The Americans are coming to the Netherlands! With their huge pickups…
You can only buy big American pickup trucks through the gray race track. There is no brand officially bringing them here. In the long term, however, this will change. Stellantis – parent company of Chrysler, Citroën, Ram, Opel and Peugeot – sees an opportunity.
The most popular vehicles in the United States are full-size pickups, such as the Ford F-150 (top for decades), Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, and the Ram 1500. The latter was once called the Dodge Ram, but has been under its own name since 2010 brand set.
Gray import pickups on LPG
American pick-ups can be seen regularly in the Netherlands, but they came to the country via gray imports and often run on liquid gas. Buying such a gas-guzzling giant through the official channels is not possible.
But Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares wants to change that. He is happy about his group’s market leadership in commercial vehicles in Europe and South America, but wants more.
Ram 1500 EV is coming to Europe
“We have big plans to strengthen the role of the Ram brand,” he said when presenting the annual results. “We will surprise our competitors with the launch of Ram in other markets. We are now preparing for this step and are almost done.”
The Ram truck comes in six-cylinder or eight-cylinder engines, petrol or diesel, but we certainly won’t see those variants here. The new all-electric Ram 1500 REV and the smaller EV pickup that Ram is working on have a better chance.
Record profit for Stellantis in 2022
By the way, Stellantis has nothing to complain about. The merger between Groupe PSA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is a success with a record profit of 16.8 billion euros in 2022. That is 26 percent more than in 2021.
Fewer new cars sold
And that while Stellantis delivered fewer cars to customers last year: more than 6 million units (minus 2.3 percent). Especially in Europe, the conglomerate did not do well with a minus of 8 percent. In North America, sales increased by 2 percent.
Peugeot 208 best selling car in EU
Stellantis is working hard to electrify its model range. There’s still a long way to go. Of the more than 6 million new cars, 290,000 were fully electric. The Peugeot 208 and the e-208 were the best-selling new cars in Europe in 2022.