How to make a right-hook Ram
We take a peek inside the Australian factory that makes RHD Ram trucks for NZ. Just don’t call it a ’conversion’, says David Linklater.
Here’s a great pub-quiz teaser: what do Ram trucks have in common with the Toyota Camry?
The answer is: a big bit of plastic. The dashboard used in the right-hand drive (RHD) Ram 2500/3500 ute created by American Special Vehicles (ASV) in Clayton, Melbourne for the Australasian market is made by Socobell, which also makes dashboards for Aussiebuilt Camrys. It’s not unusual for different manufacturers to use the same suppliers, of course. But it does illustrate a key point about the Kiwi-market Ram: ASV describes its vehicle as a ‘‘remanufacture’’ rather than a conversion. Key components are remade in RHD by big-nameOEM suppliers.
‘‘Socobell is a major story for us,’’ says ASV joint chief operating officer John DiBerardino.
‘‘They work with the number one car company in the world, making dashboards for Camry and a number of smaller plastic components for Toyota globally. The technology and quality, especially around airbag deployment, is fantastic. I couldn’t be more proud of how it’s come about.’’
The whole Ram RHD project has the thumbs-up from FCA head office in Detroit. Indeed, the Rams destined for ASV out of FCA’s factory in Mexico are built especially for us, with metric instrument clusters and UConnect infotainment systems compatible with local sat-nav and radio settings. It’s the first time Rams have been created by FCA for export outside their home region.
ASV is a joint venture between Ateco, which is the official FCA distributor for NZ, and Walkinshaw Automotive Group (WAG). It took 30,000 man hours and A$2.8 in upfront tooling to get the Ram RHD project off the ground. There’s been help from AusIndustry, which contributed to the project under its Next Generation Manufacturing Investment Programme (NGMIP).
The RHD Ram project actually had its genesis in NZ. Ateco Group has distribution rights for FCA among its interests in NZ, but Australian parent company Ateco Automotive does not (over there, the FCA distributor is factoryowned).
It was the NZ distributor agreement giving Ateco access to ‘all FCA product’ that resulted in the lightbulb moment. Negotiations started in 2013 and the first RHD trucks were delivered in late-2015.
The retail experience is also more integrated for Kiwis than Aussies: because FCA is also Ateco domain in NZ, you buy and service a Ram like any other Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge product. All 13 Kiwi Ram dealers are FCA franchisees. That’s not the case in Australia, where some are and some aren’t and Ram is a separate business regardless.
WAGworks on a number of projects for automotive brands, not all of which are in the public domain. But literally across the carpark from ASV is another WAGbusiness that’s very highprofile: HSV.
DiBerardino stresses that one has little to do with the other, despite some shared backroom resources. Ateco came toWAG with the Ram project, not the other way around.