2025 Ramcharger Announced

[Maquis]

so in this truck there is only one propulsion system, the EV system. The V6 powers a generator and charges the battery.

Which means you get to maintain the primary components of two propulsion systems even though you only have one!

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[Hammick]

If the Ramcharger can get 100 miles of range at 80% SOC averaging 80mph it will be our next truck. It fast charges at about the same speed as the Lightning. Splitting time between Kansas City and Montana is hard with our Lightning.

Crazy that it takes a V6 Pentastar to run the generator. You would think a tiny 4 cylinder could do it.

 

[Joneii]

If the Ramcharger can get 100 miles of range at 80mph it will be our next truck. It charges at about the same speed as the Lightning. Splitting time between Kansas City and Montana is hard with our Lightning.

Crazy that it takes a V6 Pentastar to run the generator. You would think a tiny 4 cylinder could do it.

Ford has a patent for a range extender that goes into the bed like a tool box. That is a good solution so you can take it out when you aren’t using it. However, doing the math means it has to be quite powerful. If you are going 60 miles an hour and burning 2 kW/mile, that requires a 120 kWh generator to maintain a charge state. When towing you would be burning more, so slowly losing charge even with a massive generator. The near-term solution for most use cases is better charging infrastructure (the partnership with Tesla will help with this). The range extender can certainly fill a niche until that infrastructure is in place. Down the line better energy storage or generation systems may be available.

 

[Peddyr]

“I’ll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Mizzour-ah buy a Dodge!”

Same. Made that mistake twice already...won't do it again.

 

[Zprime29]

hmm, that's not necessarily true.

Power (kW) = Torque (N.m) x Speed (RPM) / 9.5488

So to get the power we need, we can either increase speed or torque.
Big engine = high torque = lower required speed to achieve XX power
Small engine = low torque = higher speed to achieve XX power
I'm greatly generalizing here, but that's how the math works out. As others pointed out, the electric drivetrain is going to need a lot of power so rather than make a noisy 4 banger, they opted for a lower revving v6.

 

[Toby57]

Power (kW) = Torque (N.m) x Speed (RPM) / 9.5488

So to get the power we need, we can either increase speed or torque.
Big engine = high torque = lower required speed to achieve XX power
Small engine = low torque = higher speed to achieve XX power
I'm greatly generalizing here, but that's how the math works out. As others pointed out, the electric drivetrain is going to need a lot of power so rather than make a noisy 4 banger, they opted for a lower revving v6.

Very well said. Plus that little V6 already in production. They did say the V6 turns a certain RPM. At that RPM must match HP and torque needed to turn generator under load.

 

[ThomasNC]

This truck is a neat idea but beyond that it is dumb. They basically built a lightning and but a 130kw generator under the hood. There is no way to do this in anyway that is economical. I predict we will see very very low production numbers for these. Lots of people talk about wanting a PHEV pickup truck but the truth is it doesn't make sense because you have to have the giant battery to actually meet the power requirements for the truck. Then pile on top of that how stupidly inefficient it is it will make way more sense to buy a gas Ram if you are into Rams. I do hope they surprise me and sell this for $70k. Even if they do that reliability is a huge question mark here as well. Get off my lawn.

 

[Shorevet]

Looks like Ram is going to be putting a v6/generator combo in addition to a 70 KW battery in the Ramcharger to get the range of gas and the performance of an EV. For most people i think this will do a wonderful job bridging the gap, depending on price and T3 might even make this loyal Ford customer consider a Ram.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a45734742/2025-ram-1500-ramcharger-revealed/

Sold my 2023 Lightning back to Ford when I had the chance. I travel from NJ to VA and SC. The lacking charging infrastructure down south and inability to tow anything killed the Lightning for me. Love the big pickups and the RAMCharger is something I Will seriously look at.

 

[Turbodonkey]

Just put in my reservation! I can deal with 145 miles daily.

 

[lancersrock]

This truck is a neat idea but beyond that it is dumb. They basically built a lightning and but a 130kw generator under the hood. There is no way to do this in anyway that is economical. I predict we will see very very low production numbers for these. Lots of people talk about wanting a PHEV pickup truck but the truth is it doesn't make sense because you have to have the giant battery to actually meet the power requirements for the truck. Then pile on top of that how stupidly inefficient it is it will make way more sense to buy a gas Ram if you are into Rams. I do hope they surprise me and sell this for $70k. Even if they do that reliability is a huge question mark here as well. Get off my lawn.

The efficiency of a motor running a generator is way more efficient than you think. The motor will only power a generator, nothing going to the wheels. I work with heavy duty trucks, the Cummins in them gets about 3-4 Mpg on the highway vs the EV model (130 KWh battery) with a diesel generator getting about 14-15 Mpg in the exact same truck without the battery being charged. This is the same setup the Ramcharger is going with. Locomotives also use similar tech and have for a long time.

A V6/generator is going to cost Ram maybe $4000 (pure guess), the additional battery capacity of the ER lighting already costs way more than that. There are plenty of cases where this will work, I drive 150 miles a day at 65-70 and 90% in the winter is really rough. I'm left with either DC fast charging or charging to 100% 3 nights a week. Yesterday I drove 210 miles starting at 100% and adding 25% along the way and made it to my destination with 15%. I was going 75 with the heat set at 68 and it being about 50 outside (usage meter said only 2% use because of this). This means in moderate weather my 320 mile advertised range (270 highway) at 75 wasn't even good for 210 miles, i love my truck but to the average person this is unacceptable, I shouldn't have to charge for 20 minutes to make a 3 hour drive with no load or anything else.

With this being a Ram my interest is substantially lower but I'm interested to see how it performs in real world testing. At this point it seems clear that no truck has figured out how to increase efficiency so we either try this or cram bigger batteries in them.

 

[ctuan13]

The efficiency of a motor running a generator is way more efficient than you think. The motor will only power a generator, nothing going to the wheels. I work with heavy duty trucks, the Cummins in them gets about 3-4 Mpg on the highway vs the EV model (130 KWh battery) with a diesel generator getting about 14-15 Mpg in the exact same truck without the battery being charged. This is the same setup the Ramcharger is going with. Locomotives also use similar tech and have for a long time.

A V6/generator is going to cost Ram maybe $4000 (pure guess), the additional battery capacity of the ER lighting already costs way more than that. There are plenty of cases where this will work, I drive 150 miles a day at 65-70 and 90% in the winter is really rough. I'm left with either DC fast charging or charging to 100% 3 nights a week. Yesterday I drove 210 miles starting at 100% and adding 25% along the way and made it to my destination with 15%. I was going 75 with the heat set at 68 and it being about 50 outside (usage meter said only 2% use because of this). This means in moderate weather my 320 mile advertised range (270 highway) at 75 wasn't even good for 210 miles, i love my truck but to the average person this is unacceptable, I shouldn't have to charge for 20 minutes to make a 3 hour drive with no load or anything else.

With this being a Ram my interest is substantially lower but I'm interested to see how it performs in real world testing. At this point it seems clear that no truck has figured out how to increase efficiency so we either try this or cram bigger batteries in them.

No I think the real solution is inventing an arc reactor and foregoing batteries entirely. After all, "Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!"

 

[Roy2001]

Power (kW) = Torque (N.m) x Speed (RPM) / 9.5488

So to get the power we need, we can either increase speed or torque.
Big engine = high torque = lower required speed to achieve XX power
Small engine = low torque = higher speed to achieve XX power
I'm greatly generalizing here, but that's how the math works out. As others pointed out, the electric drivetrain is going to need a lot of power so rather than make a noisy 4 banger, they opted for a lower revving v6.

V6 Turbo has higher MPG than V8.

 

[Zprime29]

V6 Turbo has higher MPG than V8.

Well I did say I was greatly generalizing, I suppose I could have stated that I'm ignoring forced induction as well. Since RAM chose not go with a turbo, I assumed they'd run the numbers and done some tests to determine that the v6 was a better fit. Too naïve? maybe...

 

[Bills R Electric]

Looks like Ram is going to be putting a v6/generator combo in addition to a 70 KW battery in the Ramcharger to get the range of gas and the performance of an EV. For most people i think this will do a wonderful job bridging the gap, depending on price and T3 might even make this loyal Ford customer consider a Ram.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a45734742/2025-ram-1500-ramcharger-revealed/

This will be interesting....and should garner buyers.

Not everyone is an EV geek, and just want a vehicle to do X. This will do X.

Now we wait for the price.....

 

[TexasEdition]

If the Ramcharger can get 100 miles of range at 80mph it will be our next truck. It charges at about the same speed as the Lightning. Splitting time between Kansas City and Montana is hard with our Lightning.

Crazy that it takes a V6 Pentastar to run the generator. You would think a tiny 4 cylinder could do it.

A tiny engine would not be manly enough for Ram customers.

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