2028 Ram 1500 REV

The Ram 1500 Rev will be the first Ram electric truck, so it's a pretty big deal. It marks the debut of a new body-on-frame Ram platform designed specifically for EV use. The Ram Revolution concept had forward-facing third-row seating and a folding "midgate" that let you extend the cargo area on top of those rearmost seats. As cool as those features were, none of them ended up on the production version of the Ram Rev, which looks far more conventional than we expected. That's no bad thing, though, because the Ram 1500 is already an upscale and comfortable starting point.

The Ram 1500 Rev is built on a new 800-volt architecture and is capable of lightning-quick 350-kW charging speeds. Ram says the truck can add up to 110 miles in 10 minutes. The Rev is also built to do vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid bidirectional charging, meaning it can literally power your home in the event of a power outage. It provides up to 7.2 kilowatts of power — enough output to charge accessories and run smaller appliances.

The platform that underpins the Rev is all-new and is designed specifically for large body-on-frame electric vehicles. We doubt the Rev will be the only vehicle that will use this plus-size platform, but given parent company Stellantis' delayed EV plans, it might be a while before we see a large electric Jeep or Dodge with these underpinnings. The platform is made up of different materials to help offset the massive weight of the battery pack, and it's wider in the middle section to help package those batteries more efficiently.

As with the ICE-powered Ram 1500, there are no leaf springs. The Rev will have an independent multi-link setup at the rear, with a standard air suspension at all four corners that includes active damping. The air suspension allows for a range of ride heights that Ram has called entry/exit, aero, normal, off-road 1 and off-road 2. The Ram Rev has a max tow rating of 14,000 pounds and a max payload of 2,700 pounds, far exceeding the current 10,000-pound maximum towing capacity of the Ford Lightning and Chevrolet Silverado EV.

Ram initially announced that the Rev would be available with a choice of battery packs, but the larger of the two planned packs has since been removed from the upcoming options list. The only battery pack will be a 168-kWh unit that Ram is hoping will provide 350 miles of range. Before it was axed, the large pack was supposed to offer 229 kWh of capacity and a range of around 500 miles, which would have been a serious achievement in the electric truck segment if the Ram 1500 Rev had launched when it was supposed to. Alas, the current Silverado EV is already capable of 500-plus miles of EV range based on the results of our' real-world Edmunds EV Range Test. A quick calculation to derive how efficient the Rev is (using Ram's quoted figures) would mean that the Rev will go 2.08 miles per kWh, but the F-150 Lightning, despite its smaller battery pack, delivers better efficiency at 2.44 miles per kWh.

The Ram's battery pack will feed two electric motors, one on each axle, for four-wheel drive. Ram isn't giving final power figures just yet, but it's giving targeted horsepower and torque specs of 654 horsepower and 620 lb-ft of torque. Ram is also targeting a 0-60 mph run of 4.4 seconds and expects the Rev can ford up to 24 inches of water.

Despite the fact that the Rev holds the Ram's future in its truck bed, the interior is surprisingly derivative. Most Ram owners will recognize it right away, and it seems designers decided to stick to the old "if it ain't broke" way of doing things. Considering how nice the interior of modern Ram trucks is, we'll cut them a little slack.

The layout is familiar — there's the tablet-like display in the center stack, and the touchscreen sizes are 12 or 14.5 inches. The instrument cluster that sits in front of the driver is new and all-digital for the first time in a Ram, and in another first there's a new 10.25-inch display for passengers buried in the dashboard. The passenger's screen isn't visible to the driver, though, so there's little chance you get distracted by whatever your co-pilot happens to be doing with it, especially if that happens to be using its built-in HDMI port and watching movies from a phone or tablet.

Though Ram is clearly going in heavily on screens, it looks as though plenty of physical controls, mostly for the climate controls, have remained and still flank the center display. There's also still a volume knob. As much as we love screens, there are some things physical buttons do better, and Ram clearly thinks so too.

The center screen also has a host of new information pages. Ram loves its information suites, and other models like the TRX and Power Wagon have a slew of live info that's available in the center screen. They're mostly for off-roading and show things like steering angle, trail cams, and the various pitch and roll angles the truck might be experiencing. In the Rev, new pages are dedicated to EV info.

Some of the new pages include a power flow chart that shows whether power is going to the motors or some accessory the truck is running, range impact to help drivers be more efficient and increase range, a charge scheduling feature, and a max battery level setting that allows drivers to set the percentage to which the battery charges. These pages also feature the option for one-pedal driving and show other things like current power, regen, range and battery temperature.

A customizable 10-inch head-up display is also available. The head-up display is a full-color unit and will show information about things such as lane departure, adaptive cruise control, turn-by-turn navigation and current speed.

The EV pickup market is getting more crowded with each model year. Based on current specs, it's entirely possible that the electric truck will be fighting an uphill battle by the time Ram finally releases the 1500 Rev.