Australia’s love affair with America’s super-sized utes appears to be waning. Sales are down and V8s are disappearing, but Ram Australia is confident that there is still a market for its big pickups.
Speaking at the launch of the latest addition to its new-for-2025 six-cylinder 1500 range, the Rebel, Ram Trucks Australia boss, Jeff Barber, said he is confident that it will remain a popular segment.
That’s despite Ram’s sales being down 15.5 per cent for the 1500 in the first seven months of 2025, while the entire US pickup segment is down more than 13 per cent. Every model in the market has experienced a significant sales decline, with the exception of the new Toyota Tundra, which is still working off a low base.
Asked if he was concerned the market has reached a cap for buyers of this very particular type of vehicles, Barber was adamant that there are still plenty of new customers to conquer.
“ No, I don’t think we have [reached a cap],” Barber said. “In terms of that ceiling, I know that having been with the brand now since before we launched the 1500, as we’ve gone through that time through that, along that ride, we’ve often thought, ‘you know, there is a ceiling at some point. The air is thin up here.’
“Like when we launched Limited, we thought the air is thin. When we launched TRX, we thought there’d be a certain number of people in Australia that can afford to buy a car like a TRX. We’re constantly surprised.
“So I don’t think the segment’s reached a cap by any means. I think the market’s a bit soft now and has been for a little while. We’re seeing it start to turn. We’re seeing some of the positive things happening in the economy are going to cause it to turn, and I think the segment will continue to grow.”
One on-going concern for the US ute segment is the disappearance of the V8 engine. Ram has dropped both its V8-powered ‘DT’ model and its original, cheaper ‘DS’ variants to make way for its new six-cylinder ‘Hurricane’ model. But with Ford and Toyota also offering six-cylinder versions, it leaves Chevrolet’s Silverado as the only V8-powered option.
While the six-cylinder engines are more powerful, more efficient and just as capable at towing as the V8 alternatives, the emotional appeal of a V8 engine could yet impact sales of these six-digit pickups.
But, again, Barber is confident that the new Ram 1500 range has what it takes to remain the best-seller in the class.
“Look we are down because the segment’s down,” he said. “We’re down because we lost DS and we’re also in a point of change at the moment where we’re running out of the MY23 and the MY24 models and bringing a whole new range of products – Hurricane SO, Hurricane HO, Rebel, a few months from now, 2500 and 3500. So that’s part of why we see ourselves down right now. We’re not concerned about it.”
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