Fiat Chrysler, a lagger when it comes to electrification, confirms that it plans to make an electric Ram pickup truck.
Almost every automaker under the sun is planning to make an electric pickup truck:
- Tesla Cybertruck
- Rivian R1T
- Ford F-150 Electric
- GMC Hummer EV
- Lordstown Endurance
We have noted Fiat Chrysler’s absence in the all-electric pickup truck space.
The automaker has notoriously been lagging behind the rest of the industry when it comes to bringing electric vehicles to market.
It even plans to pay Tesla up to $2 billion in order to avoid European penalties related to reducing fleet emissions, which can be achieve with more electric vehicles.
FCA does have electric vehicles planned for production in the next few years, but they are seen as being behind the rest of the industry in general.
When asked about making joining the race to make an electric pickup truck earlier this year, the company didn’t seem overly interested even though the Ram truck brand is an important part of their business.
Now when asked again by an analyst during the company third-quarter earnings call, Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley finally confirmed that they will announce an electric Ram pickup (via Detroit Free Press):
I do see that there will be an electrified Ram pickup in the marketplace, and I would ask you just to stay tuned for a little while, and we’ll tell you exactly when that will be.
The CEO didn’t elaborate beyond that, but he did tease that there will be an announcement about an electric Ram pickup truck soon.
Electrek’s Take
Better late than ever?
They are going to move fast here. Most electric pickup trucks are scheduled to come in the next 24 months.
If they are just now green-lighting the program, which we don’t know to be fair, it will take a while for them to bring the vehicle to production.
At least we don’t expect volume production of electric pickup trucks to happen until late 2022-2023, so there’s still time before electric pickups really make a big impact on the highly profitable truck sector in the US.
Therefore, there’s still time for FCA, but they are not the legacy automaker I’m most hopeful for when it comes to electrification.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
