American automakers take their trucks extremely seriously.
And the ongoing battles for dominance among the Detroit three are
often called the "Truck wars".
General Motors, the largest U.S.
automaker overall, sells the most trucks, if you count full-size and
mid-sized pickups.
Ford F-Series is the best selling line of full-size trucks.
But, third place challenger Ram has made its own waves in recent
years, snagging major industry awards and stealing market share from
rivals. Ram is killing it.
U.S. sales of Fiat Chrysler's truck brand have roughly tripled in the
last decade, and the brand seems to be taking food out of its rivals
mouths. After taking the helm of Fiat Chrysler in 2018,
new CEO Mike Manley said he wanted to make Ram the second-best
selling full-size pickup brand in the U.S.
In the first three quarters of 2019,
Ram surprised the automotive world by passing Chevrolet in sales, and
some think Ram could very well stay in second place, fulfilling
Manley's goal. To be fair, others are quick to note the timing has
been in Ram's favor and that the game is too early to call.
What is certain is that this upstart is now posing a more serious
threat to its rivals than ever before.
It's a stunning rise for a brand
some in the industry thought Fiat Chrysler was foolish to create in
the first place. The
Ram brand was once actually part of Dodge, but the two were separated
as Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy under the oversight of the late
Sergio Marchionne.
The idea was that the split would allow Ram to focus exclusively on
trucks while permitting Dodge to focus on developing performance
vehicles, including its popular Challenger and Charger, as well as
sport utility vehicles and its long-running Caravan minivan.
Some in the industry questioned the wisdom of spinning the Ram brand
out at a time when cross-town rival General Motors was axing several
of its own brands.
First of all, the Ram name has a long history with Dodge itself.
The company first started using the Ram logo on its cars in 1932, and
it was still used on Dodge models until FCA began rolling out new
logos sometime after the brand's split in 2009.
As one of the four American full-sized pickup brands, Rams sold
reasonably well, but were often known as a more affordable
alternative to those offered by GM and Ford.
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They were less expensive, the interiors weren't that great.
They were pretty basic.
It wasn't the kind of truck that GM or Ford had on the road.
Ram simply could not compete with the capability offered by rivals.
But after Fiat took over and the company began to emerge from
bankruptcy, Ram came out swinging.
In 2010, GM and Ford were roughly tied and pickup market share, each
with just over 38 percent with Ram solidly in third place at just
14.6 percent.
But, over the next eight years, Ram grew its share of the market to
more than 22 percent, while Ford lost one percent of its share and GM
lost nearly five.
To be fair, Japanese import brand Toyota also lost some share at that
time from 6.8
percent of the market to 4.9
percent and fellow Japanese maker Nissan gained a sliver of market
share. But Ram is now threatening to displace Chevrolet as these
second best selling full-size pickup brand in the United States.
So how did it do this?
By offering something different, say industry analysts?
So I think Ram's idea then was OK, then maybe, our strategy should be
to build a really, really good all around truck.
Let's make it comfortable.
Let's make the interiors nice.
Let's make the ride quality really good.
Two areas where Ram really shines our interiors and technology.
The interior of the truck is just unbelievably great.
The technology is unbelievable.
They've got the biggest screen, it looks like a laptop.
Ram made a bet that seems particularly suited to the times.
Owners are more accepting of technology than they ever have before.
There's examples of new technology being put into pickup trucks that
kind of fell flat. General Motors had a four-wheel steering system
for their pickup trucks, which was terrific.
But the problem was that it was an expensive option, and at that
time, pickup truck owners, their feedback was, I already know how to
move my truck. I already know how to tow.
I already know how to do this stuff.
I don't need to spend the man's money that you're asking to have this
technology help me do that.
But times have changed.
Now we have buyers of every demographic that are far more willing to
let technology help them do things.
And as a result, the big screen in the Ram has drawn a lot of
attention. As a result, some of the technology that General Motors
has brought it to their Chevrolet and to the GMC, there's a lot more
cameras on board.
There's ways to save your towing of your trailer information to your
truck so that if you have three trailers, every time you hook it up,
you just call up that information and you don't have to reset it.
There's lots of things in both of those trucks that make it easier to
work with them. And the Ram got out into the market a little bit
earlier. One feature in the 2019 Ram 1500 truck that has had the
automotive world buzzing is the large 12 inch touchscreen in the
center of the console.
Ram boasted that the screen was the largest found in any truck in its
class. If you asked a pickup truck owner, before they had the big
screen in the Ram if they wanted a big screen, they'd probably said,
no. I don't want that.
I don't need that. I don't need to do that.
But now that it's there, they're reacting to it strongly.
FCA's new strategy was well-timed.
The pickup market has changed over the last decade as truck sales
have risen. Along with the boom in sport, utilities and crossovers,
pickup trucks have become popular options for drivers who might have
a wider range of uses in mind then in previous eras.
For instance, there has been a rise in the portion of four seat and
four door models in the pickup market.
Ram said more than 50 percent of its pickups are "family trucks".
FCA has also used a tactic that some industry observers say has
contributed to the brand's sales success - selling an outgoing model
along a newly redesigned one, typically at a lower price.
Ram's rise is partly notable because pickup truck buyers have
historically been considered among the most brand-loyal in the
automotive market.
Ford buyers typically don't buy GM trucks, and just the opposite, GM
buyers typically don't buy Ford trucks, but what's interesting is
either one of those buyers will consider a Ram truck.
Dealer
Don "K" Kaltschmidt, who sells both Chevrolet and Ram and owns
products from both GM and Fiat Chrysler, said that in some ways Ram
does outdo the Chevrolets, but he thinks it isn't over yet.
The GM truck product is very, very strong here for good reason.
It is important to understand the timing has also worked in Ram's
favor. The Ram went into production roughly eight months before the
Chevrolet product did.
So, there was a bit of a head start and sort of building it and
having it online and having it available for the dealerships.
Another element is that Ram has kept the previous generation of
production longer than Chevrolet has.
A spokesman for General Motors told CNBC, the launch of our Chevrolet
Silverado has gone exceptionally well and combined with the GMC
Sierra, we are quite pleased with the quality of our market share.
As of November 2019, Ford said its F-Series lineup outsold Ram by
225,000 trucks for the year, a lead the company expected to widen by
the end of 2019, a spokesman told CNBC.
Ford has so far been the best selling line of pickups in the US for
the last 42 years.
The "Blue Oval" has also been hyping its upcoming hybrid and fully
electric versions of the F-series.
Electric vehicles are important and they're happening and they're
coming, but they're also coming slowly.
That's kind of important to remember.
Even as Ford and GM are talking and start talking about electric
pickup trucks, once they're here, the sales ramp up is probably going
to be a pretty slow.
Pickup truck battles are fierce in ways that fights in other segments
are not. You get excited about a pickup truck because it either helps
you feed your family, or you're into horses.
It's an enabler to do something that you truly care about.
And, that makes it much more important emotionally than I'm going
back and forth to work and it's just a mode of transportation.
There are also a huge source of profits for automakers.
So industry watchers aren't expecting this one to be over anytime
soon. If you think about building a small car and you need so
much amount of steel or so much amount of wiring harness, or so much
amount of leather or cloth to cover the seats and you can charge
$20,000 for a small car.
You need more of all of those materials to build a pickup truck, but
you're charging four times the cost.
It's an interesting element of the market too.
Smaller products are not as profitable, as larger products.