Now that the 2019 Ram 1500 has been shown
At the North American International Autoshow and been seen driving on city streets, one question that keeps coming up is where is the 2019 Ram regular cab? Here’s the deal.
A tale of 3 production plants
The 4th Generation Ram 1500 Crew and Quad Cabs “DS” are built at Warren Truck, which has been building trucks since 1938 with production for the all new Ram 1500 moving to another plant, just down the road.
The 2019 Ram 1500 Crew and Quad Cabs “DT” recently started production at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP). The plant was recently overhauled to build the 2015 Chrysler 200. After production of the Chrysler 200 ended SHAP went through a $1.48 billion re-tooling to build the all new 2019 Ram 1500. This also added 700 Jobs in the process. SHAP is a much more modern plant than Warren Truck and is also capable of building more trucks than Warren Truck which has been running at max capacity.
So, what does all of this have to do with the 2019 Ram regular cab?
As I mentioned above the 4th Generation Quad and Crew Cab 1500’s are built at the Warren Truck plant. Regular cabs and HD trucks are built in Saltillo, Mexico. Warren Truck is going to continue to build the 4th Generation Ram 1500 Crew and Quad Cabs which will be labeled as the Ram Classic, until production at SHAP gets going full steam to fill Crew and Quad Cab inventory. At that time Warren Truck will shut down for 6 to 8 months and undergo a $1 billion update as it is currently the oldest and most outdated FCA plant. As all of this is going on Saltillo Truck will continue to build the HD trucks as well as the Ram “DS” regular cab. For 2020 the all new Ram 1500 regular cab will debut on the 5th Generation “DT” platform, these trucks will also be built at SHAP as they should have capacity by then.
What happens next?
After the Warren Truck renovation is complete they will start building the “DT” Ram 1500 based Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer for model year 2020. After Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer production gets underway Ram HD production in Saltillo, Mexico will shut down and Warren Truck will start building the 5th Generation Ram HD’s for model year 2021. That will complete the plant shuffling, have all variations of the 5th Generation Ram on the road and bring all Ram 1500 and HD production into the United States. As for the Saltillo plant, Sergio Marchionne mentioned a metric ton (read midsize) pickup but that is not yet confirmed or even known if it would come to the United States and Canada even if a midsize was built.
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