July 8th may not be a particularly notable day for you, but for the folks over at Stellantis, it’s EV Day — the day when the multinational automaker reveals how it plans on joining the electric vehicle revolution set to take place in the near future. Dodge is going into electric muscle cars, but it’s not the only brand with a new electric vehicle on the way; Ram has promised “a full portfolio of Ram eTechnology” moving forward. And the centerpiece of that transition will be a battery-electric Ram 1500 pickup that will arrive in 2024.
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Ram provided scant details of what its battery-electric pickup will look like, only noting that the new EV truck will “push past what competitors have announced.” The body-on-frame EV platform that should underpin the new Ram pickup will have a range of up to 500 miles, though that will likely be an expensive, top-spec version.
Ram says it will have a “fully electrified solution” for most of its vehicles by 2025 and an EV in every segment no later than 2030. Note that this isn’t a commitment by Ram only to sell hybrids and electrics.
It would be surprising if Ram didn’t have electric and electrified pickups in the works. Having them will be a competitive necessity. Ford has an excellent hybrid F-150 at dealers already and gave us a ride in a prototype for the new all-electric F-150 Lightning, which has more than 100,000 reservations. GM has already unveiled the Hummer EV SUT and promised an electric edition of the Silverado. The new Tundra has teased what should be a hybrid powertrain. The electric Rivian R1T and Tesla Cybertruck are due to arrive soon as well. Those developments, meanwhile, are all happening in the wake of Ram unleashing the 700-plus horsepower TRX and its cartoonishly bad fuel economy.
Ram may end up being last to the party on electric pickups. However, as Ram proved with the sublime Ram 1500 internal combustion pickup, being last doesn’t really matter, provided you do it well.