Modern trucks are too big. We know this, buyers increasingly know this, but automakers have thus far continued to go all-in on making ever-bigger, ever-less-usable pickups — except, now, for one. Stellantis has clearly learned something, because the new Fiat Tris is different from every massive half-ton on the market. It is, in fact, the platonic ideal of what a pickup truck should be.
The Tris has three wheels, one seat, and zero doors. It steers with handlebars, plugs straight into the wall with an integrated charger, and has 24.2 square feet of cargo area beat an F-150’s 23.6. Stellantis intends it for last-mile delivery, a compact little thing for workers to use to move goods around, but I think it deserves more. The Fiat Tris is the perfect pickup truck, the most capability packed into the smallest footprint, and every lumbering behemoth currently on the market is immediately made worse by its existence. We should all be driving these.
Stellantis I’m begging you to bring this here
The Tris is intended for Middle East and Africa, but it’s the vehicle we really need here. It can be had as a pickup with bedsides, a flatbed, or even a chassis cab — nothing in the U.S. market offers that kind of capability and variety at this scale. Can you imagine rolling up to a lifted brodozer in one of these? Just picture leaning out the side of this thing and telling a Ram owner, “Aw, look who has to be swaddled in heated seats and coddled with creature comforts to haul mulch home from Lowe’s.” This would fix our obsession with enormous trucks inside of a month, as creatine-snorting dudebros ditch their Sierra Denalis to prove how hardcore they are. The first person to put a Molon Labe sticker on a Tris will be a hero, and also be extremely funny.
The Tris isn’t really intended for individuals — it’s part of Fiat Professional, aimed at fleet sales — and its 56-mile range is probably less than most American consumers would want (although not less than they need). Still, it’s the perfect vehicle for the United States, because it directly disproves our societal misconception that Big Angry Trucks are fit for Rough And Tumble Square Jaw Stubble Men. Those who work, who really work, would be better served by a Tris.
