We’ve seen electric pickups either enter production or getting ready to enter production from the likes of Ford and two brands under the GM umbrella, and now, according to an announcement made on Thursday by Ram, it’s getting in on the fun too with its Revolution concept.
The Ram Revolution — which looks almost suspiciously like the Hummer EV and the forthcoming Silverado EV — made its debut at CES in Las Vegas, and while the folks over at Stellantis are calling it a concept, it looks pretty production-ready to us, at least as far as renders go. That these renders look so fleshed out and not all CES-mobility-concept-zany shouldn’t be a surprise, given that this basic shape started getting teased to the public way back in 2021 at Stellantis’ EV Day event.
Ok, so other than the slightly derivative-looking shape, what do we know about it? Kind of a surprising amount which speaks further to the fact that it’s likely pretty close to the production Ram 1500 BEV pickup that’s supposed to debut as a 2024 model. We know, for example, that the concept is based on a new, modular body-on-frame platform for EVs called STLA, which slings the pack under the body and covers it with protective panels.
Ram says the battery pack is based on an 800-volt architecture and will fast charge at a claimed 350 kilowatts, though the actual pack capacity is left up to our imaginations. We’d expect it to be somewhere between capacious and massive, given the weight and power targets that this thing will be dealing with, if the Hummer EV is anything to judge by. We don’t have any power or torque figures, but Ram says there will be two drive units and all-wheel drive.
Speaking of size, this is a full-size truck, so it’s obviously big, and the renders show a roomy-looking passenger compartment with a big ol’ glass roof and, interestingly, no B-pillars. Ram also claims that the 1500 Revolution has a powered midgate that can be lowered and, along with a reconfigurable interior and a pass-through into the frunk, can carry items up to 18 feet long. That midgate also features jump seats, which act as a third row of seating for people you don’t especially like.
The rest of the interior is pretty concept-looking, with a weirdly-shaped steering wheel and highly stylized seats, but again, nothing here is especially implausible. Infotainment comes courtesy of a big center touchscreen, which isn’t a huge departure from the massive portrait-style screen in the current Ram 1500. The driver gets a screen too, and Ram says the screens offer 28 inches of touch-sensitive real estate in total. There’s a head-up display, too, so you don’t even have to look at the screen.
So, if a concept vehicle’s job is to show us the direction a company is heading in with its future models, this Ram 1500 Revolution is a pretty clear sign that an impossibly large, heavy, and powerful electric vehicle with a truck bed is rapidly coming down the Stellantis product pipeline, but the questions of whether it’s going to ultimately be a futile exercise and a waste of natural resources remain to be seen, but it’s not like Ram has any choice but to build one if it wants to keep up with the folks in Detroit and Dearborn.