Fiat-Chrysler’s North America-centric Ram truck range will be available – with right hand drive – in Australia and New Zealand for the first time to full Australian volume compliance standards from the third quarter of 2015.
Fiat Chrysler New Zealand, the joint venture company owned by Australian businessman Clyde Campbell and New Zealand businessman Neville Crichton, has signed a contract with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to be the official factory-appointed importer and converter of the Ram range. The first models will go on sale in September this year when more details and prices will be announced.
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The Ram Trucks , or full size ‘utes’ as they are known in Australia and New Zealand, are made in North America with only left hand drive and cannot be sold legally in Australia and only in very limited numbers in New Zealand. However, Fiat Chrysler New Zealand said it would undertake the conversion to right hand drive and to meet all the legal requirements for them to be sold in unlimited volume in both countries.
“Clearly there is a demand for this type of vehicle in Australia and New Zealand in both the private and commercial markets with only availability restricting sales,” said Campbell, who set up the independent Fiat Chrysler New Zealand two years ago to import and distribute vehicles in New Zealand.
“Until now the only way to own one in Australia was through a low volume aftermarket conversion. Our vehicles are being developed with the full blessing of FCA’s Ram division. They have worked closely with our engineers to produce a vehicle that is as close to an official factory right hand drive vehicle as it can be without it having actually run down the factory production line.”
Appointment as the official Ram importer has enabled Fiat Chrysler New Zealand to achieve full volume conversion status for the range, also a claimed first for Ram in Australia. There are two sets of importer rules for vehicles in both countries – ‘low volume’, limited to a maximum of 200 vehicles a year, which must meet a reduced level of standards for design and compliance, and ‘full volume’ which allows an unlimited number of imports but the vehicles must meet all Australian Design Rules (ADR) and may be subject to factory compliance inspections.
This level of certification sets Fiat Chrysler NZ above and beyond all other Ram converters and places Ram trucks from Fiat Chrysler New Zealand on a par with all other vehicles sold in the mass vehicle market in Australia and New Zealand, the company said.
A small number of large US vehicles of this type – converted locally to right hand drive – have been sold in both countries in recent decades. Ford, which converted US-made LTD luxury sedans to right hand drive in Australia for sale in both countries in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in 2001 began importing Brazilian factory-built right hand drive F-250 and F-350 series truck models developed specially in South America for Australia and New Zealand.
Between 1998 and 2001, General Motors’ Australian unit Holden imported and rebadged full-size Chevrolet SUVs built in Silao, Mexico. These were engineered for RHD by using a lengthened Blazer dashboard (which GM was also factory building in RHD in the US at the time).
According to The Queensland Times, Ram trucks were previously sold by Gympie-based Performax International in limited numbers.
A number of other independent Australian and New Zealand companies and dealerships have also imported North American truck and SUV models for local conversion to RHD and resale.
