It’s been more than a decade since Ram had a midsize pickup in its line-up. Now, the brand has announced its intention to return to this increasingly popular segment. While no nameplate has officially been revealed, the term Ram Dakota has been bandied about a lot, and we have a hunch it might stick.
2027 Ram Dakota: Price, Specs and Release Date
- 2027 Ram Dakota styling
- 2027 Ram Dakota interior design and practicality
- 2027 Ram Dakota engines, motors and drive
- 2027 Ram Dakota price and release date
2027 Ram Dakota styling
Ram has only gotten as far as to say a new midsize truck is in the works, so we have nothing concrete to go on yet in terms of its appearance. Take a Ram 1500, add a splash of Ram 1500 REV and Ramcharger (pictured, above), and sprinkle in some of the Brazil-only Ram Rampage compact pickup, and you’ve got a good idea of where the Ram Dakota might be headed. (In other words, it’s probably going to be a baby Ram 1500. But Stellantis might surprise us.)
2027 Ram Dakota interior design and practicality
Just like with the exterior, details on the Ram Dakota’s interior are pure speculation at this stage. However, we know two facts that are likely to shape this. One is Ram doesn’t have anything on the affordable end of the spectrum in its product line-up right now, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see a pared-down work truck.
On the other end of the spectrum, pick-up truck owners are increasingly interested in more capable and luxurious offerings (see the GMC Canyon Denali and Ford Ranger Raptor as examples). While it’s not likely the Ram Dakota will go all the way to the Ram 1500 Tungsten end of things, we do expect to see some premium interior elements on offer.
2027 Ram Dakota engines, motors and drive
Ram’s upcoming truck was initially rumoured to be a unibody compact to compete with the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. Now, it’s projected to be a body-on-frame midsize truck based on Stellantis’s STLA Frame platform that will go up against the Ford Ranger, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Frontier, and the related Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. However, this is not confirmed, and some reports have suggested the STLA Large or even the STLA Medium unibody platforms may still be on the table.
By the time the Ram Dakota launches, we expect to see larger plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric vehicle (BEV) trucks on Canadian roads bearing the Ram logo. The automaker has indicated it intends to make use of its array of powertrains in its midsize truck to some degree, though whether that means we’ll get all three remains to be seen. Our guess is we’ll see Stellantis’s Pentastar V6 and new Hurricane twin-turbocharged inline-six-cylinder engines, as well as a plug-in hybrid, either of the range extender style seen in the upcoming Ram 1500 Ramcharger or a more conventional 4xe PHEV. While HEMI V8 and fully electric iterations aren’t outside the realm of possibility, we think they’re less likely.
2027 Ram Dakota price and release date
As of this writing, the Ram Dakota is expected to be shown to the public in preproduction form in 2026. It’d predicted to go into production sometime in 2027, reportedly at Stellantis’s currently mothballed assembly plant in Belvidere, Illinois. Pricing is a long way off, but Ram’s strategy for its full-size trucks offers some hints that the base truck could be more expensive than average — perhaps in the $50,000 range, on par with the Toyota Tacoma — but equipped with more standard features.