What happens when the minds at the Ram® truck brand put their heads together with the ladies and gentlemen at the U.S. Department of Energy? Brilliance. Our engineers teamed up with the DOE to create a Ram truck unlike any other—the plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) Ram 1500 pickup. Although there are no plans to build consumer versions of this, twenty-eight Ram PHEV models are scheduled to hit the streets of Sacramento and San Francisco. The PHEV 1500s are scheduled for three years of hard labor, evaluating municipal fleet usage, drive cycles, charging, thermal management, fuel economy, emissions and impact on the region’s electric grid.
The DOE demonstration program, which has been made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, was designed to develop cost-efficient vehicles that help reduce dependence on foreign oil. Locations selected to evaluate temperature extremes, urban traffic cycles and diverse climates and geographies range from North Dakota and Massachusetts to Hawaii and Arizona. So, keep an eye out for the PHEV Ram 1500, as it might just be making its way to a city near you.
