Electric Ram 1500 Truck Takes Fight to Ford, Chevy, Tesla With Third Row, Wild Features
Damn, is that a Ram? It is. Ram promised its first all-electric truck would be eye-popping and extreme with looks, features, and specs so bold it might make you forget it won't hit the market until 2024, well after most of the competition. And at CES 2023, it has delivered an eyeful.
For more than a year, Ram executives have talked smack about how the 2024 Ram 1500 Revolution electric full-size pickup will beat the rest of the field, having had a good long look at what others have to offer and how consumers respond. The GMC Hummer EV, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Rivian R1T have the biggest head starts, as they are already available. General Motors will launch the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV work truck this spring and add the GMC Sierra EV in 2024. Tesla might even get its years-delayed Cybertruck to customers before the Ram hits showrooms.
Ram brand CEO Mike Koval Jr. has spent the past year saying Ram will use its come-from-behind status to top the field in all the key areas that matter to buyers: towing and payload, range, and charge time. His team has also traveled the country on the yearlong Real Talk Tour seeking suggestions and feedback as the concept took shape.
Crucial Concept For Ram
Finally, Ram is giving the world its first look at what it has been bragging about: the Ram 1500 Revolution battery electric vehicle concept now on display at CES 2023 in Las Vegas.
It's still just a concept, but the real deal will break cover in a few months. The design of the production model has been locked in and keeps a lot of what the concept is showcasing. And the name is also a takeoff: The concept is Revolution, the production truck will be called Rev.
This is the roadmap to Ram's future and its mission to redefine the pickup segment, Koval says. "Everything you see from now on will be a direct descendant of this."
Does it live up to the hype? After all, Ram has been a recent three-time MotorTrend Truck of the Year with its combustion-engine pickups.
Introducing 'Brutiful Design'
Everyone from Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares down has promised a dramatic and sleek look to differentiate the electric pickup from the conventional truck lineup. "It will open up a lot of eyeballs," Koval says. Ram was not going to follow the more conservative approaches by Ford—which modified and electrified the existing F-150—and GM, which created all-new trucks from the ground up but kept the overall styling somewhat conservative and familial to the ICE versions to not spook loyal truck buyers.
Ram went full out, balls to the wall, modern, edgy, brutish. Not as far out there as the Tesla Cybertruck, but they might have exited the same styling ramp.
The future of Ram trucks is ultra-modern, and designers went for a look both brutal and beautiful—or as head of design Ralph Gilles calls it, "brutiful." The body retains Ram DNA with fender flares and an accentuated Coke bottle shape, exterior designer Mark Trostle says. The face of the truck is animated and has new RAM badging and an LED "tuning fork" headlight design. LED lights have also been integrated into the front bumper flares. The fascia has a skidplate and pivoting tow hooks that can sit flush. The LED taillights are also fully animated.
Koval calls it a heroic design that will change hearts and minds when it comes to pickup trucks, especially as it will also offer "white-knuckle acceleration and extraordinary efficiency."
Crew Cab Only
The whole cabin was shifted forward, and it's 4.0 inches longer than today's 1500s, while the bed length remains the same. The roof height is lower, likely for better aerodynamics. It comes only as a crew cab—that's the preferred configuration of 80-90 percent of buyers, Koval says.
And check out those doors. Removing the B-pillars allows for a grand saloon-style opening of the clamshell doors into a cavernous cab. But don't get too excited; it's structurally feasible, but there will be conventional doors on the production model. (Gilles hinted that the yawning doors were chosen to help show off the show truck's cabin more than anything else.) We are more intrigued by the flush door handles, which do not pop out. Touch them, and the door itself opens a few inches, and the grab handle is on the end of the door. Also built into the ends of the door are removable speakers, portable battery chargers, and storage compartments that can be heated or cooled or can store straps or house a first aid kit.
The cabin can be configured into usable workspace with a removable center console. Or slide the center armrests over to serve as a fold-flat work surface for driver or passenger.
Return Of The Jump Seat, Adding Third-Row Seating
A new twist: the introduction of third-row seats in a pickup. In this case, they are jump seats. Like GM's electric trucks, the Revolution has a powered midgate with a rear window that retracts and folds into the cabin.
