The Dakota was introduced just over 20 years ago and the current frame-on-body model is the third generation of this vehicle which is regarded as a genuine workhorse rather than a lifetyle vehicle. The Dodge Ram brand aims to create the most powerful and capable pickup trucks with the introduction of the new 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty lineup, offering first-time innovations and features, along with new standards of strength, utility and driveability.

Just last month Chrysler Group spun Dodge’s truck division off into a standalone unit under the “Ram” name, leaving Dodge with a smaller rump of cars. Chrysler’s truck building operations continue to be one of the brighter points in the ailing product portfolio and newly appointed Ram President Fred Diaz outlined the future plans for this division during the five year plan briefing in Detroit on Wednesday. "Think of the iPod, iPhone or Mac," he told the assembled financial analysts, industry representatives and journalists, "they were part of the original Apple brand but also developed identities of their own."

The first key strategy Diaz will be to create full separation from Dodge and build up the image of the Ram identity, leveraging the strength he believes the Ram name to have, while creating a fully truck focused portfolio. The product line up will revolve around four key areas: function and capability; quality, reliability and durability, design and refinement; and finally offering good marketplace value. By the conclusion of the new five year plan in 2014, Ram hopes to grow sales volumes from a current 280,000 a year to around 415,000.

The Ram truck range will be expanded further by the addition of two Fiat vans, listed in the portfolio as being small and medium sized. Speculation points to Ram re-badging Fiat's Ducato and Iveco's Daily offerings. These will come on-stream in 2012 and will plug a gaping hole left by the withdrawal of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans that Dodge currently rebadges and sells under its own name. Mercedes-Benz announced at the beginning of September that it was terminating the supply deal in from the start of next year and will instead sell its Sprinter vans through its own U.S. dealer network.

Ram will also explore expansion in the heavy truck segment and in 2012 will refresh the new F-segment heavy duty pickup (and forthcoming chassis cab version) trucks it is rolling out for 2010 as well overhauling its current light duty pick-up which will run to that point.

The E-segment Dakota body-on-frame pick-up will be phased out in mid-2011 and this model created a lot of interest during the briefing. The Dakota was introduced just over 20 years ago and the current frame-on-body model is the third generation of this vehicle which is regarded as a genuine workhorse rather than a lifetyle vehicle. When it was introduced it effectively opened up the new mid-size segment, slotting in between the light and heavy trucks on the market. "It's the natural end of the Dakota's lifecycle as it competes in a shrinking segment," Diaz said. We need to figure out if we can build a smaller, and more efficient vehicle that people can use for play and light-duty work; it also has to be more affordable than the current Dakota."

Sales of the Dakota have collapsed this year, they are currently running around half the levels sold in 2008 and now come in at just over 500 units a month. Many customers instead choose the unibody Ram 1500 truck as the pricing is very similar although the Dakota is regarded as being a much more capable vehicle. A unibody replacement could be on the cards although a new model is so far only "under consideration" from 2011. "The merger with Fiat has put us in the perfect position to evaluate Fiat's offering, we could go with something in-house but we're also examining what Fiat has," Diaz said, "every model, including Iveco, we're going to pick the one that makes the most sense to us."

Industry watchers were concerned that a unibody pick-up wouldn't sit well with the new marketing strategy of tough, capable trucks. "The Dakota replacement can't be a light paperweight replacement that can't do anything," Diaz explained. "It has to be fairly capable of doing some work. But it also has to have really good mpg." He also said that the Dakota may well continue in production after 2011 for selected global markets such as Latin America. There has been much speculation that it could be re-homed at Fiat's factory at Córdoba in Argentina where a pick-up project has been targeted. Fiat recently evaluated Tata Motor's current 1-ton pick-up to be built at Córdoba and be badged by both Tata and Fiat, a project particularly pushed by the India carmaker which is a strategic alliance partner of Fiat and anxious to break into the Latin American market. However the Tata Xenon (TL) was considered woefully short of the standards required to be a market success in the region and the production plans were quietly shelved. Asked about production continuing post-2011, Diaz said: "I'm going to be honest, that's not off the table, we just don't know yet."

ItaliaspeedTV - 2010 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty (highlights) / 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 Power Wagon / 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 Crew Cab / 2010 Dodge Ram 4500 Heavy Duty Crew Cab / 2010 Dodge Ram 3500 Mega Cab