Australians are buying so many Ram pick-ups, factory right-hand-drive now being considered

The record growth in sales of Ram pick-ups in Australia has prompted the US auto giant to review a factory-built right-hand-drive program.

Ram Trucks Australia could become a victim of its own success.

The US head office says it is now considering factory-built right-hand-drive production for future generations – because of record sales in Australia – rather than the current conversion process by Ram Trucks Australia that has been in place since 2016.

However, a switch to right-hand-drive production in the US may not happen until the end of the decade – if at all.

“Nothing has been confirmed,” the global boss of Ram, Mike Koval, told Australian media at the New York Auto Show overnight.

“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,” the latter being a reference to the local conversion program by Ram Trucks Australia in the Walkinshaw Automotive Group facility in Melbourne.

Mr Koval said there was “nothing to announce today … it’s more just locker-room talk. Right now everything is as it was.”

When asked if Ram head office could justify the investment in a factory right-hand-drive program, Mr Koval 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).”

Ram Trucks Australia has exceeded sales expectation since it launched locally in 2016.

Last year the local division sold more than 6000 full-size US pick-ups, versus 2400 Chevrolets.

In other notable upsets, Ram outsold stablemate Jeep for five months last year – and with March 2023 sales figures just in, it has now done so for the past seven months in a row.

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