FCA Saltillo plant will produce some next-gen HD Ram pickups after all

13 February, 2018

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Despite the widely announced plan from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to move production of its heavy-duty Ram pickup out of Mexico, the Saltillo facility will manufacture the much anticipated next-gen truck, at least for a while, according to a new report by AutoNews.

Last month, the automaker revealed that in 2020 it will move heavy-duty Ram production from Saltillo, Coahuila to its Warren, Michigan, assembly plant.

But according to the website, an “FCA representative told suppliers in a three-minute conference call on Jan. 26 that they should continue planning to support the launch of the next-generation heavy-duty Ram in Saltillo in January 2019, with their current parts plants”.

“The FCA representative said that early builds of the next-generation heavy-duty pickups would be produced in Mexico through April of this year, with preproduction models starting in October, also in Mexico,” says the report, citing as source one supplier involved on the conference call.

In that scenario suppliers will have to be prepared to meet 2019 production requirements for the truck in Saltillo while also preparing to supply parts for the truck 1,800 miles north in Michigan in 2020, which will imply substantial costs for both the suppliers and the manufacturer.

In any case, expect those trucks to be well appreciated among Ram enthusiasts, for whom the build quality of Mexican units is not secret at all.

MexicoNow

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