Ram Reveals Electric Pickup Truck Concept at CES

LAS VEGAS--Stellantis' Ram Truck brand unveiled its first concept vehicle, the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept, at CES here today, setting the stage for its forthcoming portfolio of battery-powered vehicles. "Ram is here, we've arrived," Ram CEO Mike Koval said in an interview with PCMag. "You're going to see a steady drumbeat of Ram, EV, and tech news for the next year and a half."

Ram CEO Mike Koval presenting at CES.

The all-wheel-drive truck is built on the new STLA battery platform that will power Stellantis EVs going forward, and for which Stellantis is investing in solid state batteries. The final version, which will go into production in 2024, will not be identical to the concept vehicle but will have similar features and styling.

It will be offered at a range of prices and trims, to be announced in the coming months. Also yet to be announced: range. A press release says only that the concept vehicle "can add up to 100 miles of range in approximately 10 minutes with 800-volt DC fast charging at up to 350 kW."

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept interior

To create the Ram 1500, "we basically locked ourselves in a room with engineering and design and filled up boards with Post-it notes," Ralph Gilles, head of design for Stellantis-owned Fiat Chrysler, who oversaw concept development, told PCMag. "It's a design thinking project come to life."

The truck features a panoramic moonroof, a heads-up augmented reality windshield display, and a dual, 28-inch screen display. It also has a few EV-only features made possible by the extra space that would normally be taken up by an internal combustion engine.

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept seats on rails

"By getting rid of the internal combustion engine, we are able to reproportion how people sit in the car and add a bonus third row of seats," Gilles said. All the concept vehicle's interior seats are set on rails so customers can configure the spacing.

"We also made it so you can put an extremely long item, like a board or pole, all the way from the bed and through the dash into the very front to maximize space for that one item that just never seems to fit," Gilles said. The "passthrough," as it's called, is 18 feet long. Even when the driver is outside the vehicle, they stay connected to the car.

With the voice-activated Shadow Mode, the car will literally follow you, an option Stellantis says "can be useful in situations where the driver needs to move a short distance and doesn't want to get back in the truck, such as when picking up tools or equipment from a job site."

Also, the second, 14.2-inch dash screen is portable. "There are two screens that are adjustable and one is removable," Gilles said. "If you arrive somewhere and you already have all your work info pulled up" on that in-car screen, you can take it with you, like a tablet. The forthcoming production vehicle will compete with the usual suspects: Ford's F-150 Lightning EV pickup truck is already on the market, while GM is set to release the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV this spring. By the time Ram brings its 1500 EV pickup truck to market (likely in 2025), it'll be a few years behind its major automotive rivals.

"We've been chastised a bit for not being first to market, but [the concept vehicle] is proof that Ram is in the race," Koval said. "And we don't just want to follow the other guys.

We want to kind of chart our own course." Ram is banking on the EV's acceleration, tech-infused luxury interior, and superior handling to bring new customers into the fold. "The driving dynamics are unbelievable," Koval said. "When you appreciate the size and even the weight of a full-size pickup truck, especially when you put those big batteries in them, and you can spread zero to 60 in under three seconds... that's a 'wow' moment."

The big challenge for electric pickups is the reduced towing capacity, which Koval admitted is "the elephant in the room" since the core benefit of pickup trucks is the ability to haul items for personal or commercial purposes. "That's a challenge for all of us," he noted, referring to all EV pickup truck manufacturers.