It's Official: The Hemi-Powered Ram 1500 Is Back!

Motor Trend

a day ago

'We got it wrong and we're fixing it,' Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis says. What did Ram get wrong? The truck maker nixed the Hemi V-8 option from the redesigned 2025 Ram 1500, making the more powerful and fuel-efficient but less throaty Hurricane twin-turbo inline-six standard. As for fixing it, the Hemi is indeed returning to the menu for the 2026 model year. Order books are now open and trucks with the V-8 option should be on sale this summer.
The Hurricane 3.0-liter twin-turbo I-6 will continue to be the standard engine across the majority of the lineup, while the 5.7-liter Hemi becomes a $1,200 option on most trims. It is a no-charge option on the Limited and Longhorn models that had the high-output Hurricane as standard.
When Kuniskis returned to head Ram in December, the first thing he was asked was if he was going to bring the Hemi back for truck buyers upset they no longer had that choice. At the time, Kuniskis said he needed to see the data, to see if the falloff in Ram sales was in fact due to dropping the V-8 or if it was the result of a botched launch of the 2025 Ram 1500, whereby the company struggled to get all the various trims to dealers in a timely manner. One factor was the very same plant was also starting to produce the new version of the Ram heavy duty.
Today, Ram retail sales are up (overall sales don't look as healthy because the company deliberately pulled back on rental fleet sales). But the Hemi is coming back. 'Data be damned,' Kuniskis says now.
It appears this was Kuniskis's plan from day one. He cut short his retirement on December 9 after only six months. 'On December 10 we kicked off the study on how to bring the Hemi back in the Ram as fast as humanly possible.' This Will Not Be Easy
The key problem standing the V-8's way was the 2025 Ram 1500 had a new electrical architecture that was not intended to support the Hemi. The initial feedback was that it would take 18 months. A special team was put together, codenamed F15, led by former SRT chief engineer Darryl Smith. Smith worked some kind of magic, reduced the timeline to six months, and trucks with the 5.7-liter will be in dealerships this summer.
There is extra cost involved, but it is nominal. Contracts had to be renegotiated and there are compliance issues, all of which explains the additional $1,200 cost, Kuniskis says. Which Ram Trucks Get the Hemi?
The 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 puts out 395 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque (the standard output Hurricane I-6 generates 420 hp and 469 lb-ft of torque; the high-output version is good for 540 hp and 521 lb-ft). Towing capacity maxes out at 11,470 pounds and maximum payload capacity is 1,750 pounds.
The Hemi will be offered in the 2026 Ram 1500 Tradesman, Big Horn/Lone Star, Express, Warlock, Laramie, Limited, and Longhorn. It will come a bit later to the off-road Rebel, a delay needed to accommodate some of that truck's unique features. And the Hemi, which will feature the eTorque mild hybrid system, will come with the sport exhaust standard.
Noticeably absent: the off-road performance RHO and the luxurious Tungsten models, which rely on the higher-performance high-output Hurricane as standard. Could it be added to the RHO later? 'I'm not sure,' Kuniskis says. 'It's a 'for sure' I want to do it, but it's not a 'for sure' that it's a good idea.'
And what about a supercharged TRX, the powerful truck that went head-to-head with the Ford F-150 Raptor R until it was discontinued after the 2024 model year? Ram loves vehicles like the TRX but it is a tiny fraction of overall sales. 'Will we ever get back to a TRX? We'll see,' Kuniskis tells us.
These are all things Ram is working on, or at least looking at, but Kuniskis is not sure the 5.7-liter provides enough performance to meet customer expectations in these top end models. 'I'm not saying we won't do it, but that's what I am thinking about it right now.'
Speaking of the TRX, specifically bringing back the supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi is not a viable option. It is really bad for compliance and yields very few sales, says the Ram boss. Nor is it easy to do because it has never been incorporated into the new Ram 1500 electrical architecture so all electronics and modules and connections are different.
The workaround to accommodate the 5.7-liter Hemi is courtesy of the Jeep Wagoneer family, an SUV that uses a version of the same architecture as the body-on-frame trucks but was engineered for the 5.7-liter Hemi with its mild eTorque hybrid system—so no additional calibration was needed. The eTorque system replaces the traditional engine-mounted alternator with a belt-driven motor generator unit. The motor generator unit works with a 48-volt battery pack for stop-start, adding torque in certain driving situations, and regenerative braking. The system enables up to 130 lb.-ft. of torque to be available on initial throttle tip-in.
The Jeep became the enabler. 'Instead of going from one architecture to a new architecture, we went to a different version of that same architecture which made it possible to do in six months,' Kuniskis said. 'But putting a 6.2-liter in there would be a whole different animal.' New Day, New Hemi Logo
The old Hemi logo will not return. The new one, dubbed the 'Symbol of Protest' is a V-8 engine block with exaggerated exhaust pipes and a Ram's head. The badge will be on all V-8 trucks' front fenders.
Kuniskis thinks the take rate for the Hemi will be in the 25 to 40 percent range with dealers ordering probably too many initially. Demand will then level off but stay higher than at Ford, for example, where 25 percent opt for a V-8 in their F-150s. Ram should have a higher take rate because the Hemi is a well-known name and because there are many loyalists who will buy it for the sound alone, he says.
'Nothing beats the cold start of a Hemi,' said Mark Trostle, senior vice president of Mopar and Ram exterior design.