DaimlerChrysler AG is considering expanding its Dodge brand to overseas markets, including Europe and Australia, due to interest in its Viper sports car and its pickups, Reuters reported, citing Jim Schroer, executive vice president of Chrysler sales and marketing.
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“We’re in the process of evaluating the brand outside the US,” Schroer told Reuters during a Chrysler party held here in conjunction with the annual Pebble Beach classic car show and races.
According to Reuters, Schroer said there had been ‘amazing’ interest overseas in the Dodge M80 small pickup concept that debuted at the Detroit auto show in January.
“There’s a niche market in Europe for small pickup trucks,” he told Reuters.
Reuters said that the brand is also known in Europe and Australia due to the success of the Dodge Viper sports car at the annual Le Mans 24 hour endurance race held in France.
Schroer told Reuters that Dodge would only expand overseas as a family of vehicles that would keep their American styling to differentiate them from their local competitors.
“We need to have a vision of a family of vehicles … to consider taking the Dodge brand outside North America,” he said, according to Reuters.
“If and when we do it, the brand will be the same as it is here. The only reason for the appeal is because it’s an authentic American Dodge,” Schroer added, according to the Reuters report.
DaimlerChrysler already sells a relatively small number of Chrysler and Jeep-brand cars, sport-utilities and minivans in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Right-hand drive Dodge cars were sold in both Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s and early 1960s but were gradually displaced by ‘home-grown’ Chrysler products made in Australia.
