Have you been waiting patiently for that long-promised hybrid Ram truck that Chrysler has supposedly been working on for the last several years? We have bad news for you: Speaking to PluginCars.com, Ram CEO Fred Diaz firmly put that notion on ice when he bluntly said, "Truckers don't want to buy hybrids."
We're not so sure truckers are anti hybrid more than they are not willing to cough up the necessary funds to bring meaningful hybrid technology to their pickups. Either way, General Motors' fullsize hybrid trucks have failed to set the market on fire, and there's little indication Chrysler's would either... unless the automaker was prepared to offer them at an extremely favorable price point, which seems unlikely.
At least for now, it seems that the only hybrid pickups Ram will be offering are the recently announced plug-in models that were developed using funds from a $48 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and a separate $5 million grant from the Canadian government. A total of 140 PHEV Rams will be offered to fleet customers within the next several months.
The good news for mileage-conscious buyers is that Diaz suggested other technologies from Fiat are likely to make their way to the Ram division at some point. Multiair and light-duty diesels sound like a good starting point...
[Source: PluginCars.com]
We're not so sure truckers are anti hybrid more than they are not willing to cough up the necessary funds to bring meaningful hybrid technology to their pickups. Either way, General Motors' fullsize hybrid trucks have failed to set the market on fire, and there's little indication Chrysler's would either... unless the automaker was prepared to offer them at an extremely favorable price point, which seems unlikely.
At least for now, it seems that the only hybrid pickups Ram will be offering are the recently announced plug-in models that were developed using funds from a $48 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and a separate $5 million grant from the Canadian government. A total of 140 PHEV Rams will be offered to fleet customers within the next several months.
The good news for mileage-conscious buyers is that Diaz suggested other technologies from Fiat are likely to make their way to the Ram division at some point. Multiair and light-duty diesels sound like a good starting point...
[Source: PluginCars.com]
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