Ram Is Bringing Back Its V8 Engines as a ‘Symbol of Protest’

The people have spoken.The Ram truck brand discontinued its signature Hemi V8 engine-powered light duty trucks this year as it started down the road toward building more efficient vehicles, but not all of its customers were coming along for the ride.Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis said that many of the brand’s 3.6 million loyal V8 truck owners had decided that they would not buy another Ram, even though its new turbocharged six-cylinder engines were more powerful and efficient than the V8s.“They hate the fact that we took away the freedom of choice,” he said during an event held to announce that the V8 engines were returning for the 2026 model year.Mr. Kuniskis is also a returnee to the brand. He retired last May but came back in December after Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Ram’s parent company Stellantis, left the company.Mr. Tavares had been pushing all of the Stellantis brands to accelerate the transition to electrification, despite cooling market trends. His departure, coupled with the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back regulations pushing electric vehicles, opened the door to reviving the popular V8 engine option.The fast-tracked project took six months to complete. Ram. The project was fast-tracked and completed in just six months, rather than the 18 months that was expected. The engine is the same 395 hp mild hybrid 5.7-liter V8 that was last available in 2024 but will come with a louder standard exhaust system when it hits showrooms this summer.Ram has priced it $1,200 more than the 420 hp turbocharged six-cylinder engine that was meant to replace it. Mr. Kuniskis said fans will be happy to pay the premium and he expects it to account for 25% to 40% of sales, while many will still opt for the turbocharged engine for more practical reasons.“We know that a lot of them are going to buy it because they love the idea of a V8, they love the instantaneous torque and they love the sound,” he said.Ram has also designed a new logo for the V8-powered trucks that features a ram’s head with the body of a V8 engine that it calls the “Symbol of Protest.” It is a tip of the hat to the customers who forced the company’s hand to bring the engine back and ambiguously celebrates a win against the powers that be. T-shirts and other merchandise featuring the design are already on sale.However, Mr. Kuniskis said the decision to bring back the V8s was not meant to be a political statement. The company has a capped capacity to manufacture trucks at its factory in Serling Heights, Mich., so building the more profitable ones that the customers are asking for makes more sense than going electric right now.The V8-powered trucks will feature a ‘Symbol of Protest’ badge. Ram“Strictly a business decision based on market demand,” he said.A plug-in hybrid Ram 1500 Ramcharger and all-electric Ram 1500 REV had been scheduled to go on sale this year, but have been delayed until 2026 and 2027, at the earliest.Mr. Kuniskis insists it still plans to sell them at some point, but that being late to the electric truck segment offered Ram “the luxury of timing” and allowed it to see that the level of demand wasn’t there to justify launching the trucks before making major investments to do so, as Ford and General Motors had already committed to before rolling back sales projections.“We have to get there,” he said. “The regulations are not gone, compliance is not gone, I mean they’re making changes to it, but there is still compliance that has to be achieved.”

Ram Is Bringing Back Its V8 Engines as a ‘Symbol of Protest’

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