2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger plug-in hybrid pickup pairs V-6, massive EV battery

Ram has confirmed first particulars for a pickup that no different automaker has dared but construct, but one that may probably supply the most effective of each worlds: a plug-in series-hybrid truck. 

The truck, which Ram calls the Ramcharger, is claimed to supply “class-shattering limitless battery electrical vary.”

The Ramcharger all the time has electrical propulsion on the wheels, but it surely’s backed up with electrical energy from an inside combustion engine. Ram is claiming a 4.4-second 0-60 mph time for the 1500 Ramcharger, which shall be rated at 663 hp and 615 lb-ft of torque. 

With a 92-kwh battery pack, the Ramcharger will go 145 miles on electric-only energy from the battery, then one other 545 miles with the gasoline engine operating a generator offering as much as 190 kw or 130 kw steady and functioning as a range-extender. 

To make the configuration abundantly clear: The Ramcharger engine received’t have any direct connection to the wheels. That process shall be dealt with by twin electrical motor methods—250 kw in entrance and 238 in again. Throughout driving the motors will optimize propulsion between entrance and rear, generally even simply utilizing one or the opposite, Ram mentioned. 

An EV with out vary anxiousness?

However, the Ram REV battery electrical truck stands for Ram Electrical Automobile, or Revolution. Whereas the 2025 Ram 1500 REV has 168-kwh commonplace vary or 229-kwh prolonged vary batteries, for as much as 500 miles of vary, the Ramcharger proprietor with a smaller battery “by no means worries about vary or towing,” argued Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis, who referred to as it the final word electrical truck. 

Throughout this range-extended mode after operating via many of the battery’s cost, the Ramcharger can obtain a further 545 miles on gasoline, via what Ram says is essentially the most environment friendly use of the entrance and rear motors, additionally balancing using the generator versus battery pack. It additionally incorporates a management logic to mix friction braking and regenerative braking.

“It’s not a PHEV. It capabilities as a pure battery electrical truck—all of the instantaneous torque, all the facility…however with out the draw back,” Kuniskis mentioned in a preview of the truck to the press.

Why aren’t there different plug-ins like this one?

There’s a draw back for collection hybrids: They’re not often an environment friendly choice on the freeway, and the numbers from Ram level to that very same challenge. 

Utilizing fast math, given the Ramcharger’s 27-gallon gasoline tank, it sees this truck getting about 20 mpg when operating in its range-extender mode. That’s significantly lower than the rankings of plenty of non-hybrid pickups—or the Ford F-150 Hybrid, which returns an EPA-rated 24 mpg.

For example, underwhelming freeway mileage with a collection hybrid system is the first purpose Honda clutches the engine in with the wheels with its two-mode hybrid system underneath low-load freeway situations, and it’s why GM opted so as to add a mechanical drive connection in its Voltec system for the Chevy Volt, and why the Nissan e-Energy hybrid system is perhaps completely different for the U.S. 

However exterior of the Fisker Karma and its Karma GS-6 descendent, such a system is unprecedented. None of those methods have used this configuration combining plug-in functionality and a quite giant battery. 

The format is absolutely as much as the identical towing and hauling of Ram’s ICE vehicles, although. Ram carried out the Davis Dam take a look at on the Ramcharger, and in a scenario like that it’s pulling energy from each the battery and generator. On a long-distance freeway journey after the primary cost is used, the truck is operating principally in what the corporate calls a charge-sustaining mode—that means the engine is operating repeatedly. Stellantis didn’t give an thought of what engine operation can be like at these hundreds. 

REV or Ramcharger: Speedy charging throughout

The Ramcharger can add as much as 50 miles of vary in about 10 minutes, with a peak of as much as 145 kw. The Ram REV can cost at as much as 350 kw. 

Drivers will get to decide on between Electrical+, E-Save, and Eco modes, with the previous saving the electrical for later and the latter prioritizing electrical propulsion and minimizing engine use. 

The Ram REV and Ramcharger use basically the identical STLA Body platform, with the battery and gasoline tank encapsulated throughout the gasoline rails—the battery pack underneath the passenger cell and the tank underneath the mattress. The 92-kwh battery pack makes use of an NMC (lithium-manganese-cobalt) lithium-ion chemistry, with 12 modules. 

The suspension is a short-long-arm setup in entrance and multi-link in again. A four-corner air suspension and adaptive damping methods are commonplace on STLA Body autos. The air suspension provides a decrease top for entry and exit plus an aero mode and two off-road modes. There are additionally 5 dynamic drive modes—auto, sport, tow, snow, and off-road—that tweak accelerator response, brake regen, suspension conduct, and steering. And an digital diff lock permits powering via a spread of situations confidently.

Ram hasn’t mentioned something about what number of Ram REV versus Ramcharger fashions it plans to construct, but it surely did trace that it sees the Ramcharger as a considerably extra restricted providing that’s for customers who take into consideration an EV however resolve in opposition to it for plenty of considerations. 

2025 Ram REV and Ramcharger tech

All these fashions load up with tech options. In higher trim ranges, these Ram vehicles supply a 14.5-inch touchscreen in the midst of the sprint, plus a ten.3-inch passenger display screen that solely the entrance passenger can see, together with an HDMI enter and mirroring for telephones or tablets. There’s additionally a 12.3-inch reconfigurable gauge show plus a full-color head-up show that wraps in automated emergency braking, lane screens, and different adaptive security. 

The Ramcharger and Ram REV provides a smartphone-based digital key system with an NFC-based sensible card for backup entry.

Glancing on the complete Ram lineup, which nonetheless features a huge array of gasoline fashions trying not that a lot not like the REV and Ramcharger, there’s every thing from fundamental Tradesman vehicles to the sporty Insurgent and the brand new top-of-the-line Tungsten mannequin. 

Ram didn’t ignore its different, non-electrified gasoline gentle vehicles. In these, it’s casting off the Hemi V-8s, providing as a substitute 3.0-liter twin-turbo in-line sixes—together with a 540-hp high-output model featured within the RHO efficiency model.

As Ram electrifies, a brand new look

Throughout the lineup, the Ram household will get an much more upright look in entrance, borrowed from the model’s heavy-duty vehicles, with even larger badging. Some fashions drop the metal bumper in favor of a refined, aerodynamically-savvy entrance fascia, and there’s additionally a near-flush mattress and cab for aerodynamics. Prime Tungsten fashions get a suede-wrapped headliner, heated-and-cooled 24-way quilted-leather therapeutic massage entrance seats, and 23-speaker sound. On high fashions, Stellantis will even roll out a brand new hands-free Driving Help function, with “Degree 2+” automated driving functionality. 

The Ramcharger may form up as an amazing companion for tenting and RV use. A 7.2-kw energy panel is sufficient to cost an entire campsite of equipment, and for towing, the truck additionally has a digital camera system to establish the ball of the trailer hitch and do all of the steering robotically—leaving the operation of the accelerator and brake to the motive force. 

Ram again in 2021 teased a truck referred to as the Vary Electrical Paradigm Breaker (REPB). Now it’s clear what the corporate was speaking about. What’s nonetheless unproven is whether or not that is really the beginning of a brand new plug-in paradigm.