DCX
lacks capacity to make Dodge-branded medium-duty trucks
By Neil Versel
CHICAGO, Feb 10 (SNS) — DaimlerChrysler
AG, (DCX) the world’s largest producer and seller of trucks, currently does
not have the production capacity to build Dodge-branded medium-duty trucks, a
company executive disclosed to Stark’s News Service Interactive here
today.
“We would have done it last year but
we are in a sellout condition,” the executive said today at the Chicago Auto
Show here. Daimler-Chrysler North American truck plants, including those of the
company s Freightliner and
“It would be a simple opportunity to
go to a 3500 or 4500 [pickup truck model], this source disclosed to SNS
Interactive. He was referring to the name DaimlerChrysler might give a
Dodge Ram-model Class 3 or Class 4 pickup truck. Existing Dodge Ram light-duty
trucks are named 1500 and 2500 to designate them as Class 1 or Class 2
vehicles.
As reported, DaimlerChrysler
Co-Chairman Robert J. Eaton disclosed to SNS Interactive in an
exclusive interview last fall that the company ruled out Dodge’s entry into the
medium-duty truck market last year. “But we are rethinking that strategy now.
We haven’t made a decision yet,” Eaton said. It looks like much more of a
possibility now.”
Eaton, who will retire this March 3
1, acknowledged that DaimlerChrysler does not have a product to compete with
the F-Series Class 3 and Class 4 medium-duty trucks made by Ford Motor Co.
(F). “As we look forward, we definitely don’t have vehicles right now to
compete for sales with F-350 and F-450 type of trucks. In the future, we’ll be
looking at the F-450 kind of range,” he said.
Eaton said that DaimlerChrysler
might base a Dodge Class 3 or Class 4 pickup truck on a light-duty Ram-model
platform. “What we probably will do is take the next-generation Dodge Ram
pickup truck up a little bit into the high end and use some components from
Freightliner Business Class trucks,” he said.
As reported, Freightliner and