Ram TRX V-8 pickup truck returns for $100,000

DETROIT — Stellantis is resurrecting a V-8-powered Ram pickup truck referred to as the TRX as the corporate faces fewer federal emissions laws and enacts a U.S. gross sales turnaround plan for its manufacturers.

The automaker stated Thursday that the 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX will probably be obtainable late in 2026 for round $100,000. It was first produced for the 2021-2024 mannequin years earlier than being canceled as the corporate de-emphasized V-8 engines.

The TRX is powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter “Hellcat” gasoline engine able to 777 horsepower and 680 foot-pounds of torque. The automaker is looking it the “quickest and strongest manufacturing gasoline pickup truck on the planet,” able to 0–60 mph in 3.5 seconds and a high velocity of 118 mph.

“We needed to push it to the subsequent stage,” Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis stated throughout a latest media occasion. “We’re tremendous glad about this one coming again.”

Regardless of comparatively low gross sales up to now because of the car’s value, the TRX is considered as a “halo” mannequin for the model, or a high-end car that brings consideration to Ram and probably boosts gross sales for different fashions. It has been a profitable technique for Kuniskis, particularly with the corporate’s SRT efficiency automobiles.

The return of the TRX is the most recent transfer for the model below Kuniskis, who has been main a turnaround plan since unretiring from the automaker a 12 months in the past.

Kuniskis goals to make greater than 25 bulletins via subsequent 12 months. To this point they’ve included returning to NASCAR with mechanical bull rides and a brand new race truck, resurrecting Hemi V-8 engines with a brand new “Image of Protest,” and killing a long-promised battery-electric model of its 1500 truck.

The 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX will begin at $99,995, excluding a compulsory $2,595 vacation spot charge that bumps the value to $102,590. The preliminary TRX began at $71,690 in 2020, together with vacation spot.

Ram on Thursday additionally introduced a brand new 6.7-liter Cummins high-output turbo diesel engine for its 2027 Ram Energy Wagon heavy-duty truck with 430 horsepower and 1,075 foot-pounds of torque.

Most of the new efforts go towards Stellantis’ earlier plans to discontinue gasoline V-8 automobiles amid extra stringent gasoline financial system laws and penalties. However these insurance policies have both been weakened or disappeared below the Trump administration.

Kuniskis stated the rollback ought to assist gross sales, however that he was “going to do it anyway” whatever the requirements.

Kuniskis has embraced V-8 engines once more, together with with resurrecting the TRX, as a part of an effort to revive Stellantis’ U.S. gross sales, which plummeted below former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares from 2021 to 2024.

Throughout that point, the automaker — fashioned in 2021 via a merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Groupe — fell from the No. 4 automaker in U.S. gross sales to No. 6.

Stellantis’ gross sales via the third quarter of final 12 months have been 6% decrease in contrast with a 12 months earlier. Cox Automotive expects the automaker to complete the 12 months with 1.25 million gross sales within the U.S., down 4.4% from 2024 and off from greater than 2 million gross sales in 2020.

Kuniskis, who additionally oversees all of Stellantis’ U.S. manufacturers, stated each Ram and Jeep — the automaker’s most important home manufacturers — are going “in the proper route” to capitalize on development subsequent 12 months.

That might be tougher than it has been up to now, as auto forecasters akin to Cox anticipate comparatively flat and even falling auto gross sales in 2026. Meaning the automaker should conquest consumers from different manufacturers.

“It is nonetheless a powerful business, so so long as we get our piece of it, we’ll be OK,” Kuniskis stated.

Ram is not the one Stellantis model on the lookout for a revival.

Jeep CEO Bob Broderdorf, very like Kuniskis, has been initiating a turnaround technique for the corporate’s Jeep model. Jeep has skilled years of annual gross sales declines because it hit file gross sales of greater than 973,000 automobiles in 2018.

The “Jeep reset” plan contains repositioning the model’s pricing, fashions and commonplace options, in keeping with Broderdorf.

“That is going to be the final piece of the puzzle, I feel, to resetting the muse for Jeep this 12 months and actually entering into what makes it particular going ahead,” Broderdorf instructed CNBC throughout an interview Dec. 16. “It is a significantly better Jeep.”

Kuniskis described the Jeep reset plan as “making Jeep extra Jeep.”

The latest actions primarily streamline Jeep’s product lineup into fewer fashions, extra content material and a pricing technique with fewer overlaps, from smaller automobiles such because the Compass and Cherokee to the larger Grand Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer.

“The whole Jeep lineup is healthier,” Broderdorf stated.  “I feel we’re laying a really sturdy basis for development going into subsequent 12 months, plus the brand new automobiles.”

New upcoming Jeeps embrace a resurrected Cherokee midsize SUV in addition to an all-electric Recon impressed by the model’s iconic Wrangler off-road SUV.

2025 might be the 12 months that Jeep breaks the pattern and notches its first U.S. gross sales improve since 2018, however Broderdorf stated in mid-December that the model will probably be near the objective, so it might go both manner.

Broderdorf stated Jeep stays worthwhile regardless of the pricing modifications in addition to decrease gross sales amid the turnaround plan.

“We’ll develop wholesome,” he stated. “I feel that is what the model wants. We’ll develop.”