Anyone involved with the American automotive industry knows about the deals with the Big Detroit Three made by UAW to end part of the strikes. For example, Stellantis just had a tentative agreement with the union, and good news is pouring in.
For example, at the end of February, the third-largest US automaker decided to idle its factory in Belvidere, Illinois, because there was no more work for the Jeep Cherokee builders. That meant 1,200 jobs were in jeopardy! Now, luckily, the situation might get better as the automotive conglomerate's new tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers also includes a future for the assembly plant in Belvidere.
More precisely, UAW's Vice President Rich Boyer announced that a new vehicle – a mid-size truck – will be produced there. That certainly is cause for ample speculation regarding what comes next. For the layoff workers, first and foremost, they will have full benefits as they get reinstated at their jobs, and Stellantis will even expand the workforce as a new battery plant in Belvidere will be set up soon. As for the vehicle to be produced, the first suspect is easy to figure out – Ram's cool new Rampage that's being produced on a unibody platform in Brazil.
After all, the rumor mill claimed that it would soon reach America to put the likes of Ford's Maverick and Honda's Ridgeline at risk of feeling dated and uncool. However, the model produced at a factory located in Pernambuco, Brazil, is technically closer to the best-selling Ford Maverick rather than the Honda Ridgeline. And even though it has been spotted testing repeatedly in the US, that doesn't mean it will be the one produced in Belvidere. Maybe it's not the only one – and Stellantis plans to allow Ram to attack the pickup truck sector on all fronts, compact and mid-size, at once.
As such, speculation is running rampant about the return of the Dodge Dakota nameplate under the Ram Trucks banner – and it has even reached the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. Over there, Kleber Silva, a Brazil-based virtual artist known as KDesign AG on social media, has decided to have a CGI go at imagining a workhorse Ram truck that could gain the Dakota moniker without even making too much fuss about it. However, the vision shared by this pixel master might not be too American – he is using the Chinese Kaicheng F70 model as a base, which also underpins the little-known Peugeot Landtrek and possibly the upcoming Fiat Titano.
The current Ram Trucks design language makes things a little more bearable – both in the case of the fashionable Rebel version as well as the version that focuses on getting the job done above all else. However, looking at it from the POV of the US mid-size pickup truck market, where the Toyota Tacoma dominates the trends, this thing has no chance of survival because it simply looks too 'cheap.' Besides, the competition is intense – Nissan Frontier, Chevy Colorado plus GMC Canyon, Ford Ranger plus Ranger Raptor, Honda Ridgeline, and also the off-road-focused Jeep Gladiator.
As such, our two cents on the matter are that you should refrain from betting any money on Stellantis bringing to the US market a Chinese clone. Instead, it would be cool to see the Ram Rampage drop in North America to battle the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, followed by a mid-size pickup combining the Rampage and 1500 series into one powerful mid-size truck, right?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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