It wasn’t long after the discontinuation of the Dodge Dakota that rumors surrounding a potential rebirth of a mid-size pickup from that brand surfaced, and those whispers have perpetuated for years. Back in 2021, that potential Ford Ranger rival was reportedly canceled, however, even amid a rebirth of that segment that includes models such as the Ranger, Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado, Jeep Gladiator, GMC Caynyon, and Nissan Frontier. Stellantis reportedly switched gears and once again decided to build a mid-size pickup recently, though it seems as if that model is once again facing a premature death.
This news comes to us from the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which is calling on Stellantis to keep a commitment the automaker made to reopen its Belvidere Assembly plant in Illinois as part of the new master contract agreement forged between the two last year. “The victories we won last year in our Stand Up Strike at the Big Three weren’t suggestions, they were binding commitments in a union contract, and we as the UAW intend to enforce that contract to the fullest extent,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.
According to the UAW, Stellantis “has informed the union that it will not launch the Belvidere Consolidated Mopar Mega Hub in 2024, it will not begin stamping operations for the Belvidere Mega Hub in 2025 and it will not begin production of a midsize truck in Belvidere in 2027,” essentially revealing that this planned, on again, off again model may once again not be coming to fruition.
Stellantis has made it quite clear that it’s struggling in the U.S. market at the moment, and may even kill off some of its more than two dozen brands to help right the financial ship. The automaker also recently began offering a voluntary separation program to some of its salaried U.S. workforce from the vice president level down, all while shifting its focus toward the profitable commercial vehicle business that Ford Pro has capitalized on as of late.
We’ll have more on everything Ford’s competition is up to soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
I can barely think of ONE automaker that’s not going through a bit of a crisis in the US right now and it all boils down to poor management, Ford included.
Poor management and poor government policy.
Poor management and poor gov’t policy, in about equal portions.
UAW siding with Biden on EV’s is a job killer. Put blame where it exists.
Are you saying it’s going to be a bloodbath??
No infrastructure for EVs poor vision on the whole program. Hybrids first then in 10 years when ready, everything in place EVs.
Let them suffer the consequences like every other business that sides with woke democrats. Biden and Harris have screwed up America in so many ways, yet brain dead liberals continue to kiss their kisters. Harris as president will only make life for the working people worse. As for the midsize pickup, you can forget it from Ram. If their EV Daytona Charger reaps success we are more likely to see a EV truck but even then it won’t be brought out till 2030 or later. Probably carry a MSRP of 60k or more. Auto industry in dire straits but it’s their own fault.
It is more like the people when we had so many smaller trucks and SUV’s are the cause. Now everybody wants the big stuff. Look around and you see so many people driving big SUV’s and only one person in it, the driver.
Remember why Ford started the F150? It was because of the emission laws that under a certain GVW did not need all the emissions such as catalytic converters, so they went from the F100 and bumped up the GVW to just above so they didn’t need those converters.
The auto industry rolled over and played dead when Biden, Obama, the EPA, and California went nuts over climate change. They should have fought the CAFE changes. Great build electric cars and go bankrupt.
Reading the above comments it appears nobody read this article. The UAW is looking for Stellantis to honor the labor agreement they made together. Building a mid size pickup at Belvidere is a possibility. Nowhere does this article mention EVs.
Belvedere plant is a manufacturer of EV batteries and the country isn’t ready for ev
Enough said pay attention
It’s fine Stellantis, just cancel everything. Who needs product?
Most of us never even heard of Dodge.
A bit of history…
The Dakota was cancelled because buyers kept requesting more and more size (and power). Finally it grew to within mere inches of their full-sized variant and the next steroid infusion would have taken it to full-size.
Chrysler judiciously decided they needed to cancel it.
Since then full-size trucks have shrunk .
I’m trying to figure out, is there any room for a “mid-size” truck in these lineups??
Me thinks, anything smaller than a current full-size is surely a compact-truck. I suppose they’re just calling it mid-size for marketing purposes .
Have you been in a ranger, Colorado, Tacoma, or frontier?
Midsize trucks are still fairly small (though likely similar in size to the late 90s fullsize trucks) compared to modern fullsize trucks.
That said, I tend to agree. Midsize trucks that cost almost as much as full size trucks and are almost as big just have worse parts and poeertrakns are kinda stupid. Dodge would do well to build something larger than Maverick, but smaller than ranger. Price it competitively and it will sell.
Stellantis like all the other automakers went stupid with raising the MSRPs of their vehicles greedy for that short term profit. Unless they start doing some hefty cuts in their MSRPs they’re doomed. A $80k Jeep Wrangler talking about being out of touch customer base.
Article should say RAM, not Dodge. Carlos Taveras was good in France, ruined Opel but made it very profitable, and understands FIAT as more than a city car br as nd with broad potential possibly, aside from 500, covering the bargin (Dacia) EV segment.
Carlos Travers, unfortunately, never understood 1) luxury 2) China 3) US and should have left Mike Manly in charge as regional chief. A midsized and compact truck are necessary if Stellantis wants RAM as a true Ford/GM rival. Stellantis may believe a Classic variant of the current 1500 is enough, but this only works if the truck sells at Tacoma price and it won’t.
Stellantis 1) is poorly managing its many brands. Opel should be linked to Opel/Vauxhall 2) needs a well segment stocked RAM and Jeep. Opel or Peugeot EVs can sell at Chrysler until solid demand emerges.
Also, RAM midsized and compact trucks should be designed as world trucks. They can have less tech or be reskinned depending on market. Brazil’s FIAT Toro and Dakota should be one. A RAM Turo sounds good
Stellantis can’t manage it’s brands. Ty he “Dakota” and FIAT Turo should be same vehicle (tweaked par market) to save R&R/engineering costs.
Future Chrysler vehicles should come from Opel or Peugeot while Lancia sticks to Epsilon as an Italian brand, and sold as FIAT elsewhere.
Where can I apply? Stellantis has significant potential. In addition, Stellantis should stop waiting money on EV R&D. Instead, it should purchase technology and engineering from NIO
Steallantis has 3 big issues.
1) Price bloat. Everything they sell is too expensive now.
2) Too global. What the US wants and what Europe is being forced into are two vastly different things. Trying to make Dodge/Ram/Jeep/Chrysler fit the Euro agenda will fail miserably.
3) No clear direction except phasing out what worked. They were gonna go full EV. Then they realized that would fail and now they’re also doing ICE. Except it’s the Hurricane motor that is problematic and expensive. People used to buy Dodge’s for the Hemi, it was a powerful and overall robust motor that wasn’t horrible to fix. Now you can’t get that motor basically.
Stellantis is doomed to fail I think.
Ram is already selling a Ram 1200 just across the border in Mexico. They just have to start bringing them in to the US to start selling them. Not sure where they are being manufactured though.