Hemi V-8 engines and mechanical bull rides: Inside Stellantis' plan to revive its Ram Trucks brand after yearslong sales declines

CNBC

3 days ago

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis reemerged from a seven-month retirement late last year saying he "missed the fight" and admitting the Stellantis brand was getting smashed in the marketplace by its competition.
Kuniskis walked on stage during a media event as the speakers blared Detroit rapper Eminem singing "Guess who's back, back again." He promised an aggressive turnaround for the embattled truck brand that will extend through 2026.
The plan includes more than 25 announcements through next year. Thus far they have included a return to NASCAR with mechanical bull rides and a new race truck, the resurrection of Hemi V-8 engines with a new "Symbol of Protest," and, most recently, a new industry-leading powertrain warranty for its Ram products.
Since returning after a CEO shake-up, Kuniskis is invigorated. He's "flying without a parachute," as he recently described it, while playing with borrowed time and house money since his unretirement. He's going all in to launch a renaissance of Ram, which has experienced a 38% sales decline since its record year back in 2019.
"I have perfect clarity of my return because, after I left and had a chance to rest, I realized I didn't need to leave, I just needed a break. Then I was itching to come back," Kuniskis told CNBC during a recent interview in his relatively undecorated office. (He gave many of his career keepsakes away when he retired.) "We have a window of opportunity here to fix a lot of stuff, and some people are stressed out by that opportunity, and some people are fueled by it. Luckily, our team is fueled by it."
Kuniskis, who was leading Ram and Dodge upon his retirement mid-last year, said an array of issues led to the brand's current situation, including the automaker's pricing, model launch cadence and, most importantly, problems with a redesign of its Ram 1500. That redesign led to production issues that are still being worked out more than a year after the vehicle's launch.
"We tried to do too many things at once," Kuniskis said of the Ram 1500. "We literally changed everything instead of doing a cadence of the changes."
Kuniskis didn't touch on the larger issues Stellantis was dealing with under former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who left the automaker in December. Kuniskis was recruited back to Ram amid the change in leadership.
Ram is one of the most crucial of Stellantis' 14 brands — if not the most important. It competes in the highly profitable full-size pickup truck market and industry experts said its success is key to the company reestablishing itself in the commercial sales market.
"It's kind of the backbone of their business," said Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at CarMax's data and consumer car shopping site Edmunds.com. "The market share is hugely important."
Market share for the Ram 1500 in the U.S. full-size pickup truck market has plummeted from 17.8% in 2019 to 8.4% through roughly the first half of this year, according to Edmunds.
Ram's sales of full-size trucks, which includes the 1500 and larger versions, have declined 41% from 2019 through 2024, according to company data, allowing competitors such as General Motors and Toyota Motor to increase sales during that time.
While it's early into the turnaround plan, which goes into next year, Ram has already resurrected its popular Hemi V-8 engine; reintroduced lower-priced pickup truck models; announced a return to NASCAR; and introduced a 10-year/100,000 limited powertrain warranty for new trucks across its lineup, among other things.
Kuniskis has said further announcements could encompass several new potential vehicles, including a passenger van and midsize pickup truck that's expected in 2027. He's also launched a "Nothing Stops Ram" marketing campaign and delayed the brand's electrified pickup trucks amid low market demand.
"There's always a method to the madness," Kuniskis said. "There's always a business reason behind something that seems like fun."
Part of that "fun" includes a return to NASCAR truck racing, where fans can "Ride the Hemi" – a mechanical bull ride that looks like the brand's new "Symbol of Protest" logo that features the engine with a ram's head. If riders can stay on for 15 seconds, they receive a special-edition T-shirt that can't be purchased.
Its splashy return to NASCAR earlier this month in Michigan also included a new truck design, as well as a vehicle doing doughnut burnouts.
Kuniskis declined to disclose sales targets for the Ram brand or its full-size pickup trucks, but he said the company is aiming for a market share somewhere between 20% and 29.9% for its full-size trucks by the end of the plan. Ram Trucks had a roughly 17% share of the U.S. full-size pickup truck market in 2024, according to industry data.
"I know exactly where we want to be and what our expectations are," he said. "I should legitimately have a market share that starts with a two. … That's a starting point for us."
But Kuniskis said market share is only one metric and that plant utilization and profits are also important. While Ram's overall sales are down, he said retail sales — a closely watched metric — are expected to be up by about 28% through the first half of the year.
"You don't want to chase share just for the sake of chasing share," he said. "I want to have all plants running at full capacity to maximize my efficiency."
Kuniskis wears a black band on his left wrist with white lettering that reads "Last Tenth LFG."
The first part has been a mantra of Kuniskis' for years to push his top lieutenants to perform as best as they can. The latter part is an acronym with many meanings, including "let's freaking go."
"When you were in school, they told you 'Get an 'A,' everything will be great. You'll be successful in life.' Not true. Not true," Kuniskis said. "They remember the guy that way pushed beyond just getting an 'A' in school and did something different, push that last tenth."
Kuniskis handed out the wristbands to his team as well as the brand's dealers during his return to an annual dealer conference in January as a way to regain the trust of retailers after years of contentious relations over incentives, products and price increases.
So far it seems to be working, according to Michael Bettenhausen, a dealer in Illinois who chairs the Stellantis National Dealer Council.
"Everything that Tim has showed us has us convinced that the brand is on a path to get back to the volumes that we've seen from years past," Bettenhausen said. "We're really excited that Tim is leading this charge. It's really remarkable."
Bettenhausen also said the full-size pickup truck market is key to the success of the company and its dealers. It is made up of buyers who often have generational loyalties to a brand and act as ambassadors for it.
"Customer loyalty is a huge part of that business," Yoon said. "For a lot of these people, it doesn't matter if their brand is objectively the best product or not. It's just that whatever the automaker is doing, they feel like it's best for them."
Bringing back the automaker's well-known Hemi V-8 may have been a good start, as Kuniskis said the company received 12,000 Hemi orders on the first day pickup trucks with the engine were available for dealers to order.
As the Hemi returns, Ram's electrification plans, including a new plug-in truck and an all-electric model, are being delayed. Kuniskis declined to discuss production timing for the all-electric model, which was initially expected last year. He said the plug-in model — known as an extended-range electric vehicle, or EREV — will begin production this year but declined to specify when consumer sales will begin.
Kuniskis said he believes the EREV will be more of a differentiator in the market and more important in the brand's turnaround plan through 2026.
"I'm really bullish on the year. I'm really proud of how we started this year and that's just using traditional tactics," Kuniskis said. "We haven't gotten to the new stuff yet."