Stellantis has announced that it is pushing ahead the launch of its range-extended Ram 1500 Ramcharger before the release of the Ram 1500 REV, the automaker’s first BEV light-duty pickup truck. The Ram brand originally planned to launch the Ram 1500 BEV in the first half of 2025.
Stellantis says the decision to push back on the EV launch was “driven by overwhelming consumer interest, maintaining a competitive advantage in the technology and slowing industry demand for half-ton BEV pickups,” the company said in a press release.
The new Ramcharger will be open for consumer orders in the first half of 2025 followed by the Ram 1500 REV (Revolution battery-electric vehicle) launch in 2026.
The Ramcharger is a battery-powered plug-in but also has a gas engine as a generator to charge the battery on the go, with a targeted range of up to 690 miles. The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger features a 92 kilowatt-hour battery pack, paired with an onboard 130 kW generator, sending power to 250 kW front and 238 kW rear electric drive modules (EDMs).
Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-home bi-directional charging allows the Ram 1500 Ramcharger to charge another BEV or provide power back to the grid. Performance figures include a 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds, 663 horsepower and over 615 lb.-ft. of torque, up to a best-in-class 14,000 pounds towing with a class 5 hitch and a best-in-class maximum payload capacity of 2,625 pounds.
Extended-range EVs, or EREVs, have become a siren call to automakers struggling to reach buyers with pure electric vehicles, serving as a sort of middle ground between kind of an electric car but also a plug-in hybrid, helping to break through to drivers still worried about getting stranded with no charge.
Earlier this month, news hits that Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was stepping down, after a series of missteps in the US involving bloating inventories of Jeep, Chrysler, Ram, and Dodge vehicles sitting in factories or dealer parking lots, which sparked scathing criticisms from dealers. Vehicle deliveries fell by 18% in North America in the first half of the year, with market share dropping from 10% to 8.2%, according to Reuters. Also, Stellantis was slow to lower vehicle prices in the face of tough competition from GM and Ford, with analysts saying vehicle prices were too high for core customers of those brands.
Still, Stellantis delaying its BEV risks putting the company even further behind rivals including Tesla Cybertruck, Chevy Silverado, and Ford F-150 Lightning.
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