The big news in utes is smaller utes.
At least in the USA, where the full-size Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 dominate. But in recent years the success of the Chevrolet Colorado and Ford Ranger has made what Americans call ‘mid-size’ utes big business.
Which is why Ram, which is now the only big ute brand without such a model, is believed to be working on its own. It could appear as soon as 2026 and the success of Ram Trucks in Australia could help ensure the new model is built in right-hand drive from the factory.
That would be a huge boost to Ram Australia, as converting a mid-size ute would likely make it too expensive to be competitive in the local market against the likes of the Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max.
Ram has been the market leader in the ‘US ute’ segment, since it created it back in 2015, even as Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota joined in. This success hasn’t gone unnoticed by Ram parent company Stellantis, and Jeff Barber, general manager of Ram Trucks Australia, hinted it had opened doors for potential future models direct from a North American factory.
“ Mid-size truck in the future could be potentially [offered],” he said. “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.”
He added: “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. And in the same way you draw reference to the sales of their other brands in Australia, whether that be Jeep or Fiat or Alfa [Romeo] or Citroen or Peugeot, yeah, we do a very good job here. So yeah, we get very good support from them, which might be what opens up doors like [1500] Rebel.”
What this means for future expansion remains a secret the company isn’t sharing. In addition to an all-new mid-size ute, Ram could add more 1500 variants, such as bringing back the TRX high-performance hero model.
Barber wasn’t revealing what, but made it clear that more Rams is a strong possibility, saying: “Could there be more new models in the future? Yeah.”
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