Ram has confirmed its worst-kept secret, with company CEO Tim Kuniskis finally announcing the brand’s upcoming mid-sized pickup will be called Dakota.
“Yeah, it’ll be called a Dakota,” Kuniskis told attendees at a Ram event in the US. “It’s a no-brainer, though, right? Why wouldn’t you call it a Dakota?”
The Dakota nameplate was used first on three generations of mid-sized Dodge pickups from 1986 to 2009, before being moved across to the spin-off Ram brand for 2010 and 2011 before going out of production.
Since then, Ram hasn’t had a pickup to take on the Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma and Chevrolet Colorado in North America, with the 1500 (a rival to the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and Toyota Tundra) serving as its most affordable model.
Production of the new Dakota is set to begin in 2028, having been delayed from 2027 in October. It will be built in Toledo, Ohio rather than Belvidere, Illinois where it was originally due to be made.
The Ram Dakota will be based on a body-on-frame platform, something which underpins the Wrangler and Gladiator made in the same Toledo facility, suggesting the new model could be related to the Jeeps – though it could also move to an all new architecture.
While Ram Trucks Australia has already signalled its intention to get the new ute, should it become available, the question of what will power the pickup remains.
In the US, petrol engines are far more popular than diesels in the mid-size segment, as opposed to Australia where turbo-diesel utes reign supreme.
If the new Ram ute was based on the Jeep Gladiator, engine options include a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol, a naturally aspirated 3.6-litre V6 petrol, and a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel, though the latter was dropped from the lineup in late 2023 due to poor demand globally.
Given the success of the 1500 locally – which has to be converted from left- to right-hand drive in Melbourne – Ram may have to build the new model in right-hand drive from the factory to give it a chance against the Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max.
“[The] mid-size truck in the future could be potentially [offered],” Ram Australia general manager Jeff Barber said in August. “They could do a left-hand drive and a right-hand drive, mid-size potentially, who knows? But I don’t ever see that happening in the full-size trucks.
“In relation to our relationship with Stellantis, the support we get, it’s fantastic. I think they’re very impressed by what we do in this market in Australia and New Zealand.”
It’s worth noting that Ram does already have a Dakota on sale, having revived the nameplate recently for a new ute sold in South America, based on the China-sourced Changan F70.
Discussion about this post