Ram Is Using An Old Citroën Van To Revive The ProMaster City Because It Just Makes Sense
Just five years ago, contractors around the country were awash with choice in the midsize commercial van market. There were two solid options from domestic automakers, with the Ford Transit Connect and the Dodge ProMaster City. Or, if you wanted to be a bit fancier, Mercedes-Benz would sell you a Metris.
Then, in the summer of 2022, something happened. In the span of two months, between August and September, all three of those automakers announced they’d be discontinuing their respective midsize commercial vans. By the end of 2023, the entire segment had been killed off, leaving buyers to either shop used, buy a van that was too big for their needs, or purchase a normal passenger van and use it for commercial purposes.
Now, four years after killing the ProMaster City, Ram has decided that there’s now enough of a market to resurrect it. As before, the new version will be based on a van built in Europe, rebadged and upfitted to cater to the North American market. And honestly, it seems like the smartest decision Stellantis has made this year.
A Van That Goes By Many Names
Stellantis, the parent company for brands like Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler, is a very big company. In addition to its American arm, it also controls several big-name manufacturers in Europe, including Citroën, Peugeot, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Vauxhall, and Lancia. That means it had plenty of existing platforms to choose from when deciding to revive the ProMaster City for 2027.
Source: Ram
The van it chose has actually been around since 2016, and has been sold under no fewer than seven different brands and 13 different names. Here, let me list them all out for you:
- Citroën Dispatch
- Citroën Holidays
- Citroën SpaceTourer
- Fiat Scudo
- Fiat Ulysse
- Iveco eJolly
- Opel Vivaro
- Opel Zafira Life
- Peugeot Expert
- Peugeot Expert Traveller
- Peugeot Traveller
- Toyota Proace
- Toyota Proace Verso
- Vauxhall Vivaro
My point is, the new ProMaster City isn’t really new. In fact, it’s pretty old, as far as product life cycles go. But that matters a lot less for commercial vehicles, where proven dependability, functionality, and parts availability are a lot more important than cutting-edge tech and modern design. Stellantis says it’s sold 1.5 million of these things, which means that when someone buys a ProMaster, they’ll know they’re not a guinea pig or an early adopter risking downtime when something silly breaks that wasn’t discovered in testing.
Source: Ram
Speaking of design, the 2027 ProMaster City unsurprisingly shares a lot of its design with the vans mentioned above, save for a modernized fascia with specific Ram-style headlights and a new, modernized Ram badge across the nose. As far as work vans go, this one is pretty smartly designed, with short overhangs for good forward visibility and high-mounted bumpers, so the plastic is the first thing that gets hit in a tight workspace, not the headlight.
Like its predecessor, the new ProMaster City is a unibody vehicle with a transverse engine up front, sending power to the front wheels. There’s space-saving MacPherson suspension flanking the powertrain, and a trailing-arm style independent setup in the rear. Containing the driveline to the nose means a low, flat floor that, according to Ram, adds up to 167 cubic feet of cargo capacity. The load floor is over nine feet long and can handle stuff like standard 4×8 plywood sheets, pallets, and sheetrock with ease.
Source: Ram
The engine is a 1.6-liter inline-four mated to an eight-speed auto, making a respectable 166 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. Nothing mind-blowing, obviously, but enough to get the job done for what these types of vans are used for. All in, Ram says the ProMaster City can handle 2,000 pounds of payload capacity and tow 2,000 pounds. While any mid-size pickup can beat that, you have to remember this isn’t a large vehicle—it’s basically the size of your average passenger minivan. That means it can do all of these things while being able to fit in normal car locations, such as garages.
Source: Ram
Despite the van’s age, there’s a bunch of modern tech onboard, including forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking, a digital rear-view mirror, a 10-inch digital gauge cluster, and a 10-inch infotainment touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The Right Van At The Right Time
The timing for Ram’s ProMaster City revival almost seems scripted. Just last week, I wrote about how demand for minivans is up by 20%, and not just because families and road trip addicts are realizing vans are the best way to get around with a bunch of stuff and people.
Source: Ram
I asked Stellantis exactly who it found was buying its vans, and a representative told me that, increasingly, it saw that Pacifica buyers were gig economy workers such as Amazon drivers or GrubHub delivery workers, or construction workers who appreciated the fact that you could fit a sheet of plywood in the rear of the Pacifica.
Realizing the hole in the market left by the midsize segment back in 2023, and seeing the increased demand from people who need a van exactly like this, the company probably realized it could rebadge a van in its overseas fleet and engineer it to work for North American customers without spending too much money on development. The result is a new ProMaster City that happens to be related to that funky eight-passenger Fiat van that shuttled you from the Florence airport to the Tuscan villa on your last vacation to Italy seven years ago. And that’s totally fine! The more vans, the better.
Source: Ram
Speaking of shuttling, the new ProMaster can be optioned as a bare-bones cargo carrier or as a passenger vehicle, with either five or eight seats. You can also option windows or blank metal plates in the window sections, depending on your use case. Likewise, there are two trim levels: a base Tradesman model that gets unpainted bumpers, or an SLT trim with painted bumpers, parking sensors, a wireless phone charger, and 17-inch aluminum wheels.
Stellantis plans to build the Ram ProMaster City at the same place where all of the other versions of this van are built, at its assembly plant in Bursa, Türkiye. Despite the shipping costs, the company claims it’s targeting a base price under $40,000, which would make it cheaper than the most basic Pacifica (formerly known as the Voyager). If that does end up being the case, Ram could have a real winner on its hands, especially because it has no direct competitors.
Top graphic image: Ram
