The 2019 Ram 1500 has been highly praised and consumers can’t get enough of the redesigned pickup.
A few days ago, when FCA reported October sales figures for the United States, the company revealed Ram 1500 sales climbed 20 percent to 28,459 units. This set a new record for October and helped push overall October sales up 14 percent to a new monthly record of 54,542 units.
FCA is obviously pretty happy with the results, but the company isn’t resting on its laurels. The automaker believes they can do even better and that might involve reversing their previous decision to build the next-generation Ram HD at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in Michigan.
Speaking with Reuters, FCA CEO Mike Manley said “We need to get ourselves into second” place in truck sales and “Frankly, I don’t care which of the two I take share from.” The latter statement is a reference to Ford and General Motors which produce the two top selling trucks in the United States. While it’s doubtful the Ram could catch up to sales of the Ford F-Series, the Chevrolet Silverado is within striking distance.
GM stopped releasing monthly sales figures earlier this year, but the company revealed it delivered 133,329 Silverado pickups in the third quarter. This means the company averaged around 44,443 trucks a month which Ram beat in October by selling a total of 49,186 pickups. Of course, the 2019 Silverado is now arriving at dealerships and Chevrolet will likely receive a sales boost from the redesigned model.
Manley believes the surge in Ram 1500 sales isn’t a fluke and will continue into the future. As he explained, the company has enough production capacity to “increase output next year if it’s required” and he believes it will be.
In order to keep the momentum going, FCA might reverse their decision to transform the Saltillo Truck Assembly Plant in Mexico into the home for “future commercial vehicles for global distribution.” While nothing is official, FCA originally announced the next-generation Ram HD would be built in Michigan alongside the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer.
It remains unclear if the Ram HD would be produced at one or both facilities, but Reuters notes the tentative trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States makes Mexico a tempting place for vehicle production. As the publication explained, the agreement doesn’t place a limit on how many trucks can be shipped from Mexico to the United States as long as they meet “thresholds for the share of parts produced within the region.” It’s likely that the next Ram HD will be available to comply with this criteria, so it could make Mexico an attractive option for truck production once again.
Regardless of what happens south of the border, Manley said the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, which builds the Ram 1500, is also capable of building even more trucks. The plant is currently producing around 65 trucks an hour and could build around 400,000 pickups a year at its current pace.
