In recent years, we’ve noticed an annoying trend. Automakers have developed a bad habit of revealing new models they don’t intend to have on sale for a long time. In some cases, it takes more than a year from the moment a vehicle is revealed until it actually hits the market. To make matters worse, some of those vehicles end up being delayed. Such is the case with a couple of products from Stellantis.
The fully electric Ram 1500 REV premiered in February 2023, but even though it's November 2024, deliveries have yet to start. We can say the same about the Ramcharger, an electric truck with a range-extending V-6 gasoline engine. It premiered in November 2023, and although a year has passed, you still can’t drive one home. Both pickups were supposed to hit the market before the end of this year. They’ve now been pushed back to the first half of 2025.
During a call with reporters, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said the automotive conglomerate has a lot on its plate and needs to shuffle things around: “We are just facing a very significant amount of workload, and we want to be very prudent in the way we validate the products, so we take our time. We are managing the peak between the products that we have ahead of us.”
Ram could certainly use some fresh vehicles given the lackluster sales this year. Through September, deliveries plummeted by a whopping 24% in the United States. But even Tavares admits these electric trucks are unlikely to move the needle given the lukewarm adoption of EVs in the US: “Not to say we expect to have a very strong demand, because we see the market is not reacting very fast.”
The problem with the 1500 isn’t just the delayed rollout of the REV and Ramcharger. There are quality issues with the conventionally powered truck as well. In July 2024, Stellantis’ head honcho admitted too many brand-new pickups needed repairs right after leaving the assembly line at the Sterling Heights factory in Michigan.
Only the current-generation model is available after Ram ended production of the 1500 Classic at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant last month, marking the end of the Hemi V-8 in the 1500.
Source: Bloomberg
