Much like the Ford F-150 Lightning and upcoming Chevrolet Silverado EV, a future Ram electric truck won’t be limited to a few models.
According to Ram CEO Mike Koval, in an interview ahead of Thursday’s unveiling of the Ram 1500 Revolution Concept at CES, there’s likely to be a wide range of all-electric Ram trucks, including work truck models and high-performance TRX off-road versions.
“I firmly believe that we can walk and chew gum,” Koval said. “This is an addition to our existing portfolio and I expect that when we launch in 2024 the lineup will be very similar to today’s lineup in terms of construction.”
“We’ll have something for everyone from the entry-level or what we call the Tradesmen, which is decidedly work-oriented, to our Longhorn and Limited premium models, to the off-road king of the hills, the TRX,” he said “And the EDMs (electric propulsion modules) that we’re developing for this are protected for higher power applications, so I think you’re going to see a very similar go-to-market strategy.”
Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept
We asked Koval why the concept is so closely aligned with the full-size petrol Ram models and why it’s not a smaller mid-size truck. He said that with full-size light trucks accounting for more than 60% of the brand’s sales volume, this is the natural positioning of the electric vehicle as “the evolution of the full-size, body-on-frame truck – our bread and butter.”
“I am fully aware that the biggest whitespace opportunity for our brand on a global basis is mid-size pickups,” he added. “Well, we don’t have anything to announce today, but we’re looking at everything, and it’s our job to work out all these different options, and we can rest assured that we’re doing that.”
Nor would Koval check to see if there are other all-electric Ram models on the way. Examples could be a truck on the STLA Large platform that will underpin the upcoming Dodge electric muscle car, or a Suburban-like SUV on the STLA Frame architecture of the Ram 1500 Revolution.
“I think that’s the beauty of announcing our architecture strategy and its flexibility,” Koval said. “In my view, the options are limitless and anything we can do to improve our business model around the globe, not just in North America, we will definitely look at it.”
Ram 1500 Revolution BEV concept
The Ram concept is “a visionary roadmap for where we’re taking the brand going forward,” said Koval. “And everything that our customers and fans see for the brand in the future will somewhere be a descendant of this concept vehicle and what we are unveiling at CES.”
One of those future Ram models will also likely be a plug-in hybrid truck, which could excel at real-world towing — one of many benefits Ram hopes to claim with electrified trucks in the near future.
