2024 Ram 1200 rendered: Dual-cab ute to fight Ranger and HiLux

The ute segment may have dominated sales charts in Australia for years, but interest in smaller dual-cabs is beginning to grow in North America.

With the 2022 Ford Ranger nearing its unveiling – and poised to make a splash in the US – it’s possible Ram could resurrect plans to introduce its own mid-size dual-cab ute.

While the company does offer the smaller, Fiat Strada-based Ram 700 in Mexico, there’s space in its current line-up between the 700 and the full-size 1500 pick-up to offer a competitor to the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger.

Enter the 2024 Ram 1200 – a mid-size ute adopting the carmaker’s latest design cues, as imagined by Brazilian artist Kleber Silva.

Industry rumours of Ram developing a HiLux-sized model have been around for years, but it was in February this year that company sources told website Ford Authority the project had been axed.

Some insiders had previously suggested the vehicle would be based on the Jeep Gladiator, reviving the Dakota badge – a smaller pick-up from Dodge sold between 1986 and 2011, prior to Ram being spun-off into its own brand.

Ram has dipped its toe in the mid-size dual-cab ute market more recently. Between 2016 and 2019, the carmaker sold the 1200 (a rebadged Mitsubishi Triton) in the United Arab Emirates market – no doubt keeping track of how a smaller ute from the American brand was being received by the public.

Whether plans for a Ram 1200 have been scrapped entirely or merely put on hold remains to be seen, but given the trend towards electric pick-ups in the US, it's possible a future mid-size ute could be battery-powered.

What do you think of the 2024 Ram 1200? Let us know in the comments section below.