Ram dealers will reportedly have a new truck and an old name to sell in the next few years. The Dakota is making a comeback, according to a series of media reports. This time, the smallest Ram truck may be electric.
Motor Trend reports, “The design of a new midsize pickup for the Ram brand could be locked in as soon as this month, and the truck could be on the road in a few years.”
Shown to Dealers in Secret
The truck reportedly appeared in secret last month at a meeting that requires a little explanation.
Automakers (with the notable exceptions of Tesla and a few other electric startups like Rivian) don’t own their own dealerships. Car dealers are separate businesses that partner with automakers to sell their products.
Buying a car from a dealership is a little like buying shoes from a department store. The department store didn’t make the shoes. They bought them to sell to you. Likewise, a Ram dealership is an entirely separate company from the Ram that builds the trucks it sells. Dealerships usually sell exclusively one brand of vehicle.
That creates a complex relationship between manufacturers and dealers. They can have slightly different interests and need to lobby one another to make certain decisions.
Once a year, most automakers hold giant dealer meetings where they hear from dealers about what the salespeople want from the factories, and show dealers what the factory has planned. These meetings have a convention-like atmosphere and often include debuts of concept cars not shown to the public.
At this year’s Ram dealer meeting in Las Vegas, Ram wooed dealers with a midsize electric truck.
“Spectacular” and Connected to Ram Heritage
Ram dealer Randy Dye told Automotive News the new truck is “spectacular.” Some midsize trucks, Dye says, don’t “favor their mother brand. The midsize ones have seemed to get away, and they don’t look the same. This is very much a Ram.”
May Borrow Tricks From Discarded Electric Ram Concept
Car and Driver says, “new concept evidently shares a lot of its aesthetic with the full-size 1500 Revolution concept.” That concept was toned down significantly to become the production Ram 1500 REV. Features that disappeared between concept and production included a fold-away third row of seats and a midgate that opened to let owners use some of the cabin space as bed space.
Those features are absent from the production REV. But Motor Trend says, “some of the design cues and features” of the concept truck could “make their way onto the smaller truck” instead.
Dakota Name Seems Likely, Not Guaranteed
There’s no guarantee the truck would wear the Dakota name. But it would seem like a mistake for Ram not to resurrect it. The original Dakota was sold from 1987 through 2011 when Ram was part of the Dodge brand. It was, at times, the best-selling midsize truck in America, remembered for its distinctive crossed grille and semi-truck-like stepped headlights.
We don’t know how much of that heritage will make it through to the (likely) future Dakota. But Dye told Automotive News the design “keeps the lineage of Ram, which is really exciting, and I think it brings us back to a segment where we’ve been vacant for too long.”
