Inside Stellantis’ plan to revive its Ram Trucks brand after declines
Stellantis’s RAM screen is seen at the New York International Motor Show on 16 April 2025.
Danielle Devries | CNBC
Aubburn Hılls said Mich.-Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis “missed the fight” and accepted from a seven-month retirement in the late last year. Stellantis Brand competition was disintegrated in the market.
Kuniskis walked on the stage during a media event, and speakers singing Detroit Rapper Eminem’s song “Guess Who Back”. He promised an aggressive return for the challenging truck brand, which started now and dating back to 2026.
The plan includes more than 25 announcements during the next year. So far, with mechanical bull trips and a new racing truck, they include the resurrection of HEMI V-8 engines with a new “protest symbol” and finally a new sector leader for RAM products.
Kuniskis has been revived since he came back after a CEO jolt. As it has recently described, “Fly Flys Without Parachute” is playing with the borrowed time and home money since its borrowing. Ram Renaissance, which has experienced a 38% sales decrease since the record year in 2019, is going to start the Renaissance.
Tim Kuniskis, Ram Trucks CEO, is in the brand’s RAM 1500 Nascar Truck series concept.
Stellantis
In his last interview in the relatively unexplained office, CNBC told CNBC, “After I got back and had a chance to rest, I noticed that I didn’t have to leave, I just took a break. Then I was itching to return.” (When he retired, he removed most of his career.)
Kuniskis, who leads to Ram, who avoids Ram and retirement, said that a number of problems leads to problems with the pricing of the automobile manufacturer, the model launch cadence and most importantly RAM 1500.
“We tried to do a lot of things at the same time,” Kuniskis said from Ram 1500. “Instead of making a cadence of changes, we literally changed everything.”
Kuniskis did not mention the bigger problems he had dealt with under Carlos Tavares, former Stellantis CEO, who left the automobile manufacturer in December. Kuniskis was taken back to RAM in the midst of the change of leadership.
Return plan
In June 2025, Stellantis announced the RAM 1500 Nascar concept at Michigan International Speedway.
Stellantis
Ram is one of the most important of Stellantis’s 14 brands – although not the most important. It competes in the very profitable full -sized truck market and industry experts said its success is the key to re -establishing itself in the commercial sales market.
“Some kind of backbone of these works,” he said, “a kind of backbone of this.” CARMAXData and consumer automobile shopping site edmunds.com. “Market share is extremely important.”
According to Edmunds, the US 1500 market share in the US full -sized van market fell from 17.8% to 8.4% in 2019.
The sale of full -sized truck containing 1500 or larger versions of RAM fell 41% from 2019 to 2024 and General motors And Toyota engine To increase sales during this time.
Although it came to the return plan that entered the next year early, RAM has already resurrected the popular Hemi V-8 engine; Re -introduced lower -priced van models; He declared a return to Nascar; And in addition to other things, he guaranteed a 10 -year/100,000 limited power transfer organ for new trucks in the series.
Kuniskis said he could cover several new potential vehicles, including an expected passenger van and medium -sized van in 2027. It also launched a “Nothing Ram” marketing campaign and delayed the brand’s low market demand.
“There is always a method for madness,” Kuniskis said. “There is always a business reason behind something that seems to be fun.”
Some of the new marketing efforts of RAM are a mechanical bull journey that seems to be the new “protest symbol” Hemi logo, the brand’s new “protest symbol” with the head of a RAM of the brand, where the race fans can ride to Hemi.
Stellantis
Some of this “entertainment” includes the return of the “Nascar truck race that fans can ride to Hemi – a mechanical bull journey that looks like the brand’s new” protest symbol “logo with a coach’s head. If the riders can stay for 15 seconds, they receive a special print T -shirt that cannot be purchased.
In Michigan, at the beginning of this month, the return to Nascar included a tool that made a new truck design and a tool that made Donut burns.
Kuniskis refused to explain sales targets for RAM brand or full -sized vans, but the company said that it aims to a market share between 20% and 29.9% for full -sized trucks until the end of the plan. According to industry data, Ram Trucks had about 17% of the US full van market in 2024.
“I know exactly where we want to be and what our expectations are,” he said. “I must have a market share that starts with the two in a legitimate way.… This is a starting point for us.”
Some of the new marketing efforts of RAM are a mechanical bull journey that seems to be the new “protest symbol” Hemi logo, the brand’s new “protest symbol” with the head of a RAM of the brand, where the race fans can ride to Hemi.
Stellantis
However, Kuniskis said that the market share is only one metric and that the use of plant and its profits are also important. RAM’s general sales decrease, while a close -watched metric retail sales are expected to increase by 28% in the first half of the year.
“You don’t want to chase sharing just for the sake of getting a share.” “I want all plants to work at full capacity to maximize my productivity.”
‘Last Tenth LFG’
Kuniskis wears a black band with white letters that say “last tenth LFG” on his left wrist.
The first episode has been a mantle of Kuniskis for years to push the best lieutenant to perform as well as possible. The second part is a abbreviation that has many meanings, including “Hadi Freaking Go”.
“When at school, they took you ‘a’ a ‘, everything will be great. You will be successful in life.’ Not true, Kun Kuniskis said. “In this way, they remember that he went beyond getting a ‘a’ at school and doing something different, doing something last tenth.”
RAM CEO Tim Kuniskis distributed the “last tenth LFG” bracelets to his team and dealers as a symbolic gesture of the return of the brand.
Stellantis
Kuniskis distributed the bracelets to his team and the brand’s dealers when he returned to the annual dealer conference in January as a way to regain the trust of the retailers after the controversial relationships related to years of incentives, products and price increases.
According to Michael Bettenhausen, a seller in Illinois, a seller who chaired the National Dealer Council, it seems to be working so far.
Bettenhausen, “Everything that Tim showed us, the brand is on the way to return to the volumes we saw years later,” he convinced. He said. “We are really excited to make Tim lead this accusation. Really remarkable.”
Bettenhausen also said that the full -sized van market is the key to the success of the company and its dealers. It consists of buyers who usually have generation loyalty to a brand and act as ambassadors.
Yoon, “Customer loyalty is a big part of this.” He said. “For most of these people, it doesn’t matter whether their brands are objectively the best product. They just feel the best for them, no matter what the car manufacturer does.”
RAM 1500 Expanded Range Hybrid Pickup, which will be released in the beginning of 2026, will have the longest driving range of a total of 690 miles between the company’s gas engine and battery power.
RAM | Stellantis
Bring back the automobile manufacturer Kuniskis can be a good start of the well-known Hemi V-8, as the company says that it has received 12,000 hemi in vans on the first day.
As Hemi returns, electricity plans, including a new plug -in truck and a completely electric model, are delayed. Kuniskis refused to discuss the production timing of the initially expected expected electric model last year. Authorized, an extended electric vehicle or erev, known as the plug -in model will start production this year, but refused to indicate when consumer sales will begin, he said.
Kuniskis said he believed that Erev would be more differentiating in the market and would be more important in the brand’s return plan until 2026.
Kuniskis, “I really open a bull a year. I am really proud of how we started this year, and it only uses traditional tactics.” He said. “We haven’t reached new things yet.”
