Ram’s Electrified Pickups May Be Delayed, but Their Platform Has Officially Debuted

The day after Stellantis CEO admitted that production of Ram’s range-extender and all-electric pickups is delayed by six months, the parent company has triumphantly unveiled the platform that undergirds the trucks: STLA Frame.

Over the past few years, Stellantis has successively unveiled four new platforms, each of which is intended for global application. Stellantis owns a lot of brands, from Alfa Romeo to Maserati to Citroën to Ram to Jeep, and these four platforms would, presumably, allow the conglomerate to swap different powertrains between different platforms with ease, while minimizing cost.

STLA Medium, the first, was announced in July of 2023, and undergirds vehicles in the volume-player crossover segments, including several Peugeots and Opels, none of which are sold here. As an EV platform, it supports 400V electric architecture. STLA Large was announced six months later—it underpins the new Charger and the Jeep Wagoneer S—and supports both 400- and 800-volt architectures. STLA Frame is the third, and is designed for full-size, body-on-frame trucks and SUVs like the Ramcharger and the Rev 1500. Like the previous two STLA platforms, Stellantis touts this third platform as BEV-native, but there’s an additional propulsion source mentioned here, in addition to the now in-vogue range-extender configuration: hydrogen.

Apart from the trucks, the first vehicles to use STLA Frame will come from the Jeep brand. While the Wrangler and Gladiator are technically body on frame, this is a full-size platform, so it’s more likely to underpin the next generation of the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. The specs all match: STLA Frame is, of course, designed for all-wheel drive. It can accommodate many suspension designs, including air suspension. The max water fording height—24 inches—parallels that of the current Wagoneer, built on the Ram 1500 chassis.

For those more interested in its truck stats: Maximum towing capacity is a whopping 14,000 pounds, and matches that advertised for the Ramcharger, as does the maximum range (for a range-extender): 690 miles. Payload tops out at 2700 pounds—a smidge higher than the Ramcharger.

We already know where some of the STLA Frame vehicles will be built. In September, Stellantis announced a $406M investment into three Michigan assembly plants to prepare them for its “multi-energy strategy.” While the Wagoneer S (STLA Large) is built in Mexico, a “future electrified Jeep Wagoneer” will be built at Warren Assembly Plant in the metro Detroit area. (Warren is the current home of the Wagoneer—Grand and regular, long- and regular wheelbase.) Since STLA Frame can underpin vehicles fueled by gasoline, electrons, and a combination of the two, it makes sense why Stellantis told us in September that the electrified models will be built on the same line as the ICE ones.

The other two plants are Sterling Heights Assembly, which will build the 1500 REV and the Ramcharger along with gas-powered Rams. The interesting bit, if you are intruiged by range-extender tech, is that Stellantis’ Dundee engine plant will not only build battery trays for EVs built using the STLA Frame platform but also a new, 1.6-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. Even though the Ramcharger uses a V-6 as an onboard generator, there’s past proof in the Chevy Volt that range-extender vehicles don’t necessarily need six cylinders. A little four-pot would do nicely, and take up a whole lot less space in a smaller vehicle.

What could the fourth, and final, STLA platform be? The one segment that appears left is the compact one. Given that Stellantis owns many brands that mainly or only sell cars in Europe, which loves its urban runabouts, that’s our best guess.

We’ve already seen the platforms destined to host the vehicles nearest and dearest to America’s heart. Now, we’re just excited to drive them.