It’s been 191 days since Tim Kuniskis retired from both Dodge and Ram. Now, before Stellantis’s now-former CEO Carlos Tavares could even pack up his 12 Months of Kittens calendar, Kuniskis is back. Tim is taking over as the new old boss at Ram. “Tim Kuniskis is returning to the automaker effective immediately,” says CNBC.
“Today’s changes will enable us to operate in a structure that will drive the best outcomes for the region, unlock significant potential and win in the market. A main lever is for the Ram brand to have its CEO singularly focused on that brand,” said a spokesperson to CNBC about the situation.
While Kuniskis won’t be a cure-all for the problems at Ram this is still huge news. Within a week, the brand lost one of its most controversial figures and added perhaps its most beloved. Here’s what Kuniskis has ahead of him and how the rumors might have been true all along.
There’s no question that Ram is having a tough year. Through the third quarter, it’s down 24 percent overall. To be clear, when Kuniskis was the CEO in the first quarter, it wasn’t exactly doing awesome.
It was down 26 percent after the first quarter, and that figure went unchanged after the second quarter. Of all the Stellantis brands in America, it seemed to be the heaviest anchor until Q3 results arrived. Now, Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram are all suffering from merely 21 percent or more declines in total sales thanks to a lot more incentive spending.
Clearly, Ram thinks it’s time to infuse some leadership, experience, and energy into the brand. Former boss Chris Feuell will continue her role as head of Chrysler and take on a new role as head of Alfa Romeo as well. What can we expect from Kuniskis as he takes the lead at Ram? It’s unclear but a few things come to mind.
Kuniskis is most famous for his leadership of Dodge. He’s the guy behind the Brotherhood of Muscle, and if anyone bleeds Mopar blue, it’s him. When he retired in June, he’d been with the company for 32 years. Now, he’ll have the task of rejuvenating Ram the way he did most recently with Dodge.
That comes with challenges like getting buyers on board with the Hurricane family of engines, the upcoming Ramcharger (a hallowed range-extended electric truck), and an all-electric Ram (the 1500 Rev) as well. If those weren’t big enough hurdles, Ram has delayed the release of both trucks until 2025.
All of this comes at a strange time for the Stellantis brand as well. In October of this year, it became clear that then-CEO Carlos Tavares wasn’t going to stick around too much longer. Here’s what was said at the time.
John Elkann, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “The Board of Directors is unanimous in its support of Carlos Tavares and for the decisive changes announced today. We are confident that these steps to simplify our organization will strengthen our leadership team as they work to restore the Company’s performance to industry-leading levels.”
The Company also confirmed that the formal process to identify a successor to Carlos Tavares, when he retires at the conclusion of his CEO term in early 2026 is already underway. This is being led by a Special Committee of the Board Chaired by John Elkann and will complete its work by the fourth quarter of 2025.
That sounds all well and good, but wouldn’t ya know it, Tavares didn’t even keep his job through the end of this year. Instead, he and the board evidently had a difference of opinion, and Tavares left. He resigned, the board accepted that resignation, and about a week later, Tim Kuniskis is back at Ram ready to charge into the future.
That combination of factors leads us right back to where all of this seemed to start in June when Tim left. By July, a slew of conspiracy theories popped up online. Most had to do with the idea that Kuniskis and Tavares clashed hard. In one interview Kuniskis openly said that Tavares “burned our boats” when referring to the use of carbon credits and killing the V8 in the 1500.
As we asked back in July, why would Kuniskis accept a position as the head of Ram in July of 2023 if he knew he was retiring under a year later? Now that he’s back, what can we expect? Probably more of what he’s already famous for; horsepower and fun.
Remember, he brought us the Dodge Hellcat twins, the Demon, and the Demon 170. Before he left, he was championing the new Ram RHO. To think that he’s going to show up and be a dramatically different type of leader makes no sense. For now, the Ram brand still uses the Hemi in its heavy-duty pickup trucks. Will Kuniskis press to use them in the 1500? Will his traditional strategies make Ram a success again? 
Credit: StellantisWe won’t know for several months but Ram has just about nowhere to go but up at this stage.
There’s a lot of hate online for the new Dodge Charger. It all seems to stem from the lack of a V8. While I understand it, I do give them credit for making both an EV and ICE option. How many cars out there even have that? Not just that, but the Hurricane puts out some serious numbers and it’s brand new.
Let’s give Dodge some more credit for being the last American brand to market a mid priced sedan. Let that sink in. It’s crazy. While Ford came out and announced that they would stop making cars (Mustang excepted) and people flipped (understandably), Chevy just went ahead and quietly did exactly that too (Corvette excepted) and it seems like noone noticed. So let’s give Dodge some love for keeping the everymans sedan alive, in any form.
Will he get enough freedom to make what he believes are necessary changes, or will he be hamstrung by a board who only wants him there as a figurehead? Only time will tell.
Ralph Gilles for Stellantis CEO!
If they ever do launch a smaller pickup, what are they going to call it?? The Ram Lamb??? Thus why this whole “Ram” rebranding is stupid, they have only have one model line and the name is entrenched as a full sized truck. Its going to be a confusing mess if they start building smaller trucks/different model line with the Ram name.
They did this in the early 80s with the Ram 50, granted Ram was Dodge at that point but the truck itself was in fact a “Ram”
Ram Promaster? The Promaster City and C/V were also named Ram when they were in production, and the 700, 1200, and Rampage overseas go by Ram.
I forgot about the Promaster, but that is strictly a commercial vehicle. Only ones Ive seen that were not working for a living were rv conversions.
I have zero opinion on Kuniskis returning although I hope it’s for the best.
I will say, apropos of some of the discussion below, Stellantis has approximately 100000000000000000000000 more pressing problems than whether their trucks are called Dodge or Ram. I have no idea why this seems to bother people so much.
I don’t care since I don’t own any Stellantis products, but I’m just curious why they spun Ram off as a separate brand. I don’t know a damn thing about running a business so I don’t doubt there’s a lot of benefits, I just want to know what they are.
Since it was done at a precarious financial time for the company, I have always assumed it was just a way to more easily spin off the profitable part of Dodge from the unprofitable part should that become necessary.
From what I can recall, it was about shifting Ram to target “real truck people who do real truck stuff”. There was even talk of a Ram semi at one point. While that was happening, Dodge shifted to advertise to younger people (insert joke here about new army recruits and Dodge Chargers).
Ultimately, Stellantis has no idea what they want to do in America and I think the failed rebranding proves that. Start by putting the brands back together and decide on what demographic you want to pursue.
What demographic would they pursue for both Dodge and Ram? From what I can tell, there isn’t much overlap between their respective buyers so in a way they have achieved some success in differentiating them as separate.
Reid Bigland had the best name though
Dont forget Mike Manley
“We won’t know for several months but Ram has just about nowhere to go but up at this stage.”
Could be worse, could be raining
Dear Tim, it would create tremendous good will if you renamed the trucks Dodge.
Dear Tim, no it wouldn’t. It has been 15 years and I have no idea whey people are so hung up on it. I like the different design language that separation of brands allows.
This comment is proof that we all live in our own little realities.
I reject their realities and substitute my own.
Bring back Fargo!
If I can’t have a stagecoach pulled by a 6 horse team, then dammit, I’ll just walk.
But you can! Just move to Pennsylvania and wear black.
He would be living in an Amish paradise
As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain…
Love it!
People on here swear that it is some big issue. They really cant give a good reason why they are hung up on it aside from ” that’s how it used to be”. Do you have a better reason in line with his comment? I gave you my reason.
Yes. Simplification, removal of millions in yearly branding and double job waste. They both only make like 2-3 models, so it would be very reasonable to have a car company with 6-7 models. I bet it would be alot cheaper for the dealers too.
It was done as a marketing gimmick, and the gimmick is over, hard times are when you gotta make the hard choices.
I don’t think your opinion is stupid, I just don’t agree with it. I also don’t think it’s a “big” issue. Just a decision that was made by someone who had to have an idea to justify their pay check.
Yeah but it was a *really* good gimmick to be able to call Ram the fastest growing truck brand in its first year.
Yeah no shit. And we’ll get rid of all the crime on Tara BLV by renaming it Southside Parkway.
I agree on many of those points, but am not sure where the “good will” portion comes in. RAM is arguably more important than Dodge at this point. I feel like it would be similar to saying a Buick GMC at this point.
Are they really spending double on keeping Ram a separate brand? Is the amount to copyright Ram that much more than copyrighting it as a Dodge Ram? Is it certain they have entirely separate corporate teams behind Dodge and Ram that wouldn’t be separate anyway if they were under the same name?
Would it really be any cheaper for dealers who already share lots and employees as-is?
Yeah, a brand known for “low quality shitboxes”, high horsepower boats and “ass” CUV’s needs to be merged back with the truck brand. The truck brand that actually has a somewhat meh reception to the market, which is better than Dodge has had since giving people horsepower was a bad thing?
Makes sense, I guess.
Thank god they had the picture of the Challenger on the trailer behind the Durango in that photo.. otherwise I’d have pondered all night if the 8,700lb number was a tow rating or a curb weight.
So what are the chances he gets kicked all the way up to run Stellantis? Having a European CEO didn’t work so well, so maybe give an American a shot?
I’m already trying to convince Matt to find a comedian to be Tim’s stand-in.
John Cena?
and then just post pictures with nobody in them…
Nate Bargatze?
Sebastian Maniscalco?
Tavares was a joke as CEO. He wasn’t much of an auto enthusiast, no matter how much his fan may protest. Also, he seemed to be a dainty mannered cocktail party kind of CEO. He wasn’t relatable, so he wasn’t even recognizable in press photos. Joke CEO replaced with an actual comedian is deliciously layered humor.
You shouldn’t replace Tim in the picture because the joke isn’t nearly as funny the second time around. He’s the kind of CEO that an auto company should have.
Rodney Dangerfield
I want to believe.
Interesting thought. I’m not familiar enough with the Euro operations to know if he could make any headway over there. Probably best he could hope for is to be able to run N. America without too much “guidance” from across the pond.
Will his big success be re-integrating Ram products back under Dodge where they belong?
I didn’t really understand the microbrand thing back when it was all the rage, it seems now that most buyers don’t really care one way or the other, and for a parent firm with a precarious future, any chance to simplify and focus would seemingly be a smart move. And I really hope the Chrysler division survives.
My 5 year old son calls them Dodge Rams. He wasn’t even born when they split them and he managed to understand that it’s a Dodge. They should just get it over with and bring Ram back under Dodge.
He’s 5. Is it at ALLLLLLLLLL possible that you influenced this?
No, he got it from somewhere else. I don’t call them Dodge Rams. I just say Ram. Probably a video or from his brother would be my guess.
In fairness, I could go back to Dodge Ram pretty easily.
I thought I had read back when the split happened that it was for the sake of fuel regulations or whatever they called it. Such as a company had to have an average MPG across the board so with Dodge selling so many trucks, they decided to spin it off so that the crappy MPG they got wouldn’t hurt Dodge as much.
Could be totally wrong, that’s just what has always stuck in my head from back then
Sounds plausible, but I’ve not seen that documented and don’t fully understand the logic based on rudimentary knowledge of the CAFE rules. Light trucks were a separate category, so splintering wouldn’t do anything for compliance.
Wouldn’t that work the other way around? Dodge would need the more efficient cars to offset the emissions of trucks? Or did RAM just buy a shitload of carbon credits and Dodge was good as is? And if the latter, wouldn’t it have been cheaper to buy fewer credits if the rest of Dodge was already helping reduce the average across the board inclusive of trucks?
I really have no idea. It seems that there is mention of carbon credits being used/not used for Ram in the article so maybe there was some issues with things.
Keeping up with the government and then trying to keep up with the companies trying to keep up or ahead of them is enough to make your head spin
That’s definitely what I remember reading back in the day as well.
A lot of Mopar fans are excited about this. That’s good enough. This is a big moral booster.
Fresh blood is needed here.
FCA was no shining utopia before Stellantis. Far from it. This seems short sighted.
FCA did bring back the Power Wagon so there’s that.
No they didn’t. FCA didn’t exist until 2012, but there has been Power Wagons from ’45-’78, ’57-’80, ’81-’93, ’05-’09, and ’10 to today. Every time it has “come back” was before FCA even existed.
There were no Power Wagons from ’81-’93. They were called Power Rams back then.
I was thinking Daimler Chrysler. There’s been so many I got confused.
Fiat did give them spiffy interiors though.
I am hoping for the best here.
What would be cool is if they started to build a real van again in the USA.
The old school Dodge from the “before times” would be suitable for me.
Not a fan of the FWD shit though. Real RWD and AWD works fine.
Actually I hope this works out.
There’s a shit ton I’d try at RAM and Dodge, but easier said than done.
Keep the Hemi.
BTW have they finally worked out all the kinks in that engine?
Really? It wasn’t doing well under him but they hired him back because they liked him? This is like head coaches in the NFL. They keep getting fired because they stink but the owners keep hiring other teams cast-offs because they have experience. But no one hires a new person who just might have a better idea. Of course then if it doesn’t turn around in 3 months he is gone. Is there any wonder Elon is kicking ass with poorly built unwanted cars? It’s like the President election. People voted against the experienced political idiot and for the wake up.
He was doing pretty well with what he had to work with, finding ways to wring extra profit out of aging designs because of FCA kicking the can down the road on R&D while they pursued a merger partner and then Stellantis continuing with under-investment while they focused on shoring up European operations and placating unions and politicians over there. Stellantis needs to spend desperately on competitive new models for North America and fast track them to market, but that decision is ultimately made higher than his level, he can argue for what’s needed and why, but the call is made elsewhere.
You want a fun truck? Maybe try something different? How about a fun SMALL pickup truck? Inline fours can be Hemis too you know.
A smaller truck has already been confirmed.
The Midsize Ram Pickup Truck Will “Surprise Us,” Boss Says
Smaller than midsize would be better though. Something like a D50.
We’ll just have to wait and see what they come out with.
Pretty sure it’s going to be a “midsize” truck.
I’d gamble that too, but eventually someone will make a Maverick competitor.
Hopefully Dodge.
Come on Dodge! Do the D50! Its RIGHT THERE!!
Smaller is not the same as actually small.
See above
Hemi-Semi-Hemi
I want something else, to get me through this, semi hemi kind of life, babay, babay
Good by *turns blind eye*
*hemi-charmed kind of life