2025 Ram 1500 REV Up Close: Fighting Lightning With Thunder

Sometimes it pays to not be first — or second, or even third. We’re not sure what order the new 2025 Ram 1500 REV will appear in when it finally graces the streets of North America in late 2024, but it seems that being a little bit behind the ball is going to potentially pay off for the Ram brand’s new electric full-size pickup truck.

The all-electric Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept was shown at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, but we’re honestly not sure why it was. Not a month after showing us a knockout concept, Ram revealed the production version in a TV ad for the Super Bowl, and it looked nothing near as wild as the concept version. We didn’t have any specs on the truck until just now, however, as the production model has made its debut just a few months after the concept at the 2023 New York International Auto Show. And despite it not looking nearly as wild as the concept, I still think the production model is going to be a hit.

Related: More 2023 New York Auto Show Coverage

Conventional Looks

The area where Ram took an obvious page out of the Ford F-150 Lightning playbook is the styling. It’s dead-nuts conventional and essentially the current Ram 1500 with a sleeker, LED-strewn nose up front, which makes sense given it doesn’t need a grille for engine cooling and has an absolutely cavernous frunk. The cabin rearward looks just like the standard crew-cab 1500, while the taillights and tailgate get a funkier design that seems to be required for any electric pickup.

Just like the F-150 Lightning, the idea here is to not go too far off the deep end of styling that traditional pickup buyers are alienated; the Ford in particular is almost identical to a regular F-150, differing really only in the grille and lighting, and the same approach has been taken by Ram. This will contrast it considerably to the GM electric pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV, which look considerably different from their conventional counterparts.

But if you’re disappointed that the production truck doesn’t look much like the concept, Ram representatives say to sit tight — there are items on the concept that are still being explored, like the unusual six-passenger seating and the pass-through from the frunk through the cab to the bed.

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More Opulent Than Ever

The model on display at the New York show is the new tippy-top Tungsten trim, which apparently is now a more precious element than gold, platinum, silver, carbon, titanium, or alloys brass and bronze (clearly, the industry is running out of elements to name trim levels after). Whatever they’re calling it, it’s the latest super-luxe trim level from Ram, the people who pretty much made luxury pickup trucks a thing, and it’s as knockout sexy as you’d imagine.

The seats look like they’ve been lifted from a Jeep Grand Wagoneer (no bad thing), and there’s also now a passenger-side entertainment screen, also first seen in the Jeep brand. The central touchscreen is even bigger than before, and the 12-inch information cluster behind the steering wheel is reconfigurable with some two dozen different permutations of ancillary gauges. It’s a tech tour de force, it looks and feels amazing, and it’s likely going to be eye-wateringly expensive given how pricey the truck itself probably will be. But it throws down a new gauntlet for Ford and GM to up their luxo truck game once again, as Ram has outdone itself in creating one of the finest American luxury interiors extant.

How ‘Bout That Battery?

The more stunning figures come when we talk about the Ram 1500 REV’s powertrain. The base battery is huge with 168 kilowatt-hours, which Ram says will be good for a 350-mile range. For the record, that’s significantly bigger than the standard-range battery on the Ford, which claims a range of just 240 miles. Opt for the big battery option on the Ram and you’ll get a 229-kWh battery, good for what Ram says will be 500 miles of range — blowing the 131-kWh battery and 320-mile range of the longest-range Lightning out of the water. For further comparison, note that the biggest battery pack you can currently buy in a pickup is in the GMC Hummer EV, which is estimated at 212.7 kWh (GMC has not yet published official numbers for it, however).

The Ram is going to be heavy, though. The standard-range Tungsten-trimmed truck on stage in New York was said to weigh 7,500 pounds, and signs point to the long-range model actually tipping into the medium-duty truck category at more than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating (check out the flat, not convex, passenger-side rearview door mirror as a clear hint). There are other hints, as well: The wheels have eight-lug hubs like a heavy-duty pickup, but that tracks given the massive 620 pounds-feet of torque the truck produces, its 14,000-pound tow capacity and its 2,700 pound payload rating. If Ram can deliver on these claims (remember, they’re all “estimated” at the moment), that will make it the target to beat for other electric pickups.

But wait, there’s more: If you want even more range, Ram hinted that a 1500 REV XR (for extended range) will be shown later in 2023. One supposes this would have a range-extending internal combustion engine, as making a battery even bigger than the 229-kWh pack would be monstrously heavy. We’ll have to wait and see.

The 2025 Ram 1500 REV will be appearing in showrooms over a year from now, according to Ram, in the fourth quarter of 2024. That gives us a while yet to see what Ford counters it with, what GM’s Silverado/Sierra/Hummer EV triplets deliver, and whether or not Tesla will get its act together and get Cybertrucks out the door to make the Ram either the fifth or sixth electric pickup to arrive on the scene.

More From Cars.com:

• Up Close With the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept: Loaded to the Gills, But What Will Float to the Surface?
• Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept Foreshadows Brand’s High-Tech Future
• Ram Unveils Production 1500 REV Electric Pickup
• Here Are the New Electric Vehicles Planned by 2026
• What to Know Before Purchasing an Electric Vehicle: A Buying Guide

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