Ram, and Stellantis as a whole, did away with its V8 engine, slowly phasing out the old Hemi V8 across its brands and lineups over the last few years with much fanfare and many limited editions. Customers were told to act now or lose out. Apparently, for Ram, that may not have been true. CEO Tim Kuniskis loves that V8, and told Motor1 that he won’t “rule out” a return of the engine that at one point powered 85 percent of Ram’s half-ton trucks.
V8 Go Brr?
Though Kuniskis says he’s “not ruling out” the return of the Hemi, he also points out some new technical hurdles that now stand in the way of the engine’s reintroduction. The engine, however, does still fit, at least hypothetically. The latest refresh of Ram’s truck lineup didn’t change the models dimensionally, but a whole lot of new tech did change them in other ways.
“Number one, the Hemi was never designed to run in that truck on that electrical architecture, so that’s a huge challenge. They shut down production on that particular Hemi, the eTorque. There’s supplier work because when you shut something down, suppliers shut down their assembly lines, and they switch to something else.”
On Kuniskis’ final point, this could make the Hemi’s resurrection an expensive procedure. Once these suppliers have moved on, paying them to start building Hemi-related objects again won’t be cheap, and Stellantis isn’t exactly flush with cash at the moment.
When Could The Hemi Come Back?
The thing is, even if Ram wanted to do it, and Kuniskis sounds rather wishy-washy about it, it’d take time. Ram would need to notify previous suppliers (or secure new ones) and update the truck’s current electronics to play nice with an older engine, for starters. “Even if you said let’s do it, we can’t do it right away,” Kuniskis told Motor1. “I didn’t say you can’t do it … you can’t do it right away.”
TopSpeed’s Take
Ram also recently committed to an entirely new turbocharged inline-six powertrain. New engines are some of the most costly things to do in the auto business, and the new Hurricane I6 also features 420 horsepower in its standard power configuration. Getting a naturally-aspirated V8 to match that figure would require updating the Hemi, in all likelihood. With a new (and expensive) engine already under half-ton hoods, Kuniskis’ optimism is potentially the only thing keeping the old engine going.
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