I think Chrysler/Ram/Stellantis is onto an amazing idea. Their new PHEV pickup will have around 70 kw-hrs of battery and about 145 miles of range, with a V6 powered charger and a 27 gallon gas tank.
Chrysler has had amazing successes in the past with new ideas, like the super basic K cars and minivans. Could this put them on top of the trucking world where seemingly nobody wants Ford's wimpy EV pickup? This Ram will probably be a gas hog when towing, but for occasional use so what?
A PHEV isn’t a particularly amazing or new idea. It did take awhile for the great minds to think about utilizing the technology in their most profitable models.
Toyota did it with the RAV4 prime and Stellantis did it a few years ago with the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe variants. Lexus has introduced a PHEV SUV and their commercial emphasizes “Electricity for the short trips, gas for the long trips”. Finally, someone is trying to educate low information customers.
I’ve read a number of articles on the Ram PHEV and while none have mentioned a MPG figure for highway driving in e-Save Mode, for example, a bit of math comes up with 20mpg. This was obtained by subtracting the EV range of 145 from the total claimed range of 690, resulting in 545 and then dividing 545 by 27, the stated fuel capacity. As a point of reference, I recently drove a 2009 Ram 1500, regular cab, short bed, 2WD, equipped with a 3.7l V-6 more than 5000 miles this past August and September. It averaged 17-18mpg.
Depending on what the new truck is towing, in addition to towing speeds and terrain, I’d expect a 30% loss of range while towing in e-Save Mode, which preserves the battery SOC. That would work out to roughly 375 miles and the battery would still be fully charged. Yes, e-Save works remarkably well on Stellantis products, at least on the Jeep 4xe models. Personally, I would only tow something over say, 8000lbs locally. Any sort of multi-day, cross country trip with a camper would be with a trailer that weighs less than 8000lbs, perhaps even 6000lbs. The truck will likely have a relatively short wheelbase that won’t play well with long, heavy trailers. Even thought it reportedly rides on 8-lug wheels, suggesting that it is built on something equivalent to a 3/4-ton chassis, it’s still a short truck.
The 145 mile EV range would easily cover a typical commute, grocery getting and soccer games.
One note on the 4xe: It has a Fuel and Oil Refresh Mode (FORM). We experienced this in October after not having added or used any fuel since early June. The vehicle defaults to Hybrid Mode and will run the engine until at least 4 gallons of fuel is used and replaced. Or so we thought. After adding 12 gallons the car remained in FORM. Another condition which may need to be met is operating the vehicle for at least 20 minutes with the oil temperature above 205F. So, I drove it up a mountain for 35 minutes in low gears, keeping the temperature up, all to no avail. The final condition which can end this wastefulness is running the fuel level down until the low fuel light illuminates. That worked. The car immediately went into EV Mode. We unnecessarily burned more than 30 gallons of fuel just to get the car to go back to EV. We’re taking a trip next month that would have burned the fuel on the first day, but there’s no way to bypass this feature. So we’re going to make sure and use some fuel every 3-4 months. It did cross my mind to drain the fuel and just put it back in.
