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. The audio you're about to hear
is distorted due to recording issues. 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.
