Report: Chrysler product planner thinks there is room for a compact pickup

Dodge M80 Concept

While most automakers aren’t really banking on small pickups, a Chrysler executive believes that there is still a market for the segment.

“Based on our data, young males still aspire to own a pickup,” said Joe Veltri, Chrysler’s vice president of product planning. “Historically, if you go back to the ’80s, the compact or midsize pickup segment was bigger than the full-size segment.”

Chrysler stopped production of the Ram Dakota last year and has been studying the business case for a successor.

Veltri said that there hasn’t been a final decision on the compact pickup but the engineers are studying several platforms. If built, Veltri said that the model will be pro ducted on a unibody, or car platform rather than a body-on-frame structure.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Free press