It has been revealed that the next-generation Ram 1500 pickup will be built alongside the outgoing model.
Autonews asserts that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has made this decision with the hope of selling the outgoing 1500 for fleet businesses while targeting individual customers with the next-generation model.
The new Ram 1500 will arrive in early 2018 and throughout that calendar year, almost 325,000 units are expected to be produced at the firm’s Sterling Heights Assembly facility. Meanwhile, the current model will continue to be built well into 2019 at the Warren Truck Assembly plant, with 200,000 expected to be made in 2018 and an additional 65,000 in 2019. The model will then be retired.
While recently discussing this decision, Richard Palmer, FCA’s chief financial officer said “Going into 2018, having more pickup capacity will allow us also to satisfy the fleet customers’ demand on pickup, which we struggle to do today because we favor retail in the U.S. and Canadian volume, which have higher margins.
“As we realign our capacity, we’re going to be able to continue to work on improving our fleet mix.”
In October, the first images of the redesigned Ram 1500 emerged online, revealing a much more streamlined design. Alongside the new look, it is reported that the next-gen model will continue to use steel in its construction, rather than aluminum, and be powered by an updated version of the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6.
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