Ram’s long-awaited rival to the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1-T is still at least a year away from showrooms, but judging by the Ram Revolution 1500 BEV Concept unveiled today, it might just be worth the wait.
Stellantis’ toughest brand pulled back the covers on its pickup EV at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, and it’s not only the rig’s electric drivetrain that makes that venue appropriate. Because the Revolution is loaded with gadgets features including steering wheel-mounted displays, a removable dashboard display and autonomous capabilities that allow the truck to roll behind you as you walk across your work site.
Ram has left some major blanks in the published drivetrain specification, saying only that the Revolution rides on the new Stellantis STLA Frame platform, has all-wheel drive courtesy of a bi-motor setup, multi-height air suspension and four-wheel steering with 15 degrees of rear-wheel articulation.
It also tells us that its 800-volt architecture can charge at up to 350 kW, enabling the Revolution to add 100 miles (161 km) of range in just 10 minutes, while an available inductive robot charger designed for home use will move itself into position automatically to top the battery up (at a slower rate). We also know from earlier Stellantis presentations that trucks built on the STLA Frame platform should have a driving range of up to 500 miles (800 km).
Related: Ram Thinks It Can Take Advantage Of Being Late To The Electric Pickup Game
But power figures? Nothing yet. We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out exactly how many horses are under the skin of next year’s production model, but we do at least now have a good idea what that truck will look like.
Previous teasers had tipped us off about the tuning fork-shape LED headlight motif, the illuminated badge and strong fender creases, but the full exterior images reveal a truck with a much sportier, and less blocky shape than its Ford and Rivian rivals deliver. The pinched waist, rising windowline and angled C-pillar combine with the flared front and rear arches to make the Revolution a genuinely athletic-looking truck – like a Chevy Silverado EV after a month on a keto diet – though some of us here wonder whether it’s square-jawed enough to suit American tastes.
Whatever you think of the shape, it certainly has some neat modern details, including flush-fit door handles and wheel center caps whose Ram name stays level at all times, just like the double-R logo on a Rolls-Royce’s rims. But more importantly, Ram says that the compact electric motors allowed its designers to shift the cabin forward and increase it by 4-in (102 mm) compared with today’s combustion trucks, while retaining the same bed length.
Six seats and space to carry 18-ft loads
That extra space, plus the rear suicide doors and absence of B-pillar, will help make the Ram’s interior feel roomier when you climb in and out, and if you need even more people carrying there are two jump seats fitted to the powered mid-gate (the fold-down rear firewall that separates the bed from the cabin). Don’t need the extra seats? Drop the mid-gate and you can pass items right through from the rear to the frunk, meaning skinny objects up to 18-ft (5.5 m) can be carried with the tailgate closed.
A “Ram Track” rail system is fitted right the way through the Revolution to provide anchoring points and flexible loading, and the console can turn into a workstation, further underlining the truck’s practical nature. The lower of the two 14.2-in infotainment screens can be detached and used as a tablet, which sounds like a great idea unless you have kids who are bound to run off with it. That screen, which allows you to control functions in your house, can also be combined with its sister display to create one huge viewing area, and if that’s still not big enough, the Revolution’s exterior projectors can be used to set up an impromptu 1950s-style drive-in movie theater.
Level 3 autonomy, Level 99 connectivity
But there’s nothing retro about the Ram’s augmented reality head-up display or the voice-activated virtual assistant that will obey spoken commands to open and close windows or even trot along behind you in Shadow Mode. This feature is bundled in with the Ram’s Level 3 autonomous package and uses information from sensors and cameras to allow the truck to follow a walking driver at a safe distance. Don’t know about you, but we reckon we’d feel a little uneasy about a circa-6,500 lbs (2,950 kg), 6.5-ft (2 m) wide pickup creeping along behind us with nobody at the wheel.
Though the Revolution as seen at CES is only a concept, it’s a thinly-disguised version of the 2025 production truck and there’s a good chance that much of the tech seen here will make the cut, or at least make the options list. We’ll know for sure when Ram reveals the full production Revolution in 2024 with a starting price likely to closely match the $55,975 jumping off point for its Ford F-150 Lightning rival.
Would you hold off buying an F-150 Lightning, Chevy Silverado EV or Rivian to get a Ram Revolution based on what you’ve seen here? Leave a comment below and let us know whether you think it will be worth waiting for.
