If you told someone in 2020 that four short years later, automakers would start rolling back aggressive battery-powered vehicle roadmaps, you’d have received one of two reactions: Either shock, or something to the effect of “well, duh.” Still, the great BEV pull-back continues. Ram is pushing its all-electric pickup truck down the road, and is refocusing on the range-extender Ramcharger by aiming to have it on sale in 2025.
As for why this product timing switcheroo happened, it’s no secret that battery electric pickup truck demand has been softer than some manufacturers likely expected. Ram states, “The decision to launch Ramcharger first was driven by overwhelming consumer interest, maintaining a competitive advantage in the technology and slowing industry demand for half-ton BEV pickups.”
Unlike pretty much any other truck ever, the Ram 1500 Ramcharger is a series plug-in hybrid where the engine functions solely as a generator and isn’t connected to the wheels. As it stands, nobody offers a series hybrid pickup truck in North America, although Scout has announced plans for one. Considering what trucks need to do, a series plug-in hybrid drivetrain makes a ton of sense because it can glide around on electric power alone for most commuting, but then take advantage of refuelling infrastructure when towing, which can significantly affect range on electric trucks.
Going into more detail, the Ram 1500 Ramcharger features a 92 kWh battery pack and a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 onboard, and Ram claims 690 miles of range if you run through both the battery pack and the fuel tank. What’s more, with 14,000 pounds of towing capacity, 663 horsepower, and a claimed zero-to-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds, there’s a pretty decent chance this will be a great tow rig.
Opening up order books at some point in the next six-ish months seems like a pretty smart move, and given Stellantis’ history of missing initial launch timelines, something coming out ahead of schedule makes a pretty good impression. It’s also great to see Stellantis focusing on a desirable product for North America, because vehicles like the Jeep Wagoneer, Dodge Charger Daytona EV, and Dodge Hornet just aren’t it.
However, amid this great news, there’s one elephant in the room: How competitive will the Ram REV be come 2026? Up to two years is an eternity in the EV space, as battery cell chemistries continue to advance and new products keep popping up. The Ford F-150 Lightning will likely be due for a mid-cycle refresh by then, Chevrolet should have Silverado EV production ramped up by 2026, Rivian’s still doing its Rivi-thing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tesla applies rolling updates to the Cybertruck over the next few years. Stellantis simply can’t sit on the Ram 1500 REV for a year, it needs to keep iterating, even if only slightly.
In any case, we look forward to driving the Ram 1500 Ramcharger sooner than expected. On paper, it really seems like the sort of truck North America needs, especially since we generally buy vehicles on edge cases. Even if that range extender rarely gets used, it sounds like it could be a nice thing to have when it’s needed.
(Photo credits: Ram)
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Please cover Edison Motors with the diesel electric / hybrid conversion kits.
Edison Pickup Kit | Edison Motors Link for those interested.
Rare Stellantis win. This is absolutely the right approach for heavier vehicles like pickup trucks. Pure BEV trucks just don’t work if you actually need them to do “truck things,” at least with current available technology. Towing absolutely murders the range and in any case you need a heavy ass, expensive battery for these vehicles whether you’re towing or not that make them prohibitively expensive. The BEV trucks like the Silverado/Sierra EV, F150 Lightning and Cybertruck (don’t even get me started) are just far too expensive and offer too many compromises to have mass appeal.
This is borne out by the evidence. Ford shut down its Lightning production in October for the rest of 2025. Tesla burned through its entire 1M reservation holders for the Cybertruck after selling *drumroll please* 50,000 of them,and is now struggling to find buyers. This is an extremely niche space and the market is quite limited, especially if not even Tesla can seem to sell them in meaningful volumes. Sure, as you said, the battery tech could advance drastically in the next 2-3 years and turn this on its head, but how long have we been hearing that? I’m not saying it’ll never happen but I’m not holding my breath either. This is clearly the path that makes the most sense. Utilize gasoline for extended range and towing, and electric for practically everything else. That in and of itself is a huge win even if it’s not enough for the BEV diehards.
Chrysler has good product ideas, it’s always been their execution of them that leaves a lot to be desired
The 3.6 engine on the Pacifica PHEV moves the car very good with less power, I wish the battery was bigger, I hope the next generation has on consideration something similar to the new Charger, one platform with different powertrains.
Its ok last time it was so successful selling a hybrid pickup.
I’m target demographic and very interested. I regularly tow a 4000 lb sailboat and a small camper, all in the mountains. Decided to buy a CPO Ram 1500 diesel in May with the intent of replacing it with a Ramcharger ~2026. If it is a letdown or shows lots of issues, I’ll replace it with a 2500 diesel instead. I’d love a Ramcharger with a smallish diesel generator instead, but take what I can.
I am the demographic also. I am quite worried that this thing will be a failed launch, but still have the $100 reservation down.
I read here, I think, how difficult it is to get a truck towing a trailer up to a fast charger. I like this idea but there are issues.
About as difficult as taking up two lanes at a gas station. That said, more pull-through charging stations are getting created.
Still, that is a separate problem statement.
No, it isn’t. Most charging stations are designed for you to pull into head first. If you do that with a trailer then the trailer is either extended across the entire lane behind you, blocking traffic, or at a ~90 angle, thus blocking several adjacent charging stations. The same is true of some small gas stations, granted, but I’ve never had trouble finding one that could accomodate a trailer. Most EV charging locations I’ve seen would be problematic.
With 690 miles of unladen range, let’s say you get 350 miles of range while towing a heavy load. At 70mph, that’s 5 hours of driving. So you fill-up/charge once a day on a cross-country drive. Factor in the inevitable tow package with rear-camera that will make hitching up fairly easy for even a towing dumbass such as myself, and I don’t think it is going to big a big deal to unhitch/charge/re-hitch once a day (twice a day if you have a co-driver).
I feel like you haven’t towed or driven anything of weight any appreciable distance. Your logic is trash. In the last six months I’ve driven a 28 foot box truck across 3 States twice and hauled a 6000 lb camper from Rochester NY to Nashville TN and back. A range of 350 miles for a day is bullshit. Nashville is, let’s call it, 775 miles from Rochester. That’s more than 2 days with your range to get there. Nope. My Super Duty (7.3 Godzilla) did it in 12 hours total. You range would go from just over 2 days travel to nearly 4 days of travel in a 9 day window. The box truck runs were 430 miles so that’s a day and half with your range silliness. I did that run in 8 hours. Delivery completed and return home. Driving 5 hours a day doesn’t work if you have any kind of time limit to work against. And if you are driving commercially 5 hours a day adds significant cost to the operation. On my box truck runs it would have added an additional day of food, lodging and wages to the delivery cost. That’s not insignificant.
I feel you have the reading comprehension of a three year old.
First off, we aren’t talking about a fucking box truck, we are talking about a light duty pickup truck that spends 99.9% of its time driving a lone individual to and from an office. A task more than competently accomplished by the electric motor alone.
Secondly, for my refilling comment, I’m assuming that one would be intelligent enough to charge at home and fill the tank prior to hitching up and leaving home. So 350 miles to the gas/charging station and then up to a second 350 miles to the destination or hotel. So to get to Nashville, you should make the last 75 miles with a gas fill-up alone. So you just made your trip with a single enroute charge where you had to unhitch.
If you frequently have driving deadlines, then don’t buy a EV truck. Everybody and their mother knows EVs take significant time to charge. Just cuz it doesn’t work for you, doesn’t mean it won’t work for 90% of other drivers.
Why bother though? IIRC, only about 100 miles of the range comes from the battery, so if you just fill up in five minutes at a gas pump you’ve gotten 300 of your 350 towing miles back. That’s the beauty of a PHEV for towing.
I 100% agree with you, although I was hoping with 92 kWh battery it could do more than 100 miles of EV alone. That is bigger than most pure EV cars.
It does seem a little low. I wonder if the current estimates are conservative. Even the Hummer EV only has a 200 kWh battery and gets 350 miles out of it. Hard to believe the Ram won’t do at least that much per kWh.
Although, being a truck maybe they don’t run the battery down as far before turning on the gas engine? You wouldn’t want to run out of battery completely and have to rely on whatever the 3.6 can provide if you’re towing 14000 pounds.
A 92kw battery and a gas engine! I’m sure in pulls like a train because it probably weighs as much as one.
With everything I’ve seen with Chrysler/Jeep hybrids, good luck to whoever buys this.
By then they might sell some of the 2023 they still have on dealer lots.
I didn’t trust them with ICE car/trucks and I definitely won’t trust them with anything touching EV.
0-60 in 4.4 seconds?! Is that a typo? If not, that is legitimately quick.
And incredibly dangerous for what is probably 6500 pounds! The best of both worlds.
Well well well, Tavares (not pictured) out and Ram immediately starts making better product decisions…hmmm….
It’ll probably cost $100k, so unlikely to be something I’ll buy new.
Seeing the Pacifica PHEV and Jeep 4xe vehicles don’t exactly have a great rep at the moment, will probably not want to be an early adopter anyway.
From what I’ve read, even the Mazda CX90 PHEV had quite a bit of teething problems out of the gate. So it isn’t just Stellantis.
I was bummed to read about all the problems with the CX90 PHEV, apparently the software is a mess. Mazda does a great job doing weird stuff with cars and I always root for them.
Yeah I revisited it as Grand Highlander Hybrids continue to be unobtainable. Nope, don’t think I want to sign up for the CX90 PHEV either.
This series hybrid thing and mention of a next gen Lightning got me wondering what the next gen Cybertruck is going to look like (and given it’s (un)popularity/low preorder fulfillment rate, how soon we’ll get it).
Honda went much more traditional with the second gen Ridgeline. I wonder if CT 2.0 will look a lot more like this Ramcharger (without an internal combustion engine of course). Trucks are for doing truck things, and CT doesn’t do truck things well.
That said all in all I like the concept of this Ramcharger. I have a camper I need to pull around, and though I’d love to electric, that just isn’t feasible. This would be.
Bold of you to assume there will be a “next gen” cybertruck considering none of the other models have had noteworthy refreshes.
Fair point.
Elon’s got plenty of that special Starship stainless steel to move, though, so a more normal looking truck made out of the stuff seems like the next logical move. But I’m not the richest guy on the planet so what do I know?
See you’d think that, but someone in the comments of another article recently said EM said all future models are going to have the CT aesthetic. I haven’t found a source to back up that claim, but I also don’t doubt he’s willing to throw good money after bad to own the libs/haters/federal regulators.
Aesthetics is one thing, shape is another. I see quite a bit of the CT aesthetic in the Robotaxi, for example, but it’s definitely not a low-polygon-count shape like the CT is.
My understanding is the stainless steel is harder to shape than the steel typically used for vehicle construction, and that accounts for much of the CT’s angularity – they intentionally eschewed compound curves.
I’m imagining some sort of stainless steel frame paired with gigacasted subframes underneath, with a more traditionally shaped slab sided bed also made out of the stuff, and traditional, compound curve sheet metal covering the nose and perhaps cab. Or maybe they’ll figure out a cheap way to add complex curvature to the steel.
Either way, this redesign would still allow them to use a lot of the special steel, and to some extent “salvage” the CT’s value by instantly turning it into a “limited edition collectable.”
But, as you point out, Elon plots his own path, so you’re probably right and we’ll never see such a thing.
Seeing that the S is basically the same car for the past 12 years I don’t think the Dumpster truck is gonna change anytime soon.
They will still be grinding off the foundation series badging on them for a while
cYbErJuNkTrUcK 2.0? You just gave me a “nightmare before Christmas”
How many more dumpsters do we really need in this world? The TRASH business must be doing well!
Weight? Yes.
I heard this truck exerts a significant gravitational force on Earth.
Range doesn’t matter when you have the gravitational pull to just move your destination toward you.
None of this surprises me. Electric vehicles are great in a vacuum but in the full scale is where they really show their shortcomings. And I say this as someone who owns an electric vehicle. I’m thankful I have my gas backups as needed, just in case.
I’ve asked this question before without getting a good answer: When you are towing at or close to the weight limit and you run out of battery power in a hundred miles or whatever and then you are running on range extender only, how does that affect your speed or ability to tow, are either or both reduced and if so how much?
I asked originally as a comparison to David’s i3, in which case when the extender kicks in, it limits the speed that the vehicle can travel at compared to what it can do with a full battery.
This may not make a difference for some people but around here people are often pulling pretty big loads at 80mph or more…
If I were to guess, there will be a tow mode that gets the charging going at something like 50% of battery charge. I don’t think that the range extender to battery will ever be “hand to mouth” on power, and that they will aim to keep performance as consistent as possible.
Yeah that makes sense, I’m just wondering what exactly the limitations might be. Everyone is all excited about 600hp, a 14,000 lb tow capacity, and a V6 that nobody would ever want to tow any kind of sizable load with by itself. But nobody is filling in the blanks as to A) Cost and B) what is realistic capability when you have a 10,000lb trailer with a flat front face and need to cross Texas where all the traffic runs at 85mph+.
Can the V6 keep up when the juice is actively draining with a big load OR will it be limited to 60mph or something like that. I think people are expecting that it’ll be like (or better than) a 6.2l GM V8 running at top speed with gas stops every three hours while towing a popup camper but I don’t know if I see anything like that.
I do think it’ll be great to get your boat to the lake that’s 50 miles away and that’s maybe what it’ll be used for but you can do that with a current EV truck as well. Everybody thinks they want to do max tows cross-country every other week and every truck on the market needs to support that or it’s tagged as useless… Reality is a RAM 2500 diesel will likely still be better, faster, and surprisingly perhaps FAR cheaper than this thing.
I had no idea of the BMW i3 range extender’s limitations when actually range extending until David happened to mention it awhile back, I would have thought that someone writing one of these very pro-RamCharger posts would have asked RAM to weigh in on this particular aspect of the truck by now. Now it really intrigues me!
Those details aren’t out yet that I know of. Essentially it depends on the kw output of the range extender and how much energy is needed to sustain the use case along with how big the battery is.
It’s going to have to slot somewhere between ICE and BEV or else there will be few buyers for it. So, I suspect they may still be trying to figure out the right balance of battery size and extender output to hit a price someone will pay. I’m really interested to see where it lands. I’d really like a Colorado version.
On flat ground, I think 175HP will do just fine. Anything too big for that will also be way too big for the payload (which realistically will probably limit it to something in the 7K-9K lb range). Long climbs may be more of an issue, but hopefully it’ll have a “tow mode” that maintains a battery reserve or something like the Volt’s “mountain mode” that fills the battery in preparation for a climb.
For gas towing efficiency, the 6.2L GM V8’s a high bar to clear. Not sure if it’ll quite match that, but hopefully running Atkinson cycle and spending more time in the optimal rev/load range will at least make up for the conversion losses.
I kind of suspect this may be why they spec’d such a huge battery. Well, that or to get those peak HP numbers. 92KWh is ridiculously big for a range-extended hybrid.
The pentastar is rated for about 285 HP, assuming the generated is properly sized I would think it could keep up. As junkinthefrunk said the key works be kicking on the ice while you still have battery capacity remaining to handle hills or other high demand situations
It shouldn’t affect it at all, as the engine is just supplying more electricity. The site says it can supply power to the engine when needed, so I would assume the default is to power the battery unless you switch modes.
David’s BMW i3 system affects it, when running on gas to power the battery power and speed are reduced, thus the question. I understand that’s a smaller engine but that car is also FAR smaller and lighter than this truck, never mind whatever big trailer it might have.
The question I guess is HOW MUCH power does the engine pump back into the battery and while towing HOW MUCH power is actively being used up from the battery? If the engine at all times can produce more power into the battery than the user can take out of it, then there’s no issue, you can flat foot it across Texas for 600 miles at a stretch, but I’ve yet to see anyone make a definitive statement on the matter. I think it’s a valid question as it directly goes to the viability/usability of the truck being used as intended or at least marketed. Not much point to having a 14k lb payload if you never use it. If the battery were to be depleted en route to somewhere and if you COULD (but you can’t) direct drive the truck from the V6, it surely would not be rated the same (since a regular RAM 1500 with a V6 doesn’t have anywhere near that payload figure).
The Ram 1500 V6 can tow about 7700 lb max, and that truck is going to weigh a lot less than this one with the additional battery and motors.
So you’re right that there has to be some degradation in capability, and how they handle that is going to be fascinating.
The first truck that goes into limp mode going up a mountain with 10,000 lb behind is going to be a PR nightmare for Ram.
It wasn’t too long ago that it was normal if towing something big up a mountain to have to stay in the right lane and keep it at a lower speed. That was normal and expected. Funny how things have changed.
According to other articles the v6 is rated to 130 kW as a generator. That’s about the same level of power as my 5.0 F150 at 3,000 rpms. But the important thing to remember is that the battery will be a buffer, so excess power demand from climbing grades can be met by the electric motors. If you wanted to go hog wild and pull a travel trailer at 85 mph across Texas, could you?
I think so, depending on frontal area. The worst I’ve seen pulling a cargo trailer on the highway in my lightning was 1.0 mi/kWh, that was going about 70 mph. If you assume an 85 mph speed and a 130 kW generator, the maximum consumption it can sustain is 0.65 mi/kWh. Looking at the TFL highway tests pulling travel trailers with EV pickups, all were more efficient than 0.65 mi/kWh, except the uphill portion of the Ike Gauntlet. But you can’t drive up the Ike Gauntlet for an hour. It’s less than a ten minute drive. Short answer is yes, the Ramcharger will support high speed (85 mph) trailering using only gas refills, no recharging, and no reduced power. As long as they create a charge sustaining mode for towing correctly.
The First Gen Volt was a very similar setup and the gas engine produced about half the horsepower needed at peak. It used the battery as a buffer for high demand situations but had a mountain mode where it kept more battery buffer so you wouldn’t get your power cut
I imagine this will have a tow/haul mode that leaves more battery buffer so that it can do the same. That said, if you’re going up really long mountain passes it may cut your power until the generator replenishes the battery
Can’t speak for David, but my ‘20 I3 has no trouble at all on the Rex engine. Drives normally, handles the same. The engine is a bit noisy, but still more quiet than a regular car engine. He has, I think, a ‘14, and it probably did manage things poorly without the advantage of 6 years real-world experience. Of course: nobody tows with an I3 so this may not be helpful to your question.
I don’t think stellantis needs to worry about the Silverado ev, all 8 people who wanted one probably have it. Just looking it up showed my nearest dealerships cutting up to 10k (!) off msrp
10k off a 95k truck, lmao
GM has no interest in actually selling these things. They want to tell the customer “EV trucks cost 100k but for just 65k you can get one that’s gas powered and never have to worry about charging it”
Actually they want to tell the government that they offered EVs, even offered “significant” discounts (i.e. the same $10k they offered on a $39,000 pickup back in 2018), and still nobody wants to buy these…
I’d imagine lots of fleet and rental sales. Hertz has had them listed for 6+ months, though none have shown up locally yet.
It was primarily the fleet spec that was on sale near me. I’m not the target audience but for under 60k if it’s a work expense AND I’m getting ev credits that’s at least somewhat appealing I guess
I am super interested in the Ramcharger and glad to hear this. I am worried about first year Stellantis quality/reliability and wasn’t willing to wait until they sorted things out and started making lower trim versions of it, so we bought an F-150 Powerboost hybrid.
Finally a truck that pulls like a train, literally.
This makes me very curious about a smaller much more aerodynamic car with this setup. How small could they go with the battery and range extender with something more along the lines of a model 3? While better than a pure EV in getting regular people to adopt the tech and save gas, 92kw battery packs aren’t making much of a dent in our material usage.
The VW XL-1 caught my attention as a serious study in efficient series hybrid with a small diesel charging motor and modest-size battery under a small, aerodynamic body. Wished they had pursued that tech further.
The first Gen Volt was basically the same. They had some small applications where it would become parallel hybrid, but it was almost always series. By the second gen they got 50 miles of range. Nobody bought them though. Honda did something similar with the Clarity but it was equally unpopular. I bet they’d sell better today, but by the time you’re in a small car, you might as well just go full EV (I say that as a Volt owner who went full ev)
That’s kinda my point. 50 miles appears useless to lots of people when in fact it is all they will likely need day-to-day. I’m thinking a small CUV (for max desirability) with 100-150 mile pure electric range, 400+ combined range with the extender and the ability to couple the engine directly to the wheels as a worst-case. That’s a heck of an ask spec-wise but if someone could do it they might just find some customers..
I think price would become a big hurdle doing it that way. You’d need a big battery plus an entire ICE drive train. That’s why the Ramcharger is so expensive. It has a battery the size of a Tesla Model S
If it’s good enough for basically every diesel locomotive it ought to be good enough for a pickup truck. Sign me up when I can get one under 40k
I think you’ll be waiting for a long time. That is the biggest killer of my enthusiasm for something like this. It’ll probably be at least 70-80k with prices much higher in reality with its limited availability.
Unfortunately it looks that way. I can dream though
If they actually sold them for a reasonable price, people would want them instead of their gas models and that’s just not what the c-suite wants to see. They want everyone in as close to the same truck as possible because that means tighter production and maintenance costs and that means higher profit margins when the prices go up for the new models.
See: Silverado EV with a starting MSRP of 90k.
Should be about 3-4 years if they bring it to market on their current timeline. Yes it will be a lease return, not new.
I know why they are including the pentastar in this package but damn. Hopefully this first swing is a good one without Chrysler’s typical quality issues so we can get a better, more efficient one in a few years!
Well if the charger ev is a reference for quality, then they are screwed.
The good news continues
I am super interested in this drivetrain for future swaps. Long as I can figure out an aftermarket controller for it…. This would be amazing in a 70s IH Travelette.
BEV trucks are hot garbage outside of the R1T and the Maverick has proven that the people can’t get enough of hybrid trucks….so this makes sense
Or the maverick is the only way to get a hybrid Ford focus? I think if they offered it, they’d sell 1/2 the maverick they do now. A bad deal compared to selling an optional trunk lid or wagon conversion for the maverick.
What? You can get a hybrid Escape for less money than the Maverick, it’s the same platform.
Dude the Lightning is a much better truck than the R1T.
I really like this concept. Now to plot out their depreciation curve to see how affordable they’ll be off lease.
Stellantis + EV has to be about as steep of a curve as can be found outside of luxury vehicles, right?