-size pickup truck sector, things are a little more nuanced currently. Toyota has retained the mid-size sales crown, but the Tacoma nameplate dropped almost 60% during Q1 of 2024. Its negative performance might be attributed to many customers waiting for the N400 Tacoma, which is all-new for the 2024 model year compared to 2023MY. But it could also signal that it's falling out of favor with buyers.

As such, perhaps now is the right time to strike swiftly and decisively with an all-new model that could also surpass the positive evolution of the Chevrolet Canyon and Nissan Frontier or the negative one of the Jeep Gladiator and Ford Ranger. Well, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators certainly thinks so, and Dimas Ramadhan, the virtual automotive artist behind the Digimods DESIGN channel on YouTube, has answered the unofficial call to action by taking up the task of CGI-revealing a Dakota revival for the US market.

Technically, it is a Dodge because it was known as the Ram Dakota only during the final two years of production. This mid-size pickup truck was introduced for the 1987 model year, and production lasted until 2011 across three generations. In the recent past, there have been numerous reports and sightings of prototypes focusing on the potential of a mid-size pickup truck from Ram – and there are also various names in use, like Ram 1200 or Rampage.

However, the Dakota is most likely because its original was a mid-size model as well. What isn't a given is the design used for this unofficial project – the pixel master simply recycled the body of a mid-size pickup truck infused with Dodge Charger Daytona cues (he didn't even bother changing the lettering on the rear bumper).

Alas, the fact that it's imagined as a hybrid with plug-in capabilities is a redeeming quality – it could certainly give the Tacoma i-Force Max a good fight, right? Also, it could act as a range-extended electric model following in the footsteps of the revived Rampage – now, a fresh 2025 Ram 1500 with batteries and a V6 that acts as an electric generator.