Stellantis’ Ram show is seen on the New York Worldwide Auto Present on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis reemerged from a seven-month retirement late final yr saying he “missed the combat” and admitting the Stellantis model was getting smashed within the market by its competitors.
Kuniskis walked on stage throughout a media occasion because the audio system blared Detroit rapper Eminem singing “Guess who’s again, again once more.” He promised an aggressive turnaround for the embattled truck model that can lengthen by means of 2026.
The plan contains greater than 25 bulletins by means of subsequent yr. To date they’ve included a return to NASCAR with mechanical bull rides and a brand new race truck, the resurrection of Hemi V-8 engines with a brand new “Image of Protest,” and, most just lately, a brand new industry-leading powertrain guarantee for its Ram merchandise.
Since returning after a CEO shake-up, Kuniskis is invigorated. He is “flying and not using a parachute,” as he just lately described it, whereas enjoying with borrowed time and home cash since his unretirement. He is going all in to launch a renaissance of Ram, which has skilled a 38% gross sales decline since its file yr again in 2019.
Ram Vans CEO Tim Kuniskis contained in the model’s Ram 1500 NASCAR Truck Collection idea.
Stellantis
“I’ve excellent readability of my return as a result of, after I left and had an opportunity to relaxation, I noticed I did not want to go away, I simply wanted a break. Then I used to be itching to return again,” Kuniskis informed CNBC throughout a latest interview in his comparatively undecorated workplace. (He gave a lot of his profession keepsakes away when he retired.) “We’ve got a window of alternative right here to repair numerous stuff, and a few persons are stressed by that chance, and a few persons are fueled by it. Fortunately, our group is fueled by it.”
Kuniskis, who was main Ram and Dodge upon his retirement mid-last yr, mentioned an array of points led to the model’s present scenario, together with the automaker’s pricing, mannequin launch cadence and, most significantly, issues with a redesign of its Ram 1500. That redesign led to manufacturing points which might be nonetheless being labored out greater than a yr after the automobile’s launch.
“We tried to do too many issues without delay,” Kuniskis mentioned of the Ram 1500. “We actually modified every little thing as a substitute of doing a cadence of the adjustments.”
Kuniskis did not contact on the bigger points Stellantis was coping with below former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who left the automaker in December. Kuniskis was recruited again to Ram amid the change in management.
Turnaround plan
Stellantis reveals its Ram 1500 NASCAR idea on the Michigan Worldwide Speedway in June 2025.
Stellantis
Ram is likely one of the most important of Stellantis’ 14 manufacturers — if not a very powerful. It competes within the extremely worthwhile full-size pickup truck market and {industry} specialists mentioned its success is vital to the corporate reestablishing itself within the business gross sales market.
“It is sort of the spine of their enterprise,” mentioned Joseph Yoon, client insights analyst at CarMax‘s knowledge and client automotive buying web site Edmunds.com. “The market share is vastly necessary.”
Market share for the Ram 1500 within the U.S. full-size pickup truck market has plummeted from 17.8% in 2019 to eight.4% by means of roughly the primary half of this yr, in response to Edmunds.
Ram’s gross sales of full-size vehicles, which incorporates the 1500 and bigger variations, have declined 41% from 2019 by means of 2024, in response to firm knowledge, permitting rivals reminiscent of Basic Motors and Toyota Motor to extend gross sales throughout that point.
Whereas it is early into the turnaround plan, which works into subsequent yr, Ram has already resurrected its in style Hemi V-8 engine; reintroduced lower-priced pickup truck fashions; introduced a return to NASCAR; and launched a 10-year/100,000 restricted powertrain guarantee for brand spanking new vehicles throughout its lineup, amongst different issues.
Kuniskis has mentioned additional bulletins may embody a number of new potential autos, together with a passenger van and midsize pickup truck that is anticipated in 2027. He is additionally launched a “Nothing Stops Ram” advertising marketing campaign and delayed the model’s electrified pickup vehicles amid low market demand.
“There’s all the time a technique to the insanity,” Kuniskis mentioned. “There’s all the time a enterprise purpose behind one thing that looks like enjoyable.”
A part of Ram’s new advertising efforts embrace a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place race followers can “Journey the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” Hemi brand that options the engine with a ram’s head.
Stellantis
A part of that “enjoyable” features a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place followers can “Journey the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” brand that options the engine with a ram’s head. If riders can keep on for 15 seconds, they obtain a special-edition T-shirt that may’t be bought.
Its splashy return to NASCAR earlier this month in Michigan additionally included a brand new truck design, in addition to a automobile doing doughnut burnouts.
Kuniskis declined to reveal gross sales targets for the Ram model or its full-size pickup vehicles, however he mentioned the corporate is aiming for a market share someplace between 20% and 29.9% for its full-size vehicles by the top of the plan. Ram Vans had a roughly 17% share of the U.S. full-size pickup truck market in 2024, in response to {industry} knowledge.
“I do know precisely the place we need to be and what our expectations are,” he mentioned. “I ought to legitimately have a market share that begins with a two. … That is a place to begin for us.”
A part of Ram’s new advertising efforts embrace a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place race followers can “Journey the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” Hemi brand that options the engine with a ram’s head.
Stellantis
However Kuniskis mentioned market share is just one metric and that plant utilization and earnings are additionally necessary. Whereas Ram’s total gross sales are down, he mentioned retail gross sales — a carefully watched metric — are anticipated to be up by about 28% by means of the primary half of the yr.
“You do not need to chase share only for the sake of chasing share,” he mentioned. “I need to have all vegetation operating at full capability to maximise my effectivity.”
‘Final Tenth LFG’
Kuniskis wears a black band on his left wrist with white lettering that reads “Final Tenth LFG.”
The primary half has been a mantra of Kuniskis’ for years to push his prime lieutenants to carry out as greatest as they’ll. The latter half is an acronym with many meanings, together with “let’s freaking go.”
“If you had been in class, they informed you ‘Get an ‘A,’ every little thing might be nice. You will achieve success in life.’ Not true. Not true,” Kuniskis mentioned. “They bear in mind the man that method pushed past simply getting an ‘A’ in class and did one thing completely different, push that final tenth.”
Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis handed out “Final Tenth LFG” bracelets to his group and sellers as a symbolic gesture of the model’s turnaround.
Stellantis
Kuniskis handed out the wristbands to his group in addition to the model’s sellers throughout his return to an annual vendor convention in January as a strategy to regain the belief of shops after years of contentious relations over incentives, merchandise and worth will increase.
Up to now it appears to be working, in response to Michael Bettenhausen, a vendor in Illinois who chairs the Stellantis Nationwide Supplier Council.
“All the pieces that Tim has confirmed us has us satisfied that the model is on a path to get again to the volumes that we have seen from years previous,” Bettenhausen mentioned. “We’re actually excited that Tim is main this cost. It is actually outstanding.”
Bettenhausen additionally mentioned the full-size pickup truck market is vital to the success of the corporate and its sellers. It’s made up of consumers who typically have generational loyalties to a model and act as ambassadors for it.
“Buyer loyalty is a big a part of that enterprise,” Yoon mentioned. “For lots of those individuals, it would not matter if their model is objectively the very best product or not. It is simply that regardless of the automaker is doing, they really feel prefer it’s greatest for them.”
Ram 1500 prolonged vary hybrid pickup, set to return to market in early 2026, may have the longest driving vary the corporate has ever supplied in a light-duty truck, as much as 690 whole miles between its gasoline engine and battery energy.
Ram | Stellantis
Bringing again the automaker’s well-known Hemi V-8 could have been a great begin, as Kuniskis mentioned the corporate obtained 12,000 Hemi orders on the primary day pickup vehicles with the engine had been out there for sellers to order.
Because the Hemi returns, Ram’s electrification plans, together with a brand new plug-in truck and an all-electric mannequin, are being delayed. Kuniskis declined to debate manufacturing timing for the all-electric mannequin, which was initially anticipated final yr. He mentioned the plug-in mannequin — generally known as an extended-range electrical automobile, or EREV — will start manufacturing this yr however declined to specify when client gross sales will start.
Kuniskis mentioned he believes the EREV might be extra of a differentiator out there and extra necessary within the model’s turnaround plan by means of 2026.
“I am actually bullish on the yr. I am actually pleased with how we began this yr and that is simply utilizing conventional ways,” Kuniskis mentioned. “We have not gotten to the brand new stuff but.”
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