The U.S. market is considered the Holy Grail in terms of success, regardless of the industry. If you do well here, the hope is that stateside success will expand to everywhere else. But what if the opposite were true? Ram is experiencing a sales slide at home, but overseas, its full-size pickup trucks have been a big hit—and also, according to some, a big problem.
Stellantis’ struggles of late have been… many. From rumors of selling its headquarters and Maserati to strikes and dissent by the United Auto Workers union, which Stellantis rebuked before suing the union in protest. On a brand level, Dodge Durango police SUVs are being dumped, Chrysler Pacifica vans have had more fires post recall, and the new Ram HD was unveiled looking like a botched Botox appointment. The auto conglomerate is also ditching auto shows to save money, while an heir to the throne has offered to buy the U.S.-born brands to spare Stellantis some change.
Stellantis is due some good news, and we’ve found it! Sort of.
Although domestic sales of Ram pickups continue to slide (from 5 percent down at the end of 2023 to a 19 percent drop through 2024 Q3), across the ponds in Europe and Australia, the American-sized trucks are gaining traction. According to The Guardian, registrations of large trucks in the EU have increased from nearly zero in 2012 to roughly 5,100 in 2023.
Okay, so that’s small potatoes when Ram alone sold 112,486 trucks during a single quarter (2023 Q4). Nevertheless, the growth is significant for Europe, especially when you consider that some of their full-size roads are equivalent to our suburban side streets. One place you don’t need roads is Australia, which saw a 16.3 percent growth (2,256) in Q1 of full-size pickups, reports CarExpert. The sales leader in both regions is Ram. Huzzah!
Or not.
Sales might be up, but so is the backlash. What? The politicos are not happy with the public’s newfound appetite for full-size pickups. The argument is that larger vehicles increase environmental and road safety concerns.
“Europe should ban the Ram,” said Dudley Curtis from the European Transport Safety Council. “This type of vehicle is excessively heavy, tall and powerful, making it lethal in collisions with normal-sized vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.”
The Guardian reports that the Ram 1500 is “slightly bigger than the Panzer I tanks of Nazi Germany and almost as heavy.” Ram is targeted specifically because its European inventory is up 20 percent from last year. The sentiment is shared across the Pacific.
“If we want to lower our transport emissions and reduce road fatalities, we need to see less of these monster cars on our streets,” said Samantha Ratnam, Leader of the Victorian Greens and Member for Northern Metropolitan Region, per News.com.au. “It’s an undeniable fact that super-sized vehicles are dangerous. They have blind spots up to four meters in front of the vehicle…Not to mention the astonishing amount of pollution caused by these beasts.”
Melbourne-area council member Stephen Jolly was anything but, and did not mince words.
“If you live in Fitzroy [an inner-city suburb] with the tiny streets that exist and you buy yourself a Hummer, you’re an absolute idiot, and you need to be dealt with, with whatever way that council can deal with it,” he said.
Jolly said the council is looking at ways to keep large vehicles out of the city, such as implementing higher parking fees. European cities like Paris, Lyon, and Grenoble have already imposed weight-based parking fees. However, referring to large truck and SUV owners as “idiots” might backfire and embolden consumers to increase sales.
In the U.K., the justification for buying large vehicles is the ride comfort and in-vehicle safety. And the Aussies outside of the ‘burbs don’t seem to care much about what the talking heads are saying. They continue to buy up the trucks, which are essentially luxury vehicles in the region. A Ram 1500 starts at AUD 119,950, or about $81,000 at current exchange rates.
The appearance of more full-size trucks on the road has also captured the attention of the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), the Australian equivalent of the U.S.’ NHTSA. Although conducting crash tests is currently off the table (i.e., it’s expensive), the safety agency is monitoring community concerns and related data.
In the meantime, people are just going to buy what they like. And right now, they like big trucks, and they cannot…well, you probably know the rest.
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