American automakers take their trucks extremely seriously.

And the ongoing battles for dominance among the Detroit three are

often called the "Truck wars".

General Motors, the largest U.S.

automaker overall, sells the most trucks, if you count full-size and

mid-sized pickups.

Ford F-Series is the best selling line of full-size trucks.

But, third place challenger Ram has made its own waves in recent

years, snagging major industry awards and stealing market share from

rivals. Ram is killing it.

U.S. sales of Fiat Chrysler's truck brand have roughly tripled in the

last decade, and the brand seems to be taking food out of its rivals

mouths. After taking the helm of Fiat Chrysler in 2018,

new CEO Mike Manley said he wanted to make Ram the second-best

selling full-size pickup brand in the U.S.

In the first three quarters of 2019,

Ram surprised the automotive world by passing Chevrolet in sales, and

some think Ram could very well stay in second place, fulfilling

Manley's goal. To be fair, others are quick to note the timing has

been in Ram's favor and that the game is too early to call.

What is certain is that this upstart is now posing a more serious

threat to its rivals than ever before.

It's a stunning rise for a brand

some in the industry thought Fiat Chrysler was foolish to create in

the first place. The

Ram brand was once actually part of Dodge, but the two were separated

as Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy under the oversight of the late

Sergio Marchionne.

The idea was that the split would allow Ram to focus exclusively on

trucks while permitting Dodge to focus on developing performance

vehicles, including its popular Challenger and Charger, as well as

sport utility vehicles and its long-running Caravan minivan.

Some in the industry questioned the wisdom of spinning the Ram brand

out at a time when cross-town rival General Motors was axing several

of its own brands.

First of all, the Ram name has a long history with Dodge itself.

The company first started using the Ram logo on its cars in 1932, and

it was still used on Dodge models until FCA began rolling out new

logos sometime after the brand's split in 2009.

As one of the four American full-sized pickup brands, Rams sold

reasonably well, but were often known as a more affordable

alternative to those offered by GM and Ford.

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They were less expensive, the interiors weren't that great.

They were pretty basic.

It wasn't the kind of truck that GM or Ford had on the road.

Ram simply could not compete with the capability offered by rivals.

But after Fiat took over and the company began to emerge from

bankruptcy, Ram came out swinging.

In 2010, GM and Ford were roughly tied and pickup market share, each

with just over 38 percent with Ram solidly in third place at just

14.6 percent.

But, over the next eight years, Ram grew its share of the market to

more than 22 percent, while Ford lost one percent of its share and GM

lost nearly five.

To be fair, Japanese import brand Toyota also lost some share at that

time from 6.8

percent of the market to 4.9

percent and fellow Japanese maker Nissan gained a sliver of market

share. But Ram is now threatening to displace Chevrolet as these

second best selling full-size pickup brand in the United States.

So how did it do this?

By offering something different, say industry analysts?

So I think Ram's idea then was OK, then maybe, our strategy should be

to build a really, really good all around truck.

Let's make it comfortable.

Let's make the interiors nice.

Let's make the ride quality really good.

Two areas where Ram really shines our interiors and technology.

The interior of the truck is just unbelievably great.

The technology is unbelievable.

They've got the biggest screen, it looks like a laptop.

Ram made a bet that seems particularly suited to the times.

Owners are more accepting of technology than they ever have before.

There's examples of new technology being put into pickup trucks that

kind of fell flat. General Motors had a four-wheel steering system

for their pickup trucks, which was terrific.

But the problem was that it was an expensive option, and at that

time, pickup truck owners, their feedback was, I already know how to

move my truck. I already know how to tow.

I already know how to do this stuff.

I don't need to spend the man's money that you're asking to have this

technology help me do that.

But times have changed.

Now we have buyers of every demographic that are far more willing to

let technology help them do things.

And as a result, the big screen in the Ram has drawn a lot of

attention. As a result, some of the technology that General Motors

has brought it to their Chevrolet and to the GMC, there's a lot more

cameras on board.

There's ways to save your towing of your trailer information to your

truck so that if you have three trailers, every time you hook it up,

you just call up that information and you don't have to reset it.

There's lots of things in both of those trucks that make it easier to

work with them. And the Ram got out into the market a little bit

earlier. One feature in the 2019 Ram 1500 truck that has had the

automotive world buzzing is the large 12 inch touchscreen in the

center of the console.

Ram boasted that the screen was the largest found in any truck in its

class. If you asked a pickup truck owner, before they had the big

screen in the Ram if they wanted a big screen, they'd probably said,

no. I don't want that.

I don't need that. I don't need to do that.

But now that it's there, they're reacting to it strongly.

FCA's new strategy was well-timed.

The pickup market has changed over the last decade as truck sales

have risen. Along with the boom in sport, utilities and crossovers,

pickup trucks have become popular options for drivers who might have

a wider range of uses in mind then in previous eras.

For instance, there has been a rise in the portion of four seat and

four door models in the pickup market.

Ram said more than 50 percent of its pickups are "family trucks".

FCA has also used a tactic that some industry observers say has

contributed to the brand's sales success - selling an outgoing model

along a newly redesigned one, typically at a lower price.

Ram's rise is partly notable because pickup truck buyers have

historically been considered among the most brand-loyal in the

automotive market.

Ford buyers typically don't buy GM trucks, and just the opposite, GM

buyers typically don't buy Ford trucks, but what's interesting is

either one of those buyers will consider a Ram truck.

Dealer

Don "K" Kaltschmidt, who sells both Chevrolet and Ram and owns

products from both GM and Fiat Chrysler, said that in some ways Ram

does outdo the Chevrolets, but he thinks it isn't over yet.

The GM truck product is very, very strong here for good reason.

It is important to understand the timing has also worked in Ram's

favor. The Ram went into production roughly eight months before the

Chevrolet product did.

So, there was a bit of a head start and sort of building it and

having it online and having it available for the dealerships.

Another element is that Ram has kept the previous generation of

production longer than Chevrolet has.

A spokesman for General Motors told CNBC, the launch of our Chevrolet

Silverado has gone exceptionally well and combined with the GMC

Sierra, we are quite pleased with the quality of our market share.

As of November 2019, Ford said its F-Series lineup outsold Ram by

225,000 trucks for the year, a lead the company expected to widen by

the end of 2019, a spokesman told CNBC.

Ford has so far been the best selling line of pickups in the US for

the last 42 years.

The "Blue Oval" has also been hyping its upcoming hybrid and fully

electric versions of the F-series.

Electric vehicles are important and they're happening and they're

coming, but they're also coming slowly.

That's kind of important to remember.

Even as Ford and GM are talking and start talking about electric

pickup trucks, once they're here, the sales ramp up is probably going

to be a pretty slow.

Pickup truck battles are fierce in ways that fights in other segments

are not. You get excited about a pickup truck because it either helps

you feed your family, or you're into horses.

It's an enabler to do something that you truly care about.

And, that makes it much more important emotionally than I'm going

back and forth to work and it's just a mode of transportation.

There are also a huge source of profits for automakers.

So industry watchers aren't expecting this one to be over anytime

soon. If you think about building a small car and you need so

much amount of steel or so much amount of wiring harness, or so much

amount of leather or cloth to cover the seats and you can charge

$20,000 for a small car.

You need more of all of those materials to build a pickup truck, but

you're charging four times the cost.

It's an interesting element of the market too.

Smaller products are not as profitable, as larger products.