There is a lot of talk about the upcoming midsize truck from FCA, better known as the – 2021 Ram Dakota. What will it look like? What chassis will it be based on? What engines it will have, how much will it cost, and more. The truth is – we have almost no official information about it.
2021 Ram Dakota
Really – one of the only official statements we have from FCA about a new midsize pickup truck came from the company CEO, Mike Manley, in May 2019. When asked about a possible smaller truck, Manley said: “I want that problem solved, frankly, because it’s a clear hole in our portfolio. It will not be filled by Gladiator, because Gladiator is a very, very different mission. Trust me, they’re focused on it. We need to get it fixed soon.”
We can glean some things from this statement. The company CEO thinks that a smaller truck is needed for future company growth. His team is focused on this. This “other” smaller truck will have a different mission from that of a Jeep Gladiator, which is a relatively expensive lifestyle truck.
We cannot say for sure that this upcoming new truck will be called a Dakota. We do not officially know if it will be a body-on-frame truck or a unibody design. We don’t know if it will come soon enough to be labeled as a 2021 model. The list of unknowns goes on.
There were some rumors floating around, that the next Ram small truck will share a unibody platform with the next Dodge Durango / Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs.
For now, we will have to wait a bit longer to see if any official information comes our way. Here are Nathan and I arguing this point in the attached video.
