Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has confirmed that an internal combustion engine (ICE) will be used to charge the battery of Ram’s upcoming Range Electric Paradigm Breaker (REPB) model. While the technology had been teased since Stellantis’ EV Day in 2021, the Ram brand had not confirmed details until now.
During a recent roundtable discussion, Tavares emphasized the need for a truck that meets both environmental standards and range needs. “By nature, an extender is charging the battery,” he explained. “So that’s how it works. You are on the electric power mode, and you charge the battery with your ICE engine revving at a constant speed.” Tavares added that this approach would give the truck more range while substantially reducing carbon emissions.
Soon after Ram revealed its production Ram 1500 REV pickup truck in a Super Bowl ad earlier in February, it opened $100 reservations for the vehicle which were closed after only five days due to demand. The new truck is scheduled to launch in Q4 2024. Pricing has yet to be announced for the REV, but Ram CEO Mike Koval Jr. has promised that it will outdo the competition in areas most important to Ram customers like payload, towing, range, and speed.
Tavares said the U.S. market is quite different between coastal areas and inland regions, and that Stellantis wants to offer a solution that meets the needs of both groups. “We are going to bring both so that you can have a proposal for those who are very, very conscious of range, towing, etc. And at the same time, we have the best BEV that can be proposed, more focusing on the coastal areas,” he said.
While details of the REPB model are not yet known, it’s likely that the charging ICE will have to be of significant size given the battery packs used in newer full-size electric pickups. The Ram 1500 REV and REPB will be built on the STLA Frame architecture, which is an evolution of the current Ram 1500 DT platform. Stellantis has promised that the new full-size electric pickup should have a range of around 500 miles (800 kilometers), which is impressive and suggests that the ICE engine will need to be powerful enough to charge the battery to achieve this range.
Source: The Detroit News
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