Tuns out there still is a market that has some influence over what is (and is not) produced – based on what can (and cannot) be sold. Exit the Ram 1500 REV – the electric version of the Ram 1500 pick-up. It’s been cancelled before it got produced because Ram knows it won’t sell. Best to cut bait when there aren’t any fish. Best not to fish in the toilet, to put a finer point on it.
Just ask Ford.
It is said Ford loses about $30,000 on the “sale” of each F-150 Lightning (some estimates are much higher) and the only good news – for Ford – is that not many Lightnings have been sold this year. Or ever. So far this year, Ford has offloaded – a better term than sold – 8,927 Lightnings. Since 2022 – when the electric F-150 was first put on sale – about 80,000 of them have been offloaded. Meanwhile Ford sells around half-a-million engined F-trucks annually; as in makes money on the deal. These sales offset the losses incurred by the Lightning, which amount to many millions. Ford can afford to absorb the losses only because it is still making money selling the F-150.
Ram, on the other hand, is dealing with a double whammy. When upper management (Stellantis, then headed by Carlos Tavares) decided backin 2023 to replace the Hemi V8 that had been the Ram 1500’s optional engine with a turbo-inline six, it lost a lot of sales. In 2023 – the last year the Ram was available with a V8 – 223,049 trucks were sold. In 2024 – which was the first year for the new turbo-inline six – sales were down to 179,526. That’s a loss just shy of 20 percent in one year and the only difference between a 2023 Ram 1500 and a 2024 Ram 1500 is that the ’24 no longer offered a V8.
Losing 20 percent of your sales is not a small thing. Among other things, it leaves less cushion for absorbing losses associated with trying to offload electric vehicles for which there is not much market.
Trucks are an especially tough market for “electrification,” as it is styled because people who buy trucks generally expect them to work. Sitting at a Sheetz waiting for a charge is time spent not working. Ford touted the immense towing capability of the electric F-150. But what good is being able to pull a heavy trailer if you can’t pull it very far? (I personally tested a Lightning’s towing performance; it had no trouble pulling a trailer I’d loaded up with another car. The problem was that pulling the trailer cut the Ford’s towing range in half, to less than 150 miles.)
Similarly, Ram touted a “500 mile” driving range for the RAM REV (it’s interesting, as an aside, that EV manufacturers appropriate terms associated with engine’d vehicles – such as revving – which is an admission of the appeal that battery powered vehicles lack) that was one of those your-mileage-may-vary things. In that it would vary considerably if you used the RAM REV to pull a trailer. The same’s true, of course, if you hook up a heavy trailer to a truck with an engine. But the difference is the truck can be fully refueled almost anywhere – because there are gas stations almost everywhere – and in about five minutes or less.
Very few people – and even fewer people who buy trucks – want to sit for five times as long as that to recover a partial charge.
So – no surprise – the “electrified” Ram 1500 REV isn’t going to see the light of day. Put another way, Ram (Stellantis) isn’t going to waste its time trying to sell what the market does not want. Interestingly, the official release announcing the cutting-of-bait did not quite put it that way:
“In response to customer feedback, and rapidly slowing industry demand for full-size BEV pickups, the brand is discontinuing development of the battery electric Ram 1500 (formally known as the Ram 1500 Rev).”
Come again?
The “industry” never demanded battery powered vehicles. The government did, via regulations that pretty much forced the industry to “develop” them – and try to sell them regardless of market demand. More accurately, contra market demand. Bad enough that the government pushes things onto the market for which there’s little demand. Far more obnoxious is the pushing off the market of things for which there is demand. It is one thing for a vehicle manufacturer to have to “develop” an EV that people (not enough people to make it worth “developing”) want to buy. That’s like pushing McDonald’s to add a sandwich few want to its menu.
What the government has been doing is pushing McDonald’s – the car industry – to take off the menu the sandwiches that sell. The best example being the discontinuation of the Dodge Charger and Challenger that people loved and the forced attempt to sell them a device that has to be charged up. This has almost discontinued Dodge – and may still end up doing that. Ditto Chrysler, which has been left without anything to sell that the market wants – except for a minivan – since 2023.
And yet (say it like Ricardo Montalban) Ram – Stellantis – still plans to brig forth a monstrous half-breed device called the RamCharger next year (note again the appropriation of a term affectionately associated with engine’d vehicles; some will remember) that does have an engine – just not connected to anything, except batteries. It runs to charge them up so that electric motors can be used to actually turn the wheels. The sell is you don’t have to plan your drive around the wait because you can just stop for gas to keep the engine/generator running. Of course, you’re not supposed to do that. It’s supposed to be plugged in, with the engine (and gas tank) there for back-up only.
It is almost literally an incarnation of the generated image of a Tesla dragging a “range extender” behind it. The difference being the RamCharger’s generator is carried internally.
Does Stellantis believe there is a “market” for such a thing?
Are some people still wearing masks?
Yes – to both questions.
. . .
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It IS Coming! (MOAR EeeVee Scooters)
‘Honda is dipping into the electric motorcycle segment. They have introduced the WN-7, which they will begin to produce in late 2025. Expect to be able to actually purchase one in early 2026.
‘This is only, of course, if you live in Europe – there’s no word on when or if Honda will make the WN-7 available to the rest of the world. If it’s a roaring success [sic, LOL], everyone else will no doubt see it soon after Europe.
‘The good news is, it’s CCS2 compatible, which means you can plug it in at car charging stations, and it claims an 80% charge in … “only” [sic] 30 minutes. If you opt for an at-home charger, that will take four hours instead.’
https://www.advrider.com/the-electric-wn-7-honda-releases-some-deets/
Ever heard of the LiveWire, Honda? Goofballs!
Imagine fierce Bundeswehr soldiers, carrying out daring
motorcyclescooter commando raids against dug-in Russian lines, with shotgun holsters on the front fork.Victory in Ukraine! 🙂
And the EeeVee brain damage just keeps on coming:
‘It seems like a terrible time to build an electric vehicle plant in the United States, but Rivian Automotive leaders say they’re confident as the company starts long-delayed work on a $5 billion facility in Georgia.
‘The money-losing California-based company broke ground Tuesday east of Atlanta despite President Donald Trump’s successful push to roll back electric vehicle tax credits. Starting Sept. 30, buyers will no longer qualify for savings of up to $7,500 per car.
‘CEO RJ Scaringe said Tuesday that Rivian will sell its R2 sport utility vehicles not for environmental or tax incentive reasons, but because it’s a superior vehicle. The description I’ll say for R2 is it isn’t an electric vehicle. I describe R2 as an incredible five-passenger offroad machine. And it happens to be electric.’
https://apnews.com/article/rivian-electric-vehicles-georgia-plant-tesla-a4678f82d9ed276af0a4b0c1050de573
Just as in neighboring South Carolina with its $2 billion white-elephant Scout Motors plant, Georgia’s idiot RINO socialist governor is putting taxpayers on the hook:
‘Georgia has pledged $1.5 billion of incentives to Rivian in exchange for 7,500 company jobs paying at least $56,000 a year on average. Rivian can’t benefit from most incentives unless it meets employment goals, but the state is already spending $175 million to buy and grade land and improve roads.
‘Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, says he wants to make Georgia “the electric
mobilitybovinity capital of America,” but acknowledged Tuesday that “the road to get here has not been smooth.” He voiced confidence that Rivian can deliver “an innovation revolution” benefitting Georgians.’Why should Georgians ‘invest’ in stupid electric cars? Down with state industry!
“Very few people – and even fewer people who buy trucks – want to sit for five times as long as that to recover a partial charge.” – Eric
Time is money. Work trucks taking long breaks to “refuel” is a dead bang loser.
I’ve also noted over the years, if you see an old beat up work truck it’s likely to be a 1-ton Ram dually. They look like a battered wife that just won’t leave their husband. EVs are nothing but soy-boy posers. Pete Buttgigger’s husband would drive one.
Amen, Mark!
A good friend of mine owns a roofing business and several trucks. An EV truck that forces him to not work – or leaves his crews not working – is pointless, irrespective of its supposed capabilities.
Persuading people who like/need trucks to buy one of these frail devices instead is like trying to get blood from a turnip. Except, as usual, the blood, or the turnip doesn’t belong to those doing the squeezing. But on the bright side if you don’t want to get cooked by your Tesla while it charges, you can go inside Carls Jr, in Kingman Arizona and take a nap next to the homeless camped on the floor.
As to your question about masks, yes, I actually saw a couple of old faggots wearing them on a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon recently. I can’t begin to fathom the amount of mental illness required for that. As it doesn’t matter where you sit on the boat, you’re getting soaked from head to toe, less than two minutes in. Just glad they weren’t on my raft or I would have demanded a refund.
Woe be to the buyers of those Ram Turbo 6 trucks. I imagine trade-in value was already lower than a Hemi only a year older. Now add another “woe” to plummeting trade-in value with the re-introduction of the Hemi V8. Gonna stick with my ’12 Ram 2500 5.7, with 60,000 miles, and a lot less driver “assistance.”
Would this setup be good for towing? You even said the lightning was good at towing, just that it can’t do it long. Is the instant torque enough to be worthwhile?
Or is it just too complex and expensive to make it worthwhile over a gas or diesel engine on its own?
Hi Rich,
If you don’t need to tow far, sure! And don’t mind the wait. Last time I tried to tow with one of these things, I found the realistic range was about 150 miles. Then you’d need to find a place to stop/charge, which can be a challenge and is always a long (30 minutes at least) wait. If that works for you, then sure. But why bother when you can just buy the gas/diesel and tow three times as far and wait a lot less long?
Was asking about the RAM with the supplemental engine, not the all electric Lightning.
More moving parts, more weight, more expense, all in a disposable/not economically repairable package. At least the Soviet communists put things like the Trabant and Yugo on the market.
The internal sabotage done by university training, by bean counters and PhD “engineers”, and especially by the Tommy Boy/bong water for brains business majors, is insurmountable. It took 70 years of actual progress to make the auto industry the great free market edifice it was, it took 50 years to destroy that so that it can’t be saved.
‘Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.’ — old saying
Burn, baby, burn.
https://fireisolator.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cars-burning.jpg
‘Ram is renaming its REEV-powered pickup to Ram 1500 REV (formerly Ramcharger).’ — Stellantis press release
Well, that’s clear as mud. Until one realizes that the REV’s now-defunct, battery-only stablemate was to be called the BEV. Only silver-haired Boomers would have gotten the Leave It To Beaver TeeVee show reference, in which older brother Wally called his photogenic kid brother ‘the Beav.’
REEV at least intelligibly stood for Range-Extended Electric Vehicle. Not that anyone but gay tranny Jalopnik stenographers ever learned the acronym. But what in fresh hell does REV stand for? ‘Rangey Electric Vehicle’? The engine-derived word ‘Rev,’ as Eric plausibly claims? (Vroom, vroom!) We may never know. 🙁
My theory is that REV means a ‘reaver’ — a pillager who takes things by force. Stellantis is taking a sly dig at Uncle Freaking Sam, who has plundered Stellantis to the tune of hundreds of millions for arcane ’emissions’ offenses.
All beside the point, though. As Ram quick-marches to the automotive graveyard, it’s going to need a Rev (Reverend) to inter it. Then all of us get to throw in our little clods of dirt, struggling (as Bill Clinton did at Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown’s funeral in 1996) not to burst out laughing.
Your McDonalds analogy is pretty good. Imagine if the anti-beef crowd decreed that McDs would be required to phase out beef patties and replace them with Filet-o-fish instead -not chicken, fish and only fish. One of two possible outcomes would happen. Either people would quit going to McDonalds, or there’d be an extension level event on edible fish populations. The meat is murder crowd wouldn’t care either way because they’re already not eating Big Macs. Maybe they’re hoping McDonalds would go out of business anyway, having profited from animals. But McDonalds wouldn’t go down without a fight, and between the overfishing by Chinese fishing and the new McDonald’s fleet I imagine Alaskan pollock might become a delicacy.
Look at the amount of lithium that goes into battery cars. Now imagine if every car, truck, semi tractor, school bus, train, airplane, boat… any form of transportation, were battery powered. There’s not enough lithium in the crust to cover it all, and that’s the best stuff we have… so now you have to go down the periodic table to less energetic elements like sulfur, which means more weight, more mass, less room for whatever you’re transporting.
Hi RK:
The Manhattan Institute did a study on that which confirms what you’re saying. Another study showed that just going all in on EVs in the UK would use up the entire world’s production of various rare and other elements for an entire year or more. Sadly this is never talked about by the EV pushers.
“Sadly this is never talked about by the EV pushers.” — most of them, various liberal arts or creative finance types, have zero background in STEM disciplines. For them electricity is generated in the wall outlet.
The country is full of useful idiots paid by fiat money
I envision that horrid ethanol gas sitting in a mask wearer’s tank just solidifying after a few months then totally “F-ing up the program” when he goes to use that feature lol
That is another thing that the pushers of these ridiculous vehicles never say. You can’t let the gas sit in the tank for month with ethanol. You will have to use it so it doesn’t cause problems.
All true, but I keep forgetting that the movie Idiocracy was meant to be a comedy and not a documentary when I read about the RamCharger. Somehow I expect the Ramcharger to flop also as it will be very expensive in a time when cheap sells better.
This is an important point especially given “cheap” ain’t exactly cheap anymore.
RamCharger might well be RubeGoldberg. Honestly I can’t think of a use case for where there’s any advantage. Maybe pretend it’s a diesel electric locomotive.
Oh, the camel case naming is for software dweebs & engineers. Not the public at large.
Hi MH
Rube Goldberg was a gifted inventor and artist. The RamCharger failed of course because it failed to follow his logic.