The Ram Trucks brand introduced their first all-electric concept vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, but the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept made its auto show debut in Chicago on February 9th.
For the people who did not attend CES, this was a first chance to see the unique lines and features of the battery-powered Ram, but with the Windy City show came the confirmation of the production model name – REV. Ram 1500 REV, to be exact, but they weren’t done with their mid-February news blast.
During the broadcast of Super Bowl XLII, the Ram Trucks brand ran their first commercial for their electric pickup, so ahead of the big game, the company issued official images of the production pickup. The production version doesn’t look all that much like the concept, so today we bring you a look at both versions of the Ram battery-powered pickup.
Before getting into the look of the two Ram trucks, we want to point out that so far, there are few key details pertaining to performance. We know that the truck is built on the body-on-frame STLA Frame EV platform, with all-wheel-drive coming from a motor located at each axle.
We don’t know how much power the system will delivery, but we know that Ram plans on using an 800-volt system which will accept DC fast charging, leading to roughly 100 miles of range from 10 minutes of charge time. We also know that the Ram 1500 REV will offer rear-wheel steering with up to 15 degrees of movement – allowing it to “crab walk” like the new Hummer EV – along with Level 3 autonomous driving.
Ram will also introduce “shadow mode”, which allows the truck to follow the driver at a safe distance, such as when opening a garage door or a gate to a farm, so the truck will pull itself in without the driving having to run back and forth. As this author is also an owner of a horse farm, there have been many times when I needed to pull my truck into a field that was occupied by horses.
To do so, you would have to pull up to the gate, put the truck in park, open the gate while chasing the horses back away from the gate and hurry back to the truck while the gate is open. Then while the horses are considering rushing out, quickly and carefully drive into the field then run back to the gate to close it before any horses scooted out past through truck, through the open gate.
With the Ram 1500 REV shadow mode, you could open the gate and chase the horses back, the truck would drive in past you and then could easily close the gate behind it. This could be a huge deciding factor when purchasing a new Ram truck.
The battery-powered pickup which debuted in Vegas at CES and made its international auto show debut in Chicago is shown here in lighter gray. It features a cab-to-box seam that runs at an angle, where the box sides wrap around the back of the cabin. There is no B-pillar and the rear doors open forward, creating a massive opening when both doors on one side are open.
The Ram 1500 Revolution Concept also features unique 24-inch wheels with centers that light up and spin, allowing the Ram logo to remain upright at all times. Those big rollers are wrapped in 33-inch tires that were made specifically for this concept and, like the logo on the wheel centers, the logos on the doors of the Ram concept light up.
The logo on the hood and tailgate also light up with the front logo being white and the rear, red, with loads of high tech LED signature lighting across both ends of the battery-powered pickup.
When you pop open the frunk, there is a ton of enclosed storage space along with a storage tunnel that runs the length of the truck, allowing you to carry something that is 18-feet long inside of the vehicle with the hood and tailgate closed. As someone who hauls a ton of lumber, that is another great feature that I hope becomes a production reality. There are also cargo tracks and tie-down points to keep things from sliding around the frunk during stints of hard acceleration.
On the inside, the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept takes a truly futuristic approach, with sporty bucket seats in the front and rear which move on modular tracks. You can move the front seats and rear seats to any position that you like, which frees up room for the third row jump seats that fold out of the back of the cabin wall.
You can even take the seats completely out if you need a large amount of enclosed cargo space, or if you are going somewhere and don’t want to get stuck with someone you don’t like asking to tag along.
Finally, the dashboard has a high tech design with a massive center screen system with a unique flat bottom-and-top steering wheel and loads of LED trim lighting throughout the interior.
The truck in dark gray is the 2024 Ram 1500 REV in production form. Not surprisingly, it looks a whole lot more like the current Ram 1500, with a more traditional cab-to-box seam, a sharper angle where the hood meets the windshield and four doors that open towards the rear of the truck.
The illuminated Ram logo in the grille made it to production, as did the sporty LED signature lighting on the front and rear end. The tailgate logo does not appear to light up and rather than the swing-out tailgate that is split in the middle, the production model has a traditional open-down tailgate.
The bed of the production truck does have the Rambox on both sides though, and while the wheels have a similar design to the concept, it does not have the 24-inch wheels – opting instead for what looks to be a 20-inch wheel.
Really, the production version of the Ram 1500 REV has an overall design that is very similar to the current models, but the battery-powered pickup has a unique front and rear end design. It seems likely that the next generation of Ram 1500 pickups will all bear some resemblance to the battery-powered model, although the gasoline-powered trucks may come with a lower-tech lighting design.
Ultimately, we expect that all of the Ram 1500 pickups will look somewhat similar, but the brand will likely allow the electric models to stand out beyond just the REV badging on the hood. For one, the trucks with combustion engines will have a grille design that allows air flow to the engine bay, but everything else about the electric truck would work just fine for a great-looking gas truck.
Production of the Ram 1500 REV will start sometime in 2024, but prospective buyers who want to buy one can reserve their place in line for just $100 (refundable) at RamREV.com.