Seeing a ton of enormous, Australian re-engineered Ram pickups on the roads? Your eyes don’t deceive you.
The Australian distributor for Ram Trucks sold 603 full-size pickups in September – 557 of which were the Ram 1500 with its Hemi petrol V8.
The September tally was Ram Trucks Australia’s second-best month for the year behind June, and placed the company ahead of Jeep (576) and Skoda (566).
That result also took Ram’s year-to-date tally to 4153 sales, up 45 per cent over the same period in 2021.
This tally comprises 3636 of the Ram 1500, and 517 of the even bigger Ram 2500 and 3500 diesels. To put this YTD tally into context, that’s more sales than Land Rover (3446).
MORE: State of play – full-size American pickups in Australia
Moreover there’s the price, with the cheapest Ram 1500 Quad Cab kicking off at $82,950 before on-road costs, and the flagship Ram 1500 TRX topping out at $199,950 before on-roads.
Said TRX sports a supercharged 6.2-litre V8 engine producing 523kW of power and 882Nm of torque and a constantly-variable all-wheel drive system. Those outputs are up 232kW and 326Nm on the Ram 1500’s standard 5.7-litre V8.
Ram Trucks Australia is Stellantis’ only factory-backed right-hand drive distributor of its largest pickup trucks.
MORE: Ram increases pricing across range by up to $6000
It’s owned by the Ateco Group, and contracts Walkinshaw to convert them to right-hand drive at a round-the-clock factory in Melbourne, with hundreds of new parts fitted.
This is the same facility that converts the Ram 1500-rivalling Chevrolet Silverados sold by the factory-backed GMSV brand – which itself is having a good year, with a further 1530 of these pickups sold YTD.
Walkinshaw is also involved in Toyota Australia’s plan to sell locally re-engineered Tundras here in the near future.
Not one to miss out on a burgeoning market with high profit margins, Ford is also bringing locally converted F-150s here next year in partnership with RMA Automotive at a facility in Mickleham, Victoria.
Australians are simply head-over-heels in love with these heavy haulers whether they really need them, or just want them.
MORE: How Walkinshaw is making American pickups into heavier haulers
