2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger: Charge It Up

by Tim Healey

Published: November 7th, 2023

The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger brings back an old name, but this truck has some new tricks.

Although its biggest trick will sound familiar to students of one particular recent attempt to think of electrification in a new way.

The Ramcharger uses two electric-drive modules (EDMs), one at each axle, to get power to the ground. The front electric-drive module -- yes we know this sounds like a fancy way of saying "electric motor" -- makes 250 kilowatts and the rear 238. A 92-kilowatt-hour battery and a 130-kilowatt generator combine to bring the juice. Ram is touting a total system horsepower of 663 with 615 lb-ft of torque and a range of 690 miles.

The towing capacity is 14,000 pounds, with a payload of up to 2,625 pounds.

The Ramcharger rides on Stellantis' STLA Frame body-on-frame platform for large electric vehicles and it offers vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-home charging.

It also offers up something that caught our eye -- the generator is fueled by a 3.6-liter V6. Yes, an internal combustion engine.

It works like this -- the V6 produces mechanical power, the generator turns that into electric power, and that electric power either charges a depleted battery or goes right to the EDMs if the driver wants to save battery charge.

Or the EDMs can use generator power AND battery power for, uh, max power (apologies to Homer Simpson).

Sound familiar? Yes, the Ramcharger is basically an extended-range electric. There is apparently no mechanical connection between the V6 and the wheels.

The Pentastar V6 is changed so that the onboard generator can mount directly to it. A power inverter module connects to a junction box.

The battery pack mounts under the truck, allowing it to have a flat floor.

Ram says customers can gain 50 miles of range in 10 minutes via 400-volt DC fast charging at up to 145 kW.

The frame is widened in the middle to accommodate the battery pack, and Ramchargers will be visually distinct from gas 1500s, including different LED lighting front and rear. Still, there will be features available on the Ramcharger that come from the gas trucks. For example: An adjustable air suspension. Another example is Hands-free Highway Assist.

The charge port will offer Level 1 and 2 AC charging on the top and DC fast charging on the bottom.

Inside, the duds will include available features like Klipsch Reference Premiere audio, the latest version of UConnect infotainment, digital keys, and a 10.25-inch screen for passengers.

There will be an e-save drive mode and buttons that control the amount of regen, and the UConnect system will offer EV Pages that can show the driver a whole host of EV-related data.

Like with the ICE Ram, the Ramcharger will be available with the ultra-lux Tungsten trim.

Pricing and an on-sale date aren't currently known, but we bank on an early 2025 or late 2024 arrival.

[Images: Ram]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 69 comments

Vatchy on Nov 08, 2023

I'm still waiting for the first electric tail-dragger truck with it's headlights pointing at the sky.

Like Reply
ToolGuy on Nov 11, 2023

In which a long-time Mopar enthusiast suffers a meltdown... 😉

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Theflyersfan I used to love the 7-series. One of those aspirational luxury cars. And then I parked right next to one of the new ones just over the weekend. And that love went away. Honestly, if this is what the Chinese market thinks is luxury, let them have it. Because, and I'll be reserved here, this is one butt-ugly, mutha f'n, unholy trainwreck of a design. There has to be an excellent car under all of the grotesque and overdone bodywork. What were they thinking? Luxury is a feeling. It's the soft leather seats. It's the solid door thunk. It's groundbreaking engineering (that hopefully holds up.) It's a presence that oozes "I have arrived," not screaming "LOOK AT ME EVERYONE!!!" The latter is the yahoo who just won $1,000,000 off of a scratch-off and blows it on extra chrome and a dozen light bars on a new F150. It isn't six feet of screens, a dozen suspension settings that don't feel right, and no steering feel. It also isn't a design that is going to be so dated looking in five years that no one is going to want to touch it. Didn't BMW learn anything from the Bangle-butt backlash of 2002?
Theflyersfan Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, and Kia still don't seem to have a problem moving sedans off of the lot. I also see more than a few new 3-series, C-classes and A4s as well showing the Germans can sell the expensive ones. Sales might be down compared to 10-15 years ago, but hundreds of thousands of sales in the US alone isn't anything to sneeze at. What we've had is the thinning of the herd. The crap sedans have exited stage left. And GM has let the Malibu sit and rot on the vine for so long that this was bound to happen. And it bears repeating - auto trends go in cycles. Many times the cars purchased by the next generation aren't the ones their parents and grandparents bought. Who's to say that in 10 years, CUVs are going to be seen at that generation's minivans and no one wants to touch them? The Japanese and Koreans will welcome those buyers back to their full lineups while GM, Ford, and whatever remains of what was Chrysler/Dodge will be back in front of Congress pleading poverty.
Corey Lewis It's not competitive against others in the class, as my review discussed. https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cars/chevrolet/rental-review-the-2023-chevrolet-malibu-last-domestic-midsize-standing-44502760
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