New Ram Rumble Bee muscle truck has 777 horsepower, 170 mph top speed

DETROIT — Stellantis Despite high US gasoline prices due to the Iran war, it plans to launch a line of products it calls “muscle trucks” for its Ram brand.

On Wednesday, the automaker said Rumble Bee pickup trucks will feature V-8 engines, special parts and designs and a range of performance specifications.

A top-end SRT Hellcat model with a 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V-8 engine will have 777 horsepower, a targeted top speed of 270 miles per hour, and other metrics that could rival some sports cars.

“This is definitely a ‘hold my beer, watch this, push chips on the fly,'” Ram boss Tim Kuniskis said before a truck sped past him during a media event at the company’s Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan. “Welcome to the age of truck trucks.”

Although nationwide average gas prices $4.56Kuniskis said he believes it’s a “critical” time to introduce the trucks as full-size pickup trucks expand into the luxury and off-road segments. He also said there is a lack of traditional muscle car offerings as Stellantis and other automakers focus on all-electric vehicles.

“We were pursuing electrification and that trend has changed. This trend will also change,” he told reporters after the trucks were revealed. “I’d like to believe that once this thing is on the showroom floor, gas prices will be back to normal.”

Kuniskis also noted that although the volumes of top-performance models generally account for a small fraction of sales, they are often “three times the margin of the average vehicle” and act as halo products to draw attention to the brand.

“It’s still a great, great business, but it’s your bottom line to sell others,” he said.

Halo vehicles are often iconic products that are unique in design and feature high-performance parts. They are regularly used to draw attention to a car license plate or brand.

Kuniskis declined to disclose volume expectations but said the company could “easily” recover its investments in new trucks that share many components with the brand’s existing trucks and have certain performance parts added.

Stellantis has not announced prices for the trucks, which are expected to reach U.S. dealers starting this fall. Kuniskis compared the price of the “entry-level” 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 muscle truck to the “well-equipped” existing Big Horn model that can top $60,000, and said the SRT model could be a new halo next to the $100,000 TRX off-road performance truck.

The new powerful trucks, which will be quad cabs with smaller rear seat doors than most full-size pickups sold in the U.S., will be built at Stellantis’ factory in Saltillo, Mexico.

The lineup will launch with the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 model later this year, followed by the Rumble Bee 392 and Rumble Bee SRT in the first half of 2027.

S&P Global auto analyst Stephanie Brinley said she doesn’t believe Ram will sell large-volume trucks, but she thinks they need to be able to draw attention to the brand, especially when it comes to retaining existing customers.

“The SRT is a nice counterpoint to the off-road version, but it still won’t be high-volume,” he said. “The combination of having it all can bring some excitement to the brand.”

Kuniskis, who also oversees the company’s other US-focused brands, is known for using high-performance models as a marketing tool to attract brands’ attention, such as when he introduced the Hellcat models to Dodge.

Performance trucks are not new to the automotive industry, but they are often short-lived. Ram, formerly part of Dodge, has off-road performance trucks like the Rebel and TRX. It also previously offered Rumble Bee models and, about 20 years ago, a pickup that shared a V-10 engine with the company’s then-Dodge Viper sports car.

“There’s no market research to tell you that what we’re doing is a good thing. It’s not even a safe bet. … It’s been done before and it’s never worked,” Kuniskis said during the event. “But the last time this was done we think the strategy wasn’t right.”

The powerful truck lineup was announced on the eve of Stellantis’ first investor day under CEO Antonio Filosa. This is also the first investor day for Kuniskis since returning to the automaker after a seven-month “retirement” last year.

Stellantis’ investor day is expected to focus regionally on major brands such as Jeep and Ram in the US and Fiat and Peugeot in Europe, detailing how executives plan to cut costs and revealing how the company aims to return to profitability after last year’s net loss of 22.3 billion euros (US$26.3 billion).

Filosa is touting the return of Ram’s Hemi V-8 engine, which was canceled under former CEO Carlos Tavares, as a positive catalyst for investors despite high gasoline prices in the United States.

Kuniskis said Hemi production continues to increase, but demand still exceeds supply.

“It’s growing; it’s not yet where we need it to be,” he said, adding that the mix is ​​”significantly better” than it was at the beginning of the year.