RAM Joins The Cypertruck And The Ford F-150 Lightning EV Truck Party

U.S. truck maker RAM will join the EV truck party by 2024 with a 500-mile EV RAM 1500, it was revealed in Paris today.

Most of the RAM range will have a full battery electric (EV) option by 2025, though it will be 2030 before every single RAM model has an EV counterpart.

There will be a full ladder-on-frame EV architecture, too, just for use in heavy trucks like RAM, Dodge and even Jeep.

RAM has been questioned about why it was lagging behind in EV technology, with Tesla claiming the high ground with its controversial Cybertruck, followed by Ford’s F-150 Lightning announcement last month.

RAM’s parent company, Stellantis, claims new battery technology, including solid-state batteries by 2026, will allow it to recharge at 20 miles a minute.

Stellantis announced four new EV vehicle platforms at its EV conference today, and backed it up with a commitment to spend €30 billion ($35.54 billion) on EV hardware and software by 2025.

The 14-brand automaking giant expects more than 40% of its total sales in North America to be EVs by 2030, which will lag significantly behind the 70% EV target it has for Europe in the same timeframe.

CEO Carlos Tavares says the plan for Stellantis, whose most famous brands include Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Citroen, Jeep, Opel and Dodge, will see it end up with five battery plants, with more than 260gW of capacity, by 2030.

The four planned chassis architectures will cover small, efficient city cars, premium cars, all-wheel drive cars, muscle cars and heavy-duty trucks.

Each of the four platforms are planned to carry up to two million sales a year, with the STLA Small architecture boasting up to 500km of range, the premium STLA Medium architecture coping with up to 700km and both the STLA Large and the STLA Frame capable of up to 800km (500 miles) of range.

Stellantis will mix and match three electric drive modules (containing the e-motors, gearboxes and inverters in one casing) to create front-, rear- and all-wheel drive models.

All new EVs will accept over-the-air updates, while hardware upgrades are already planned to keep the platforms fresh “well into” the 2030s.

“Our electrification journey is quite possibly the most important brick to lay as we start to reveal the future of Stellantis just six months after its birth, and now the entire company is in full execution mode to exceed every customer’s expectations and accelerate our role in redefining the way the world moves,” Tavares told the Group’s EV day today.

“We have the scale, the skills, the spirit and the sustainability to achieve double-digit Adjusted Operating Income margins, lead the industry with benchmark efficiencies and deliver electrified vehicles that ignite passion.”

Created in a merger of Groupe PSA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in January, Stellantis controls the Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, Abarth, Fiat Professional and Fiat badges from Italy, Peugeot, Citroen and DS from France, Germany’s GM refugee Opel and Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and RAM from the US.

Meanwhile Opel, expunged from the GM fold in 2017, expects to be a fully electric brand by 2028, according to its CEO Michael Lohscheller.

The brand will also be introduced to China, with the charge lead by a retro coupe based on the popular 1970s model, the Opel Manta.