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The Ram Dakota Is Back

For more than a decade, Ram has been glaring at the booming midsize pickup market from the sidelines, watching rivals cash checks while the Dakota nameplate gathered dust. That drought is finally coming to an end. At a closed-door dealer showcase during this year’s NADA Show in Las Vegas, Stellantis pulled the cover off a new Dakota—one slated to hit showrooms in 2028—and the early word from the people who actually sell these trucks is loud and clear: Ram might be back in a big way.

Official specs are still locked in Stellantis’ vault, but dealers who saw the truck came away impressed by what they did get to see. According to Automotive News, several described the new Dakota’s styling as “rough” and “aggressive”—two adjectives that fit Ram’s blue-collar image like a well-worn pair of work gloves.

Jason Feldman, a Houston-area dealer manager, said the proportions look spot-on for going toe-to-toe with the Toyota Tacoma and Ford Ranger. “As long as the pricing is in line, it’s going to be a huge hit,” he noted. That’s not faint praise in a segment where every inch of bed length and every dollar of sticker price is a battlefield.

Others were even more bullish. Adrian Gonzalez, general manager of Payne Edinburg Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in south Texas, didn’t mince words: “It really did look nice. Toyota better be careful—we’re going to start competing with them when it comes to the Tacoma.” Ralph Mahalak Jr., who owns six Stellantis dealerships across three states, went so far as to call the Dakota a “game changer.”

Importantly, this Dakota isn’t the one Ram sells in South America. That truck, launched in late 2025, rides on a Chinese-sourced platform and uses a Fiat-derived diesel—hardly the recipe for a red-white-and-blue workhorse. The North American Dakota will be a different beast altogether, built on a ladder-frame chassis and powered by a combustion engine. So much for the unibody EV concept teased back in 2021.

Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis has been clear about the mission: this Dakota has to be a real truck, with the towing and payload numbers to prove it. A V-8 is off the table, but a hybrid powertrain is very much in the cards, a nod to both emissions realities and where the market is heading.

Production plans have also shifted. Instead of Illinois’ Belvidere plant, the Dakota will now be built at the Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio, alongside the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator. That move is part of Stellantis’ $13-billion push to modernize U.S. manufacturing—and, presumably, to ensure the Dakota is built with the scale and quality a volume player needs.

And volume is exactly what Ram is after. As Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa recently admitted, Ram is a “huge, strong pickup maker that is missing a midsize pickup truck.” The Jeep Gladiator may technically live in the same segment, but its off-road-first personality leaves a wide-open lane for a more conventional, utility-focused Ram.

By the time the Dakota arrives in 2028, the midsize truck field—Tacoma, Colorado, Canyon, Ranger, Frontier—will all be on their next turns of the product cycle. Ram is betting that showing up a little late, but with the right hardware and the right attitude, is better than not showing up at all.

If the early dealer buzz is anything to go by, the Dakota won’t just be back—it might finally be ready to fight.

Source: Ram

News

Wells Motor Cars increases production of Vertige Coupe

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By the time the modern sports car has finished booting up its infotainment system, the Wells Vertige is already three corners down the road, engine singing, steering alive, and nothing between driver and tarmac but four tires and a very clear idea of what a sports car should be.

Wells Motor Cars, a tiny Warwickshire outfit founded by Robin Wells, is quietly doing something radical in today’s tech-obsessed performance-car world: building a lightweight, mid-engined coupe that prioritizes feel, simplicity, and driver connection over software updates and glowing screens. Production is set to reach about 12 cars this year, doubling to roughly 24 in 2027—numbers that sound quaint, until you realize every one of them is built around a single-minded philosophy most mainstream manufacturers abandoned years ago.

The Vertige first appeared at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed, already looking like a fully formed sports car rather than a concept. That’s no accident. Wells finalized the design before any engineering work began, then handed the challenge to veteran engineer Robin Hall, whose résumé spans everything from quirky electric buggies to serious stints at Mini and Jaguar Land Rover. The brief was clear: make the car real without ruining its proportions or its purpose.

The result is an 850-kilogram mid-engine coupe that lands right in the sweet spot between featherweight track toy and usable road car. Power comes from a familiar and refreshingly unpretentious source: a 2.5-liter Ford Duratec four-cylinder making 208 horsepower in standard trim. In an age of downsized turbos and hybrid assists, that’s almost rebellious. There’s also an R version with 250 horsepower, which bumps the power-to-weight ratio to a very serious 212.5 hp per ton—more than enough to keep supercars honest on a twisty road.

What makes the Vertige interesting isn’t just how quick it might be, but how little nonsense stands between the driver and the experience. Wells could have chased big numbers or exotic powertrains. Instead, he chose reliability, accessibility, and mechanical honesty. That’s a philosophy that feels straight out of Car and Driver’s golden age, when cars were judged less by their touchscreen size and more by how they made you feel at 7000 rpm.

Inside, the Vertige continues that theme. You get proper analog gauges, a small touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, and plenty of customization options for trim and upholstery. There’s technology here, but it’s supportive rather than intrusive. You don’t have to dig through menus just to turn off something that annoys you. You just drive.

Wells describes the Vertige as the antidote to modern complexity. He wants the sensation of something “alive and peppy” like a Caterham Seven, but with real structure, comfort, and day-to-day usability. So yes, it has a heated windscreen. Yes, it has Bluetooth and double glazing in the rear glass. You can drive it in the rain without feeling like you’re being punished for your enthusiasm.

That blend—raw driving feel paired with genuine livability—is what makes the Vertige stand out. It’s not trying to be a track-only weapon or a tech-packed grand tourer. It’s trying to be a great car, full stop.

And maybe that’s why it feels so refreshing. In a world where “luxury” usually means more screens, more layers, and more distractions, Wells is chasing something else entirely. Peace of mind, he says, is the new luxury. The Vertige is built around that idea: less clutter, more clarity, and a direct line from driver to road.

It’s a small, quiet rebellion—but one that might just be loud enough to be heard by people who still believe a sports car should feel like a beautiful instrument, not a complicated gadget.

Source: Wells Motor Cars

News

Hyundai to launch five new EVs in the next two years

By the time Milan Design Week wraps up this April, Hyundai will have thrown a very pointed gauntlet into the compact-EV arena. It’s called the Ioniq 3, and it’s aimed squarely at the heart of Europe’s most hotly contested electric segment.

Think Volkswagen ID.3, Renault Mégane E-Tech, and Peugeot e-308—but with Hyundai’s design swagger and the kind of platform sharing that’s made the Korean group such a quiet juggernaut in the EV space. Previewed by last year’s Concept Three, the Ioniq 3 will be Hyundai’s new electric hatchback for the masses, sliding neatly between the city-sized Inster and the family-friendly Ioniq 5.

Underneath, it rides on the 400-volt version of Hyundai-Kia’s E-GMP architecture—the same bones as the upcoming Kia EV4—bringing with it shared motors and battery packs. The biggest of those should be good for around 390 miles of range on Europe’s optimistic test cycle, which, even after real-world trimming, still puts it in the sweet spot for daily commuting and long-haul autobahn runs alike.

Hyundai plans to build the Ioniq 3 in Izmit, Turkey, starting late this summer, on the same lines as the gasoline-powered i20. That dual-track production strategy says a lot about where Hyundai’s head is right now: all-in on electrification, but smart enough not to bet the company on one powertrain alone. Expect prices to start around £35,000, making it a direct, unapologetic rival to Europe’s EV establishment.

Size-wise, think i20 footprint with i30-grade interior room—a trick made possible by the flat-floor, skateboard-style EV platform. That’s exactly the sort of packaging magic that’s turned once-humble hatchbacks into legit family cars, and it’s why the B- and C-segments are where the real EV fight is happening.

And Hyundai isn’t stopping at one. The Ioniq 3 is just the opening act in a five-model electrified blitz planned for Europe over the next 18 months. Two more small-car EVs are on the way, and don’t be surprised if one of them takes on a more SUV-ish stance, mirroring Kia’s EV3/EV4 double act.

At the same time, Hyundai is hedging with hybrids. A heavily revised i30 is in the works, along with a new Tucson and a second-gen Bayon—all set to go hybrid-only. It’s a pragmatic approach in a market where EV demand is still spiky and uneven from country to country.

“We’re betting on hybrids and EVs for the next few years,” says Hyundai Europe CEO Xavier Martinet, and he’s refreshingly candid about the uncertainty baked into Europe’s electrified future. Regulations change. Incentives come and go. Geopolitics gets messy. Hyundai’s answer is flexibility—something it can afford thanks to its vertically integrated empire that spans everything from batteries and software to robotics and heavy industry.

That agility is already paying off. Last year, Hyundai’s EV sales in Europe jumped 48 percent, pushing the brand to an 18-percent electric mix and helping it hit its CO₂ targets without leaning on emissions pooling. Hybrid and plug-in sales rose too, and overall the company grabbed a 4.5-percent slice of the European market, with the UK now its single biggest territory.

The message is clear: Hyundai doesn’t just want a piece of Europe’s EV future—it wants to own it. And the Ioniq 3, a compact hatch with big ambitions, is poised to be the car that makes that vision feel very real indeed.

Source: Hyundai

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