Stellantis’ Ram show is seen on the New York Worldwide Auto Present on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis reemerged from a seven-month retirement late final yr saying he “missed the battle” and admitting the Stellantis model was getting smashed within the market by its competitors.
Kuniskis walked on stage throughout a media occasion because the audio system blared Detroit rapper Eminem singing “Guess who’s again, again once more.” He promised an aggressive turnaround for the embattled truck model that’s now getting underway and can prolong by way of 2026.
The plan consists of greater than 25 bulletins by way of subsequent yr. So far they’ve included a return to NASCAR with mechanical bull rides and a brand new race truck, the resurrection of Hemi V-8 engines with a brand new “Image of Protest,” and, most not too long ago, a brand new industry-leading powertrain guarantee for its Ram merchandise.
Since returning after a CEO shake-up, Kuniskis is invigorated. He is “flying with no parachute,” as he not too long ago described it, whereas enjoying with borrowed time and home cash since his unretirement. He is going all in to launch a renaissance of Ram, which has skilled a 38% gross sales decline since its document yr again in 2019.
Ram Vans CEO Tim Kuniskis contained in the model’s Ram 1500 NASCAR Truck Collection idea.
Stellantis
“I’ve good readability of my return as a result of, after I left and had an opportunity to relaxation, I spotted I did not want to depart, I simply wanted a break. Then I used to be itching to return again,” Kuniskis informed CNBC throughout a current interview in his comparatively undecorated workplace. (He gave lots of his profession keepsakes away when he retired.) “We’ve got a window of alternative right here to repair a number of stuff, and a few persons are wired by that chance, and a few persons are fueled by it. Fortunately, our crew is fueled by it.”
Kuniskis, who was main Ram and Dodge upon his retirement mid-last yr, mentioned an array of points led to the model’s present scenario, together with the automaker’s pricing, mannequin launch cadence and, most significantly, issues with a redesign of its Ram 1500. That redesign led to manufacturing points which are nonetheless being labored out greater than a yr after the automobile’s launch.
“We tried to do too many issues directly,” Kuniskis mentioned of the Ram 1500. “We actually modified all the pieces as a substitute of doing a cadence of the adjustments.”
Kuniskis did not contact on the bigger points Stellantis was coping with beneath former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who left the automaker in December. Kuniskis was recruited again to Ram amid the change in management.
Turnaround plan
Stellantis reveals its Ram 1500 NASCAR idea on the Michigan Worldwide Speedway in June 2025.
Stellantis
Ram is without doubt one of the most important of Stellantis’ 14 manufacturers — if not a very powerful. It competes within the extremely worthwhile full-size pickup truck market and {industry} consultants mentioned its success is vital to the corporate reestablishing itself within the business gross sales market.
“It is sort of the spine of their enterprise,” mentioned Joseph Yoon, client insights analyst at CarMax‘s knowledge and client automotive purchasing website Edmunds.com. “The market share is vastly necessary.”
Market share for the Ram 1500 within the U.S. full-size pickup truck market has plummeted from 17.8% in 2019 to eight.4% by way of roughly the primary half of this yr, in line with Edmunds.
Ram’s gross sales of full-size vans, which incorporates the 1500 and bigger variations, have declined 41% from 2019 by way of 2024, in line with firm knowledge, permitting rivals corresponding to Normal Motors and Toyota Motor to extend gross sales throughout that point.
Whereas it is early into the turnaround plan, which works into subsequent yr, Ram has already resurrected its common Hemi V-8 engine; reintroduced lower-priced pickup truck fashions; introduced a return to NASCAR; and launched a 10-year/100,000 restricted powertrain guarantee for brand new vans throughout its lineup, amongst different issues.
Kuniskis has mentioned additional bulletins may embody a number of new potential automobiles, together with a passenger van and midsize pickup truck that is anticipated in 2027. He is additionally launched a “Nothing Stops Ram” advertising and marketing marketing campaign and delayed the model’s electrified pickup vans amid low market demand.
“There’s all the time a technique to the insanity,” Kuniskis mentioned. “There’s all the time a enterprise motive behind one thing that looks like enjoyable.”
A part of Ram’s new advertising and marketing efforts embrace a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place race followers can “Trip the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” Hemi brand that options the engine with a ram’s head.
Stellantis
A part of that “enjoyable” features a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place followers can “Trip the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” brand that options the engine with a ram’s head. If riders can keep on for 15 seconds, they obtain a special-edition T-shirt that may’t be bought.
Its splashy return to NASCAR earlier this month in Michigan additionally included a brand new truck design, in addition to a automobile doing doughnut burnouts.
Kuniskis declined to reveal gross sales targets for the Ram model or its full-size pickup vans, however he mentioned the corporate is aiming for a market share someplace between 20% and 29.9% for its full-size vans by the tip of the plan. Ram Vans had a roughly 17% share of the U.S. full-size pickup truck market in 2024, in line with {industry} knowledge.
“I do know precisely the place we wish to be and what our expectations are,” he mentioned. “I ought to legitimately have a market share that begins with a two. … That is a place to begin for us.”
A part of Ram’s new advertising and marketing efforts embrace a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place race followers can “Trip the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” Hemi brand that options the engine with a ram’s head.
Stellantis
However Kuniskis mentioned market share is just one metric and that plant utilization and income are additionally necessary. Whereas Ram’s general gross sales are down, he mentioned retail gross sales — a carefully watched metric — are anticipated to be up by about 28% by way of the primary half of the yr.
“You do not wish to chase share only for the sake of chasing share,” he mentioned. “I wish to have all vegetation operating at full capability to maximise my effectivity.”
‘Final Tenth LFG’
Kuniskis wears a black band on his left wrist with white lettering that reads “Final Tenth LFG.”
The primary half has been a mantra of Kuniskis’ for years to push his prime lieutenants to carry out as greatest as they’ll. The latter half is an acronym with many meanings, together with “let’s freaking go.”
“If you had been in class, they informed you ‘Get an ‘A,’ all the pieces will likely be nice. You will achieve success in life.’ Not true. Not true,” Kuniskis mentioned. “They bear in mind the man that manner pushed past simply getting an ‘A’ in class and did one thing completely different, push that final tenth.”
Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis handed out “Final Tenth LFG” bracelets to his crew and sellers as a symbolic gesture of the model’s turnaround.
Stellantis
Kuniskis handed out the wristbands to his crew in addition to the model’s sellers throughout his return to an annual supplier convention in January as a technique to regain the belief of outlets after years of contentious relations over incentives, merchandise and value will increase.
Up to now it appears to be working, in line with Michael Bettenhausen, a supplier in Illinois who chairs the Stellantis Nationwide Supplier Council.
“The whole lot that Tim has confirmed us has us satisfied that the model is on a path to get again to the volumes that we have seen from years previous,” Bettenhausen mentioned. “We’re actually excited that Tim is main this cost. It is actually exceptional.”
Bettenhausen additionally mentioned the full-size pickup truck market is vital to the success of the corporate and its sellers. It’s made up of patrons who typically have generational loyalties to a model and act as ambassadors for it.
“Buyer loyalty is a large a part of that enterprise,” Yoon mentioned. “For lots of those individuals, it does not matter if their model is objectively the perfect product or not. It is simply that regardless of the automaker is doing, they really feel prefer it’s greatest for them.”
Ram 1500 prolonged vary hybrid pickup, set to return to market in early 2026, may have the longest driving vary the corporate has ever provided in a light-duty truck, as much as 690 whole miles between its gasoline engine and battery energy.
Ram | Stellantis
Bringing again the automaker’s well-known Hemi V-8 might have been an excellent begin, as Kuniskis mentioned the corporate acquired 12,000 Hemi orders on the primary day pickup vans with the engine had been accessible for sellers to order.
Because the Hemi returns, Ram’s electrification plans, together with a brand new plug-in truck and an all-electric mannequin, are being delayed. Kuniskis declined to debate manufacturing timing for the all-electric mannequin, which was initially anticipated final yr. He mentioned the plug-in mannequin — often known as an extended-range electrical automobile, or EREV — will start manufacturing this yr however declined to specify when client gross sales will start.
Kuniskis mentioned he believes the EREV will likely be extra of a differentiator available in the market and extra necessary within the model’s turnaround plan by way of 2026.
“I am actually bullish on the yr. I am actually pleased with how we began this yr and that is simply utilizing conventional ways,” Kuniskis mentioned. “We’ve not gotten to the brand new stuff but.”
