The 2015 Ram ProMaster City will be introduced this year, a small commercial van based on the redesigned Fiat Doblo. Ram's ramping up marketing and dealer support for their redundantly-named van lineup as it expands.
FCA plans to establish some 900 commercially-focused dealers and boost their vocational marketing to sell some of the same work vehicles that have been successful in Europe as Fiats here in the US under the Ram badge.
There are currently 14 versions of the Doblo, which can carry up to a metric ton of payload in 176 cubic feet of of storage volume. On some markets the elegant little van is available as a small pickup which might mean a smaller Ram could be in the pipeline, possibly as a ProMaster.
The Doblo can also be had as a passenger-carrying minivan. It will be interesting to see if Ram bothers to adopt that one as Chrysler plans minivans of their own.
Whichever variants and interior layouts they give it, the Ram ProMaster City will be up against the Ford Transit Connect and Nissan NV200/Chevrolet City Express.
Broadening the Ram brand seems like an easy decision for FCA. Fiat's van lineup is already proven, and the Ram badge is running with a lot of momentum right now thanks to excitement over their EcoDiesel and the general success of their light duty trucks.
The next major update for Ram's commercial light vehicles is scheduled for 2017, with heavy duty and chassis cab trucks getting revised in 2018.