Could Ram take on the Honda Odyssey?

Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis came out of retirement after less than a year and is itching to turn things around at the commercial vehicle brand, and that includes launching an unexpected product.

Automotive News reports the recently returned CEO wants to add “a passenger van” to Ram’s lineup.

It’s unclear whether that would be a people-carrying version of its ProMaster van, which is a V6-powered version of the Fiat Ducato, or something more car-like.

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The ProMaster is currently offered only as a cargo van or a crew van, the latter of which gains a second row of seating but still has a traditional van cargo bay behind this.

The defunct ProMaster City, a rebadged Fiat Doblo, was available in a five-seat configuration with rear windows. However, the ProMaster City was axed in 2022.

A people-carrying version of the ProMaster would be the easiest vehicle to slot into the Ram lineup, given a Ducato people mover is offered in Europe. Such a vehicle would give Ram a rival to people-carrying versions of the Ford Transit.

Alternatively, Ram could launch a car-based people mover – or minivan, in American parlance – to take on the likes of the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna in the US market.

Stellantis already sells a people mover range there: the Chrysler Voyager and more upmarket Pacifica. Combined, the Chrysler minivan lineup was the best-selling in the US last year with 119,389 sales.

The Voyager replaced the Chrysler Town & Country, previously sold here as the Grand Voyager, while the latter was introduced more recently as a replacement for the badge-engineered and more affordable Dodge Grand Caravan that expired in 2020.

The Voyager actually wears the Chrysler Grand Caravan nameplate in Canada, where the defunct Dodge was particularly popular.

Launching a direct rival for the Pacifica/Voyager would see Stellantis return to offering people movers across two brands in the US market, but it would potentially encroach on the Chrysler brand which doesn’t sell any other vehicles presently beyond its minivans.

The Ram brand technically has offered a minivan before, but the C/V was a Dodge Grand Caravan minivan that had been turned into a cargo van.

You have to go back further to find a three-row people mover with a Ram badge. This was the Dodge Ram Wagon, from before Ram was spun off into its own brand, an updated version of a cargo van that dated back to 1971. It was axed in 2002.