Ram's Hemi V8 Comeback Triggers 24-Hour Ordering Frenzy

Miami Herald

2 days ago

Early in June, Ram announced that it would be bringing back the Hemi V8 engine option for the 2026 Ram 1500 pickup truck. For 2025, Ram had removed this iconic engine option, assuming that the newer Hurricane twin-turbo six-cylinder would appease buyers. That was not the case and many were unimpressed, hence Ram's decision to bring back the V8. That decision immediately paid off, as Ram has just reported a surge in orders for the V8 in the first 24 hours of making the announcement. The news came as Stellantis reported sales figures for the second quarter of 2025.
Related: Hemi V8 Returns To Ram 1500, But Not Everyone Will Be Happy
Yes, over 10,000 orders for Hemi V8-equipped pickups were received after the announcement in June - and that was only in the initial 24 hours. That's a significant number when you consider that Ram has sold an average of 17,828 light-duty pickups per month in the second quarter of 2025.
"We continue to see total sales growth for Jeep and Ram brands, with Ram fueled by sales of the Ram 1500," said Jeff Kommor, head of U.S. sales. "We plan to build on that success in the second half of the year. We've already seen consumer interest spurred by the return of the Hemi V8, with the brand receiving over 10,000 orders in the first 24 hours of the June announcement."
Tim Kuniskis, CEO of Ram, admitted in June that the company "screwed up" when it discontinued the Hemi V8, and has resolved to give its customers the choice to select the powertrain they want.
For the second quarter, the 1500 pickup sold 51,848 units, a 17% increase over Q2 sales in 2024, when 44,405 examples of the pickup were sold. The heavy-duty Ram pickups went in the opposite direction, with a 5% drop in sales in Q2 to 43,624 units. This is a reversal of Q2 2024, when Ram sold more HD pickups than LD ones.
With steady sales from the ProMaster Van (15,144 sales in Q2 2025, a 1% decline), Ram's overall sales for the second quarter grew by 5% year-on-year.
It's clear that Ram is taking every possible action to steal market share from Ford and General Motors. Besides the return of the V8, it also introduced a class-leading 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty last month, which is the sort of warranty we're only used to seeing from the Korean brands.
The challenge now is for Ram to work on some quality issues; it saw a dramatic decline in brand rankings in 2025, based on J.D. Power's Initial Quality Study.
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