V8-Powered Ram TRX Might Come Back Next Year: Report

The American automotive world collectively poured one out for the Hemi V8 when former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares directed Dodge and Ram to all-but axe the iconic powerplant for the 2025 model year, but a trustworthy leak alleges that could change soon. The leak reports that Stellantis officials confirmed the return of the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 to the Ram 1500 lineup, and that the Ram TRX will return with more power for 2026. Though specifics about the new TRX's engine size were not specified, its eight hemispherical combustion chambers are confirmed.
The reputable leak comes from an employee of a Wisconsin dealership who claims they were at a meeting where the announcement was made, via Sportsnaut. The beastly Ram TRX and its 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 were dropped for 2025, and replaced by the Ram 1500 RHO and the brand's new flagship engine, a 540-horsepower version of the Hurricane turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6.
Read more: What's The Stereotypical Old Person's New Car?
Mopar Insider reports,
"It remains unclear if Stellantis will retool for production of the HELLCAT and Redeye engines, but it makes sense that they would continue using the existing stockpile of engines, much like they have been doing with the Durango.
Another thing we've been hearing is that the new TRX will also be more powerful. While we can't confirm whether it will be a simple retune of the HELLCAT V8 to push it to 717 horsepower (535 kW) — 15 more than the outgoing TRX — or if it will use the stockpile of leftover 797 horsepower (594 kW) HELLCAT Redeye engines, we're certainly hoping for the latter."
Ram's move to eliminate its legendary Hemi V8s from its 1500 truck lineup was controversial, especially given that the brand's main competitors at Ford and GM still find plenty of buyers for their respective full-sized V8 pickup trucks. Ram's parent company Stellantis was headed by the bold and controversial Carlos Tavares who single-handedly killed the Hemi before he resigned in December following a dispute with the board of directors. Once Tavares stepped down, former Dodge and Ram executive and notable car guy Tim Kuniskis returned and took the helm as Ram's CEO. Prior to becoming the CEO of Ram, Kuniskis was responsible for many of the Hemi V8 and Hellcat-powered special edition vehicles that earned Stellantis' American brands a lot of clout.
When reached for comment, a Ram spokesperson declined to comment on speculation.
Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox...
Read the original article on Jalopnik.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Scientific American

11 hours ago

• Scientific American

Can Tesla's Cybercab Share the Road with America's Myth of the Highway?

In the American psyche, the automobile—that great democratizer of distance—has always been about more than transportation. It's freedom incarnate: the ability to leave and become someone new three states over. It's James Dean smoking a cigarette, leaning against a fender—masculinity codified in chrome and horsepower, sexuality expressed through gear ratios and exhaust notes. It's Thelma and Louise escaping not just their dreary lives but all that's wrong with their culture. We've had the Corvette, the Mustang, the Charger, the Eldorado, the Camaro, the Thunderbird—and soon we will have the Cybercab. Elon Musk revealed the Cybercab prototype last October, with production targeted for 2026, and today a convoy of 10 to 20 Model Y robotaxis has begun paving the way for its launch, testing the safety of Tesla's autonomous driving tech on a geofenced loop in Austin, Texas. But the Cybercab stands out in the emerging genealogy of robotaxis. Whereas the motto of Amazon subsidiary Zoox's robotaxi—which resembles a cross between an art deco toaster and a subway carriage—is 'It's not a car,' the Cybercab, for all its streamlined science-fiction minimalism, remains squarely in car territory: a sleek two-seater with butterfly doors—the unmistakable hallmarks of a glamorous ride. Yet there's no wheel to grip, no gas pedal to stomp to the floor. The shape of the car says you can still escape your life, but now AI does the driving. The promise might seem seductive: all the mobility; none of the responsibility. More than a century after the first Model T shipped for $825 in 1908 (nearly $29,000 today), we've forgotten how quickly and profoundly car ownership changed American culture. In 1900 fewer than 1 percent of American households owned cars. By 1913 Henry Ford's moving-belt assembly line cut build time to 93 minutes, and cheap Texas oil kept the tank full, turning personal mobility from luxury to the default setting. A 1927 survey found that 55.7 percent of American families owned at least one car. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Not until 1926, however, did the American myth of the highway truly boot up, when Route 66—John Steinbeck named it the 'Mother Road' in The Grapes of Wrath —linked Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif. In the book Hip to the Trip, historian Peter Dedek called the route 'a pillar of mid-twentieth-century automobile culture,' a corridor where vacationers, beatniks, cowboys and Okies fleeing the dust bowl contributed to myths of freedom and transformation. Photographer Robert Frank revealed in his 1958 book The Americans how windshield glass turned travelers into both spectator and exhibit. The cars that Frank famously depicted were as much social containers as machines. Robin Reisenfeld, who curated the Toledo Museum of Art's exhibition Life Is a Highway: Art and American Car Culture, argued in an interview with Antiques and the Arts Weekly that 'the automobile has defined our society' and been used as 'a means of self-expression and status and identity.' After World War II, the G.I. Bill financed suburban mortgages, so millions fled dense cities. And in 1956 the Federal-Aid Highway Act funded 41,000 miles of interstate—an asphalt backbone justified as civil defense infrastructure but experienced as a coast-to-coast permission slip for self-reinvention. The tail fins and chrome of the late 1950s signaled cold war optimism, while Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road and Chuck Berry's 1958 song 'Johnny B. Goode' hard-coded the romance of endless motion into the culture's firmware. Yet the myth of the open road has always been about who's in the driver's seat. The driver is king: one hand on the wheel, eyes on the horizon, free to turn down that dusty side road on a whim. Control over one's vehicle equated to control over one's destiny. Cars changed the sound of our music, with rock guitars emulating the roaring of engines, and they changed how we courted, providing not just a means of transportation but also a destination, allowing couples to get away from 'porch swings, parlor sofas, hovering mothers, and pesky siblings,' as historian David L. Lewis explained in his Michigan Quarterly Review article 'Sex and the Automobile: From Rumble Seats to Rockin' Vans.' A number of films, such as Drive-In (1976), Grease (1978) and American Drive-In (1985), depicted cars as popular places for trysts. The highway lore, however, was never without critics, and the choice of the word 'king' (followed by 'of the road,' for example) was not accidental. Men were predominantly at the wheel, and even as highways offered freedom, they carved concrete canyons through neighborhoods, separating communities. Public transportation didn't keep pace to help those without cars cross ever larger distances between home and work or to accommodate those with disabilities or older people. Studies have since revealed the scope of corporate efforts to dismantle public transit systems and thus encourage car ownership. In 1998 architecture critic Jane Holtz Kay wrote in the book Asphalt Nation that 'mobility has vanished completely for the third of the nation that cannot legally drive—those 80 million Americans who do not operate automobiles because they are too old, too young, or too poor.' A 2012 Brookings report found that in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas, the typical job could be reached by transit within 90 minutes by only 27 percent of workers. In many ways, debates around robotaxis have flipped the narrative. Critics say they reduce personal agency while writing us into an information network against our will (though simply carrying a smartphone does this well enough), whereas defenders argue that autonomous vehicles could offer freedom to the very groups who benefitted least under the car kings of yore. Those with disabilities and older people might find work and community more easily, or they might simply experience more: stare out at that far highway horizon and go wherever. A 2017 report estimated that autonomous vehicles could allow two million individuals with disabilities to enter the workforce, and it highlighted a potential annual savings of $19 billion in health care expenditures as a result of fewer missed medical appointments. Robotaxis could even offer freedom from the grueling commute, the exhausting hours spent jockeying in traffic, and allow naps or Netflix bingeing, time to answer e-mails or—for a couple or a parent and child—time to talk and connect. A 2023 study in Frontiers in Future Transportation and another from 2020 in Sensors recorded lower stress levels in autonomous vehicle passengers. One might argue that ride-sharing already provides similar freedoms to those offered by robotaxis, but drivers for hire can be tired, cranky or in a rush, and there's a social dynamic and a rating system, which can limit other freedoms—even one as simple as the desire to be quiet with one's thoughts. The Cybercab may look like a miniature sportscar dipped in sci-fi, but the engine's roar has been replaced with silence, and the inside is spacious. There will no doubt be glitches and accidents heaped with media coverage. Yet the car will likely obey speed limits, never get drowsy or drunk and never rubberneck or give in to road rage. With robotaxis, more teenagers may arrive home safely and more grandparents may set out on the adventure of a lifetime. As for design, there will always be disagreement; the very concept of aesthetics invites debate, and our sensitivity to fashions are often deeply entwined with the politics of change and the people in power. The greatest challenge facing autonomous vehicles, however, will likely be public opinion. A recent poll of 8,000 Americans conducted by the market research initiative Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report found that 71 percent of the respondents were unwilling to ride in robotaxis and that 43 percent thought they should be illegal. Yet recent research shows different numbers after people have ridden in autonomous vehicles. A 2021 report on a pilot of an autonomous shuttle service in Utah found that 95 percent of surveyed riders had more positive views toward the technology and that 98 percent said they felt safe. And as adoption rises, prices are anticipated to fall. Whereas Goldman Sachs Research estimated that the driving costs of robotaxis were $3.13 per mile in 2024, it expected that number to drop below $1 by 2030 and to reach 58 cents by 2040. A 2022 McKinsey & Company analysis expected a more than 50 percent drop in robotaxis' costs per mile between 2025 and 2030. Though robotaxis are currently more expensive than traditional ride-hailing services in the U.S., last year a Chinese state media outlet reported that a robotaxi available in Wuhan, China, could be up to 87 percent cheaper than a standard hailed ride. As for the myth of the highway, if you're craving the freedom to outrun a thunderstorm or race through an amber light, take an impromptu detour down a country lane or make an unplanned stop at a 'last chance' diner, conventional cars will remain part of American culture as a hobby, just as people still ride horses for pleasure. But we may see new narratives arise. The road trip movie of the future may feature two friends in a Cybercab arguing over which streaming service to watch until they realize the true meaning of their journey. And maybe the next Kerouac will write a novel on their laptop as an autonomous car carries them across the continent. With its wide windshield, the Cybercab appears suited to the highway, and it may end up being as much a means of transportation as a destination. In brief, the car itself may become the drive-in theater.

Miami Herald

14 hours ago

• Miami Herald

Toyota makes a tariff move customers are going to hate

While President Donald Trump's social media posts make it seem as though his tariff moves are executed at his whim, it is clear that at least some industries have a seat at the negotiating table. The auto industry's top executiveshave said they are in close contact with the White House and have even praised the president and his White House team for hearing their concerns. However, it is also clear that Trump's interest in protecting the auto industry's bottom line is minimal. Related: General Motors makes $4 billion tariff move Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors - America's Big 3 automakers - have all said that Trump's tariffs will cost them billions, and they've pulled their guidance due to a lack of visibility. Trump has made it clear to every industry that he doesn't want prices to increase, even going as far as telling companies like Walmart to just "EAT THE TARIFFS." So, every time the auto industry has been observed raising prices in recent months, it has denied that it has anything to do with tariffs. Others, like Mazda, have indeed eaten the tariffs, with the Japanese automaker sending a letter to its U.S. dealers informing them that it would not raise its sticker prices or tack on import fees for any vehicles already on dealership lots or that will come into the country before May 1. Toyota is the latest Japanese automaker to make a pricing move, but it isn't blaming the move on tariffs. Toyota sold over 2.3 million vehicles in the U.S. last year, a 3.7% year-over-year increase. Between April 2024 and March 2025, the company built 1.96 million units in the U.S., according to Statista. So, despite a U.S. production capacity that can handle nearly 2 million vehicles a year, Toyota still ships in nearly half a million vehicles from overseas to sell in the U.S. On June 21, Toyota said that prices for several Toyota and Lexus brand vehicles will rise by an average of $270 and $208, respectively, starting in July, according to an email seen by Bloomberg. While the price increase could be seen as a response to the 25% duties Trump has placed on auto imports, Toyota insists that the move is just part of its regular price review process. Related: Jeep parent Stellantis ponders drastic action on struggling brand In April, fellow Japanese automaker Mitsubishi said it would hold its vehicles in port for the foreseeable future instead of offloading them and being forced to pay duties. "We have sufficient stock on the ground at dealers for the moment to not impact customer choice," the company said at the time. While it was unclear how much cargo was in the ports, Mitsubishi's 330 U.S. dealers sold 109,843 vehicles in the U.S. in 2024, a 25.8% year-over-year increase and the brand's best performance since 2019. Earlier this month, the company announced that it is raising prices on three models, also saying that the move was just a regular adjustment and not a reaction to tariffs. Japanese car companies aren't the only ones afraid to pin their price increases on tariffs. In May, Ford sent a notice to dealers saying it planned to raise prices on the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, Maverick pickup truck, and Bronco Sport SUV by as much as $2,000 on some models. Those vehicles are made in Mexico. More Automotive news Detroit Big 3 benefit from auto tariffs now, but time is running outPopular Ford newcomer overtakes Jeep in a key areaToyota makes surprising move to beat Tesla in key market A Ford spokesperson confirmed that the price increases will be seen on vehicles built after May 2. Those vehicles will start arriving on dealer lots in late June. The company emphasized that its employee pricing promotion remains for all of its vehicles through the July 4 weekend. Just like Mazda and Toyota before it, the company says the increase was due to its usual midyear pricing actions, but it was also "combined with some tariffs we are facing. We have not passed on the full cost of tariffs to our customers." Related: Car buyers, dealers are both shocked by latest price trends The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.

Newsweek

15 hours ago

• Newsweek

IndyCar Unveils the 2028 Race Car

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. IndyCar announced the new car for the 2028 season, which will be ready for testing in 2026. The American racing series revealed the new race car while at the Road America track ahead of the XPEL Grand Prix. Dallara is producing the new chassis for the car, continuing as the exclusive chassis for IndyCar as it has since 2008. The series officials plan on the new design improving the racing throughout all four track types and pushing the car's development further. "The time has come for a new NTT INDYCAR SERIES chassis," INDYCAR President Douglas Boles said in a statement. "The DW12 served the series so well, as it provided a combination of phenomenal, wheel-to-wheel racing and critical enhancements to safety. "But recent significant updates to the car - from the aeroscreen to the hybrid power unit - have helped advance the need for a completely new car. "We are pleased by what our engineers and Dallara have collaboratively designed and believe it will appeal to the fans and paddock while also upholding our standards of safety and enhancing INDYCAR's on-track competition well into the future." The 2028 car features a projected weight of 85-100 pounds compared to the current model. The engine is going to become a 2.4-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 internal combustion engine, which should be more powerful. Scott McLaughlin, driver of the #3 Dex imaging Team Penske Chevrolet drives during the NTT INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 02, 2025 in St Petersburg, Florida. Scott McLaughlin, driver of the #3 Dex imaging Team Penske Chevrolet drives during the NTT INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 02, 2025 in St Petersburg, Florida. Photo by Miguel will create the power supply as it has since 2000. They designed the engine to be 25 pounds lighter and to use more electrical power. The new model is still not set, as the designers and engineers are still rounding out the rough edges of the design. IndyCar stated that further details and renderings of the design are yet to come. It is unclear when the timeline for its unveiling will. While the features and promise of the new car sound nice, there is still much to be learned from testing to see if it can deliver better racing than the current generation of cars. IndyCar's European competitor, Formula 1, introduced a new set of regulations in 2022, which promised better racing, but the cars are creating more dirty air than ever, making it harder for cars to follow others. If they manage to develop a meaningful improvement over the current car that races better across the different tracks, the series' unique tracks could shine more, setting it apart from any other motorsport in the world and continuing to compete with F1.