Ram Just Proved America Can't Quit the V-8

Motor 1

2 days ago

Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis said the brand "screwed up" by dropping the Hemi V-8 for the 1500 pickup, so now it's making a
much-heralded return
. It turns out that even as we head towards an electric—or at least an
electrified
future—eight cylinders, grouped in fours, and spaced 90 degrees apart, aren't going anywhere.
It's not just Ram. Last week, General Motors announced an
$888 million investment
in its Tonawanda, New York, plant to prep for an upcoming sixth-generation small-block V-8. Mercedes is
developing a new V-8
, too, which it plans to offer across its entire lineup. BMW's R&D boss recently said it's
keeping V-8s for the foreseeable future
, specifically because of the American and Middle East markets. Porsche has also
committed to building V-8s
into the 2030s.
Especially here in America, we can't quit the V-8.
Photo by: Ram
Kuniskis's statements are illuminating. "Ram will continue to offer the more powerful and more efficient Hurricane Straight-Six Turbo, but we heard loud and clear from consumers: there is no replacement for the iconic Hemi V-8. At the end of each month, we count sales to customers, not statisticians or ideologues. Data be damned—we raise our flag and let the Hemi ring free again."
It tracks with the image that marketers inside Ram and its cousin Dodge have meticulously crafted over the past few years: draped in the flag, and representing everything that is good and right about America, from apple pie to burnouts. In reality, this decision was made for the most American of reasons, the bottom line, at a time when Ram's sales have been tanking for a while now.
'We heard loud and clear from consumers: there is no replacement for the iconic Hemi V-8.'
That, however, may have had less to do with the demise of the 5.7-liter Hemi for one model year and more to do with
Ram prices skyrocketing for years
. It is highly unclear whether the revival of the Hemi will drive prices down or boost sales even if prices stay high, but at least the narrative has shifted: the V-8 is back, as is America.
The V-8 is not an exclusively American invention, but there is no engine configuration more closely linked to our car industry. Ford's flathead V-8 arrived in 1932, and after getting through some early teething troubles, it started the
eight-cylinder revolution here in America
. Eight-cylinder engines were once the exclusive domain of luxury and performance cars; the flathead made the V-8 almost a default engine layout here.
A Ford flathead V-8
Photo by: Wikimedia Commons / Michael Barera
There's a fundamental rightness that applies to the flathead, and all V-8s that followed to this day. A V-8 is no bigger in length than an inline-four, and shorter than an inline-six. With a 90-degree bank angle, a V-8 is not too much wider than most inline engines, either. But despite its compact dimensions, the V-8 is powerful, owing to its large cylinder count. And thanks to Cadillac's invention of the 180-degree, "cross-plane" crankshaft in the 1920s, the V-8 has perfectly balanced primary and secondary forces.
So, compact, power dense, smooth running, and thanks to Ford's manufacturing dominance, cheap and plentiful. In America, where fuel economy and emissions only became heavily regulated and of bigger importance to consumers in the 1970s, it's no wonder that the V-8 was popular. Especially earlier, in the post-war boom time, when people had money, gas was cheap, and that brown haze hanging low over LA? Don't worry about it.
The Clean Air Act and the 1973 fuel crisis definitely diminished the V-8's popularity, but it still had its place in large cars and trucks. Europe jumped on the bandwagon, too, with notable V-8s from Rover, Mercedes-Benz, and others for luxury cars, especially since the US was typically the largest export market for these cars. Japan only started making V-8s in big numbers in the 1980s and 1990s for luxury cars and trucks, though it is now retreating from this engine type; meanwhile, Korea has never been a big V-8 producer. (China skipped over this entirely to focus on groundbreaking electric power and fast-charging performance, but presumably, the minds at Stellantis have a plan to deal with this as well—we just have not seen it yet.)
In the era of downsizing and electrification, a lot of automakers have tried to move away from V-8s to varying degrees, and to varying degrees of success. Ford was the first to make a big push with its EcoBoost twin-turbo V-6s, and while they've proven popular in the F-150, Ford has continued to offer a V-8 in the truck. GM brought out a 2.7-liter turbo-four as a base engine in the Silverado 1500, though its model mix leans heavily on V-8s and a diesel straight-six.
Ram probably took the biggest step of all. For
the 2025 1500
, it dropped the V-8 entirely in favor of a newly developed 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight-six. The "Hurricane" was (and is) offered in two power outputs as an upgrade to the base Pentastar V-6. If Kuniskis' statements are anything to go by, the I-6 didn't get the reception Ram was hoping for. Otherwise, it wouldn't have gone through the trouble of upping 5.7 V-8 production and adapting this old engine to work with the truck's new electronic architecture, which wasn't exactly the work of a moment.
While the turbo inline-six is, as Ram points out, more powerful and more efficient, it's not necessarily the better truck engine. We haven't heard any horror stories about the Hurricane, but in a truck, where customers often put strain on the engine with towing and payload, they don't with regular cars, simplicity is a virtue. A turbo 'six might hit the numbers—and inherently, a turbo straight-six is a great thing, as BMW proves—but here with two turbochargers, the associated plumbing, and intercoolers, it is a more complex thing. Hell, compared to the Hemi V-8, the Hurricane I-6 has space-age complexities as multiple overhead camshafts.
And while the standard-output Hurricane inline-six offers a 15-horsepower and 49-pound-feet bump over the Hemi V-8, the customer gets no great benefit in fuel economy for having two fewer cylinders. You get 21 MPG combined in the I-6 vs 20 MPG for the V-8. And somehow, their tailpipe emissions are almost identical, with 433 vs 443 grams of CO2 per mile, respectively.
Photo by: Ram
However, there is something very culture-war about all this. The 1500 Hemi gets a new badge with a Ram's head on the front of a V-8, which Ram calls the
"Symbol of Protest Badge."
A protest against… what exactly? Ram's press release leaves this to your imagination. But it's not like the current presidential administration is pushing for more fuel-efficient, lower-emission vehicles right now. In fact, it's doing very much the opposite.
The Hemi may have its virtues, but its return is colored with corporate pandering to the aggrieved, which is as savvy as it is cringeworthy. Stellantis is hurting big time, and this is a very easy win for them, and a good hedge against electric pickups—which even ardent EV defenders will admit
aren't fully up to the task yet
.
Ram has an electric pickup in the pipeline, but EV trucks from Ford and GM haven't exactly caught on. Maybe Ram's upcoming range-extender EV pickup, the Ramcharger, will do well; it seems like it could be a good mix of electrification and capability, but it's early, and the company
keeps delaying the truck
anyhow.
Still, it's embarrassing to see a large, multinational corporation make it seem like buying an expensive V-8 pickup is an act of rebellion, of sticking it to the man. But who's the man right now? Near-powerless Democrats? California? EVs, like the ones Stellantis also makes? Joe Biden? It's a strange message from the company that also makes
America's best-selling plug-in hybrid
.
Photo by: Ram
Ram is more explicit in how it's targeting customers who respond to that message. But everyone else refocusing on V-8s knows they're appealing to those who resist change, or at least aren't so open to it. And hell, those people aren't wrong to love the V-8. It is a fundamentally excellent thing. Perhaps Ram's biggest issue is that the V-8 being revived dates back to 2003 and is not something new or innovative or groundbreaking in some way, as we'll see from those other companies.
Stellantis can only fall back on its old standbys for so long. The company seems to understand this—it's why it developed the new inline-six, why it's developing electrified Ram 1500s, and why the Dodge Charger went electric. But it missed the mark. So far, these haven't been game-changing, do-everything vehicles, especially not at the high prices Stellantis charges.
There's a happy middle ground. Other automakers continuing V-8 development are also heavily pushing hybrids and EVs, and BMW and GM especially are seeing big success as a result. Automakers need to walk and chew gum at the same time. If the last few years have proven anything, it's that emissions and fuel economy rules won't stay lenient forever. When that changes again, and it will, Stellantis had better get ready for what's next.
More on the Hemi's Comeback
The Hemi V-8 Is Back: 'We Screwed Up,' Says Ram CEO
Ram's 'Symbol of Protest' Badge for Hemi V-8s Is Ridiculous and Genius
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