Ram Trucks Australia has outsold stablemate Jeep every month this year – as well as the last three months of last year – as US pick-ups continue to set new records Down Under.
Australia’s love affair with US pick-ups has set a new and unlikely record.
Ram Trucks Australia has outsold stablemate Jeep for the 12th month in a row – the first time it has passed this major milestone.
Ram pick-ups – which are imported from the US in left-hand-drive and then remanufactured in right-hand-drive at the former Holden Special Vehicles facility in Melbourne – are also expected to post the seventh year in a row of record sales.
The success of Ram in Australia has triggered rivals Ford and Toyota to introduce their US pick-ups locally via similar remanufacturing techniques.
Chevrolet has been selling the Silverado pick-up in Australia – also via a local factory-backed conversion – but has consistently been outsold by Ram by more than two-to-one.
However, while Ram has gone from strength to strength, sales of Jeep vehicles have hit reverse in Australia – despite record growth in demand for recreational off-road vehicles and SUVs – following a series of sky-high price rises.
Recent Jeep discounts have failed to move metal in significant numbers, with official data for September 2023 showing Jeep posted its third lowest month of sales so far this year (with 343 reported as sold, versus Ram’s monthly tally of 654 deliveries).
In a remarkable role reversal compared to their standings in the US market, Ram Trucks Australia has sold 57 per cent more vehicles than Jeep in the first nine months of this year.
The Ram Trucks Australia year-to-date tally of 5729 vehicles is up 37.9 per cent compared to the same period last year and just 400 vehicles shy of its annual result last year.
Meanwhile Jeep Australia is on track to post fewer than 5000 sales for the 2023 calendar year – if it continues to sell vehicles at the current rate – which would deliver Jeep its weakest result locally since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009.
The sales slump comes as the global boss of the Jeep brand, Christian Meuniers, stepped down from his role last week to “take a long break to focus on personal interests,” according to a global media statement from the company.
On a visit to New Zealand in late 2019 to meet with local media, Mr Meuniers boldly claimed Jeep would not only return to its glory days in Australia – when it sold more than 30,000 vehicles in 2014 – he set a staggering sales target of a 50,000 vehicles per year.
If Jeep Australia posts 5000 sales or thereabouts this year, it will be just 10 per cent of the stated aim.
Ram sales in Australia, the story so far:
- 2023 to September: 5729 (up 37.9 per cent)
- 2022: 6095
- 2021: 4025
- 2020: 3320
- 2019: 2868
- 2018: 723
- 2017: 398
- 2016: 292
Jeep sales in Australia over the past 23 years:
- 2023 to September: 3654 (down 31.4 per cent)
- 2022: 6658
- 2021: 7762
- 2020: 5748
- 2019: 5519
- 2018: 7326
- 2017: 8270
- 2016: 12,620
- 2015: 24,418
- 2014: 30,408
- 2013: 22,170
- 2012: 18,014
- 2011: 8648
- 2010: 5975
- 2009: 4193
- 2008: 5232
- 2007: 5744
- 2006: 5099
- 2005: 5078
- 2004: 4502
- 2003: 4389
- 2002: 4569
- 2001: 3584
- 2000: 3732
Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries
The post Ram Trucks Australia overtakes Jeep for record 12th month in a row appeared first on Drive.
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