With truck sales booming, Fiat Chrysler’s Ram brand is considering filling a gap in its lineup by adding a full-size, truck-based SUV to compete with the Chevrolet Tahoe/Suburban and Ford Expedition. According to Automotive News, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said that the company was studying the possibility of a large SUV based on the next-generation Ram pickup.
The biggest SUV that Fiat Chrysler currently offers is the three-row Dodge Durango, which is based on the same unibody platform as the Jeep Grand Cherokee. This proposed new model would instead be based on the Ram 1500 truck platform, just as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban are based on the Silverado pickup. Marchionne told AN that the Ram 1500 pickup’s 2017 redesign would provide an opportunity to expand into this segment, which is currently dominated by GM and Ford. Gaining some of this market share could help increase FCA’s profits.
The last we heard about the next-generation Ram 1500 was that the pickup’s redesign had been delayed from mid-2017 until November 2017. FCA is reportedly looking to add production capacity leading up to this update, which would afford room for a new SUV model.
Stay tuned to hear more about Ram’s future SUV plans to see if this new model might come to fruition.
