Report: The Dodge Ram 1500 to keep steel body until 2020

The 2015 Ford F150 is making quite the statement, what with its aluminum body shaving off enough pounds to make a weight watcher’s participant jealous. That said, it’s only a matter of time until the other producers of pickup trucks, mainly from the other two of the Big Three–Chrysler and General Motors–follow suit.

So far, GM is known to be working on their own lightweight versions of their next-gen light-duty pickups, due sometime around 2018. However, word from Reuters is Chrysler themselves won’t be able to get an aluminum body on the Ram until sometime after 2020. That’s because the Ram’s life cycle is already planned out for the current model with a mid-cycle refresh due sometime in 2015.

Additionally, this delayed changeover could prove to be beneficial to the Ram 1500 since demand for aluminum has skyrocketed, putting serious pressure on suppliers with the threat of a shortage lingering. This could hamper sales of Ford’s F150 and GM’s next-generation trucks while the Ram could benefit from this shortage by sticking with the more ubiquitous material.

Source: Reuters