More than 30,000 Ram pickups have been delivered in Australia since the US brand arrived on local shores in 2015, surpassing the major milestone last month.
On June 26, Ram delivered its 30,000th vehicle – a Delmonico Red Ram 1500 Limited, powered by the new Hurricane twin-turbo straight-six engine – to an Australian customer, becoming the first pickup brand to pass that marker, coming just shy of its 10th anniversary in local showrooms.
However, the 30,000th Ram converted from left- to right-hand drive locally was produced in November last year, with a Hemi V8-powered Big Horn taking that honour. Ram converted its 28,495th and final 1500 Hemi in early December.
From its initial arrival in 2015 with the heavy duty 2500 – the first example of which was delivered on December 24 – Ram later added the volume-selling 1500 to its local lineup in 2017, driving its rise up the sales charts.
First available in its more affordable ‘DS’ generation, the launch of the ‘DT’ model in 2021 accelerated deliveries, with the brand reaching a peak of 6833 vehicles in 2023.
This coincided with Ram overtaking its fellow US-born Stellantis brand Jeep in monthly and annual sales for the first time, a title it’s not yet relinquished. While Jeep is sold as a factory-backed effort, Ram is distributed by Ateco.
Ram lost its title as the leader in Australia’s pickup sales race last year by just 10 vehicles though, with Chevrolet’s Silverado 1500 and 2500 HD combining for 3862 deliveries, ahead of the 3852 Ram 1500s, 2500s and 3500s.
While the Ram 1500 was still the best-selling pickup of its class – consisting of the aforementioned Silverado 1500, the Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra – its once market share of more than 50 per cent has dropped to less than one-third of the pickup market.
In the opening six months of 2025, Ram delivered 1375 examples of the 1500s, compared to 1177 equivalent Silverados, 545 F-150s and 378 Tundras.
Earlier this year, the Ram 1500 switched to a 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine which is not only more potent but more efficient than the old 5.7-litre V8. However, it’s only currently available in the Laramie Sport and Limited guise, rather than the more affordable variants which drove V8 sales.
The drop in deliveries isn’t exclusive to Ram. Overall, the American pickup segment is down 13.4 per cent year-on-year against 2024, with 4393 vehicles delivered from January to June.
The market eclipsed 10,000 deliveries in both 2023 (10,363) and 2024 (10,611), though it seems unlikely that this will be reached again in 2025.
While this can be attributed to early adopters already having the vehicles they wanted, the overall new vehicle market has dropped by a touch under two per cent, suggesting customers are still buying new cars, just not big pickups in the same numbers they used to.
Ram and its American pickup rivals are also set to face a new challenge in 2026, with the upcoming arrival of the Ford Ranger Super Duty, which either matches or exceeds most of the headline towing and carrying figures of the pickups, but at a lower price.
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