Ram Might Finally Start Building Right-Hand Drive Pickups For Australia
Photo: Ram
Currently, Ram depends on Walkinshaw Automotive to convert left-hand-drive trucks that it ships to Australia to right-hand drive. And last year, Bob Graczyk, head of Ram Trucks International, made it sound like Walkinshaw did such a good job, there was no reason to consider building right-hand-drive trucks in-house. But now, there’s been so much demand for Rams in Australia, that may eventually change.
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Australia’s Drive reports that while the current arrangement with Walkinshaw has been doing well since 2016, future right-hand-drive Rams could come straight from the factory. Ram CEO Mike Koval reportedly told Australian media that record sales had the American truck brand considering the possibility that building its own right-hand-drive trucks might be possible in the future.
“Nothing has been confirmed,” he reportedly told a group of Australian journalists at this year’s New York Auto Show. “These are just ideas, whiteboard-type things. Obviously, if we were to do right-hand-drive from the factory – which I can’t do today – that might change certain things, of course, to state the obvious.”
When Koval was asked if Ram could actually justify the investment that would require, he reportedly said, “That’s what we’re studying right now, to be honest. And probably not. It might not be. But if you were in my shoes and I think about the … growing the brand globally … I want to be able to sell everywhere. That’s just an honest statement. I want to grow the brand like Jeep. I look at Jeep and what they’ve been able to do and I use that as my [goal].”
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So if you currently work for Walkinshaw making Rams Australia-friendly, there’s no rush to start applying for new jobs. But demand for Ram trucks is definitely strong. Australians reportedly bought more than 6,000 Rams last year, which was significantly higher than the approximately 2,400 Silverados that Chevrolet managed to sell. Similarly, Ram has reportedly outsold Jeep in Australia for the last seven months in a row. If demand for Ram trucks continues to grow, eventually, it may get to a point where you might have to dust off that resume.
