Ram canceled plans for an electric heavy-duty pickup truck.
It was slated to debut for the 2027 model year.
Two suppliers involved in the project are fighting each other over the millions they invested.
Ram wants to be a player in the electric and electrified pickup market, bringing pure electric and range-extended versions of its 1500 to market soon. It also began work on a larger BEV truck, a 2500 or 3500, but it was canceled early on in the development cycle. This has caused a legal battle between two of the project’s suppliers over covering sunk costs.
Automotive News says automotive supplier Valeo is taking American Axle & Manufacturing to court because it refused to cover its side of lost investments and contracts amounting to $25 million. Stellantis’ cancellation of its heavy-duty EV pickup put significant financial strain on the two companies and neither wants to cover the losses on its own.
Stellantis was confident enough about its plan to start things rolling with suppliers through 2022 and 2023. The heavy-duty electric truck had an initial launch date of 2027, but plans have obviously changed since then. Among other things, the automaker postponed the fully electric Ram 1500 REV and dropped the big-battery, long-range variant completely. Focus then shifted to the 1500 Ramcharger extended range EV, bringing it to market sooner than planned.
This reflects broader trends seen from other automakers, changing course on producing fully electric vehicles. General Motors, for instance, is rumored to be working on pickups with plug-in hybrid powertrains and is reportedly backtracking on plans to turn its Orion manufacturing facility into a facility that only makes EVs.
But is there a realistic use-case scenario for a heavy-duty electric pickup in the near future? Unlike light-duty pickups, heavy-duty trucks are more frequently used to pull heavy loads. Towing in an EV dramatically cuts range to a point where, for many drivers, it just doesn’t make sense to go electric.
The trend is to launch smaller electric trucks that are more affordable. The arrival of the ultra-cheap Slate truck, which forgoes all unnecessary equipment to keep things cheap is a good example of this. The petite Telo truck is another example, though it has a not-so-tiny price tag. It’s likely going to be a while before we see a mass-market heavy-duty electric truck.
