The modern American automotive industry is currently obsessed with one specific design trend: building massive, aggressive-looking pickup trucks. However, if you are tired of every new half-ton looking like it wants to run you off the road, the design team at Stellantis has some very good news for you.
In a recent candid interview with Car Design News, Stellantis Chief Design Officer Ralph Gilles laid out a radically different future for the automaker’s lineup. While he oversees a staggering 14 brands globally, his comments regarding the American truck market are what really caught our attention.
Ram is Dropping the ‘Angry’ Truck Look
If you look at the front of a modern heavy-duty pickup or the brutalist angles of the Tesla Cybertruck, they share a theme of anger. Trucks have grown increasingly hostile in their styling over the last decade, but Gilles openly questioned whether consumers actually want vehicles that look perpetually mad.
“In the US, full-size trucks are still king. But the trucks are becoming angry,” Gilles explained to the news outlet. “If you look at the faces of the new GM trucks, or the Tesla Cybertruck, they’re super exaggerated. I wonder, does everybody really like that?”
Instead of following General Motors and Tesla down the path of hyper-exaggerated fascias, the next generation of Ram trucks will pivot entirely. Gilles noted that their upcoming pickups will lean heavily into a sleek, advanced road presence rather than relying on the look of intimidation.
“We’re designing the next generation Ram right now and it will have a different appeal,” he confirmed to the publication. “When you see it on the road, it’ll look much more futuristic.”
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Making Room for the Midsize
Better yet, relief is coming for American buyers who don’t want to daily-drive a land yacht. Modern half-ton trucks have ballooned to unmanageable proportions, making them a nightmare to park in standard suburban garages. Because trucks have, in Gilles’ own words, “gotten quite big,” Stellantis is actively investigating a new mid-size pickup to fill the void.
While Gilles didn’t explicitly name the upcoming smaller truck, industry insiders widely expect this to be the highly anticipated revival of the Dodge Dakota (likely badged under the Ram umbrella).
As the chief designer pointed out in his interview, the ultimate goal across the entire Stellantis portfolio is to “essentialize” design. By stripping away the unnecessary bulk and focusing on what buyers actually need, Ram is hoping to build a future lineup of trucks that are affordable, highly capable, and completely free of that unnecessary angry attitude.
