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You, I, and everybody else who cares about pickups have waited long enough for the electric Ram 1500 Revolution, don’t you think? We’ve already seen the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV, and heck, we’ve even driven the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T. Ram is making things right—well, almost—by debuting a concept version of the battery-powered truck at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The good news is, it looks promising with blade-sharp styling, four-wheel steering, and innovative hauling solutions like a legit midgate.
Since this is a concept instead of the real-deal production model, we don’t have any power numbers to cling to. Even still, Ram says the Revolution Concept uses a pair of electric motors and boasts all-wheel-drive capability. That places it more in line with the F-150 Lightning and Silverado EV than the tri-motor GMC Hummer EV or quad-motor Rivian. That’s what I and pretty much everyone else suspected, though the Ram is way over the top compared to the Ford, at least in the spec we see here.
It’s doubtful we’ll see such an extreme-looking electric Ram on the road, though Stellantis Chief Design Officer Ralph Gilles tells me the front fascia is super close to its final form. The low-slung roof was one detail he highlighted, partially for its aerodynamic benefit and also for its cool factor. Regardless, we ought to see it in true production spec soon, as both Gilles and Ram CEO Mike Koval Jr. promised me it’ll be revealed “as soon as a couple of months” from now.
The Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept is built atop the STLA Frame platform, which stuffs a structural battery pack inside the traditional body-on-frame truck construction. Independent rear suspension with air assist is sure to give it a cushy ride, building on the coil-spring setup Ram has long used in its half-ton pickups. As such, it’s not a huge departure from the Ram trucks we already know in those ways.
Where it is different, though, is in the gadget department. There’s no B-pillar on this show model, which is admittedly common for concepts so you can see the gizmos inside that much better. Look past that and you’ll find a removable lower display on the dash that Ram says can be used as a tablet, truck bed workstation, or even a video game controller. Combined with the upper unit, there’s more than 28 inches of screen real estate in this puppy.
Look toward the back of the cab and you’ll see the rearmost glass panel actually drops down to act as a midgate, something the Silverado EV also features. This is all part of a complex storage system Ram has worked out for the Revolution BEV Concept, which also includes a barn-door bed extender and a pass-thru frunk cubby. Together, this allows you to carry items up to 18 feet long inside the truck without a trailer or a bed rack. Pretty nifty!
Oh, and it also has third-row jumpseats like you’d find in a truck from yesteryear. Don’t bet on those making it to production.
Other flashy-but-useful party tricks include four-wheel steering, which allows the rear wheels to turn up to 15 degrees for better maneuverability. New truck buyers will take what they can get in that department as pickups seem to grow by the year, making parking lots a lot less friendly than they once were. There’s also what Ram is calling Shadow Mode, in which the truck will use its suite of cameras and sensors to follow the owner closely as they walk outside the truck. This would come in handy when exiting a tight spot, to be sure, and it’d be great for moving at low speeds through a job site while hauling materials.
It’s hard to say how many electric Rams you’ll spot in this spec off the highway, but that’s neither here nor there. We’ll know the truck’s true colors when it’s revealed in earnest, likely sometime this spring. It’ll enter production next year in 2024 alongside what Koval Jr. is calling “a suite of electrified offerings,” but rest assured, the real-life version of the 1500 Revolution will be the most important for the brand and average consumers alike.
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