Ram not backing down from pair of new 1200 models

Ram’s long overdue rival for the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max is set to continue in the guise of two completely different models based on the market it will be sold in.

Anticipated to arrive either next year or in 2024, the first iteration will utilise a unibody platform similar to the Hyundai Santa Cruz, Ford Maverick and Honda Ridgeline and have its production take place in Brazil for South America.

“We will localise the brand and the products. It will be a fantastic adventure,” Stellantis South America President, Antonio Filosa, told autodata.com.br at the Latin America Business Congress last week.

While anticipated to make use of the Small Wide 4×4 platform underpinning the Fiat Toro/Ram 1000 it will sit above, reports allege it will adopt the Ram 1200 moniker, currently being used on a rebadged Mitsubishi Triton in the Middle East, and derive motivation from the Brazilian-made and developed turbocharged Firefly engines with and without hybrid assistance.

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Certain markets will also receive a new 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbodiesel and more than likely also the mild-hybrid assisted 1.5-litre turbo-petrol powering the Jeep Compass and Alfa Romeo Tonale.

Market outside of South America though are expected to receive the newcomer not as a unibody model, but rather a body-on-frame aimed directly at the Hilux, Ranger, D-Max, Nissan Navara, Volkswagen Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton and Mazda BT-50.

Somewhat confusingly, it too is expected to be called Ram 1200 instead of the reviving the Dakota name the junior Ram carried from 1987 until production ended in 2011, as a result of declining sales in the “compact” US bakkie market at the time.

Ruled-out from happening last year, only for Ram and Stellantis to u-turn on the decision less than a month later, the Dakota/1200 is set to follow the example of not only it’s mentioned rivals, but also peers in the United States, the Ranger, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, by not having a V8 as it had done before.

Instead, two mills are currently being mentioned; a brand-new 2.0-litre Tigershark turbo-petrol with a rumoured 147 kW and a 2.2-litre Multijet turbodiesel once used in the European-market Cherokee claimed to produce 150 kW.

In addition to not offering a V8, the 1200/Dakota’s omission of a V6 in favour of a turbocharged four-cylinder comes as little surprise given the lack of six-cylinders engine in the Ranger and the newly facelift Colorado/Canyon.

As it stands, only the Frontier, related to the Navara, comes with a bent-six option as Toyota is expected to ditch the current 4.0-litre unit for the next generation Tacoma.

While little in the way of otherwise confirmed details are known at present, expect more to emerge, either officially or speculatively, over the coming months heading into 2023.