Get The Drive’s daily newsletter
The latest car news, reviews, and features.
A few years ago, under the direction of long-gone Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, Ram announced that its V8 era was over. To add insult to injury, GM announced right around the same time that it planned to invest more money into keeping its own V8 relevant, and last we heard, it was still on track to do so. But the Hemi was to be no more, falling by the wayside in favor of a new, twin-turbo, 3.0-liter inline-six capable of delivering the same power in an ostensibly leaner footprint.
Not everybody was sad to see the Hemi die. Take it from a former 392 guy; it’s easy to have a love-hate relationship with these engines—not that Mopar owners are necessarily alone in that regard. But speaking for myself, at least, it was never about the V8. What I wanted was a new Hemi, not no Hemi.
But however you may feel about the subject, it doesn’t change the fact that Ram suddenly found itself the only domestic—which is just another way of saying “relevant”—half-ton manufacturer without a V8, and this just so happened to coincide with a repeatedly delayed top-to-bottom redesign of the 1500 pickup. The result? Empty showrooms. It’s one thing to be a Chevy dealership with no Silverados on the lot; there are still plenty of other Chevrolets. Ram? Not so much.
Byron Hurd
Well, welcome to 2025, where the rules are made up and the fines points don’t matter. The Hemi is officially back. And starting today, you can walk into your dealership and purchase a V8-powered Ram 1500 and rip big, nasty burnouts like the one above. Yes, those tires were properly trashed, and yes, that’s precisely what that truck was set aside for.
In fact, “sound and fury” was sort of the theme of the day. After all, when you get down to it, the Hemi is sort of a superfluous inclusion. Ram designed this iteration of the 1500 pickup to get by without it. When it departed the Ram 1500 lineup in 2023, the “eTorque” Hemi V8 was the beefiest gas engine on offer, packing 410 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque. Both of those figures are bested by the new truck’s standard-output Hurricane (420 hp and 469 lb-ft of torque) and absolutely stomped by the high-output version (510 hp and 540 lb-ft).
Surrounded by six-cylinder offerings, this Hemi’s job is merely to exist as a V8—nothing more and nothing less. So, hopefully you’ll be neither surprised nor disappointed to learn that there’s nothing particularly remarkable about driving the new Hemi Ram. It makes all the right noises at all the right times, and if that soundtrack is the only thing that has been standing between you and a new Ram pickup, well, consider that box checked.
Byron Hurd
And, look, it does feel right. I don’t mean that in the sense that a full-size pickup “should” have a V8; that way lies posturing nonsense. But being in-your-face is kind of a Stellantis brand thing. Launching a new truck to flag-waving fanfare absent of the brand’s characteristic brashness was an unforced error on behalf of the company’s former leadership, and it was one that returning Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis immediately set out to correct.
Given how rapidly the company managed this about-face, one gets the sense that two things are probably true: First, the Hemi was likely axed fairly late in the new truck’s development cycle, and second, the engineers likely proceeded as if the decision could be reversed at any time.
If you’re familiar with the automotive development process, you know nothing happens quickly. It can take anywhere from five to seven years to bring a car from concept to production. Power train development alone can take a significant chunk of that. Yet, somehow, Ram managed to stand this whole Hemi revival up in just 10 months, starting with an all-hands call during Ram’s holiday break last December, after Kuniskis had the go-ahead from the new Stellantis CEO to spin up the Hemi once again.
So when I said above that driving the Hemi Ram felt “right,” I didn’t just mean that order had been restored to the universe; it was also a commentary on how coherent the V8 Ram feels, given how quickly it was pressed into service. I detoured from Ram’s prescribed test route and took the truck out to some familiar roads. The wet weather would have been an excellent excuse for sketchy engine and driveline behavior, but there was none to be found. Brisk starts on wet pavement resulted in little drama, even with the mild hybrid’s instant torque delivery.
From the sound to the smooth, predictable power delivery, everything works exactly as it should. That’s remarkable considering how quickly this came together. Even with an engine bay that offered more than enough real estate for an eight-cylinder, Ram’s engineers still had to make a whole lot of electronic modules “speak Hemi,” as they put it.
If the rapidity of it all makes you nervous, consider this: the Hemi isn’t the only thing new for the Ram 1500 in 2026. There’s also a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty.
But even if the Hemi is back, it’s not the same. The Ram Classic is dead, and with it the prospect of a cheap entry point for the Hemi. Even though it’s not the top-dog engine, Ram will still be charging top-dog prices for it. Nominally, the Hemi upgrade costs just $1,200, but in practice there’s an extra step: that price tag assumes you’ve already ticked the option for the standard-output (SO) Hurricane I6, which will set you back $1,695. You have to combine the two to get the true upgrade cost of $2,895.
Ram
Critically, the Hemi is not locked out of the Ram’s cheaper trim lines. Perhaps it’s a nod to the departed Classic, which helped the Hemi maintain its reputation as a volume engine, but either way, even the base truck can be optioned with the mild-hybrid V8. The Laramie and Rebel get the SO Hurricane as standard equipment, so you’re only on the hook for the Hemi’s upgrade cost there, and once you’re playing around in the range-topping models (Tungsten, etc.), you can have either at no charge. Note that the Hemi Rebel is still in the pipeline, with pricing and availability expected later in the production run.
Ram won’t say what’s next for its V8 program, but we will: Over the next eighteen months, we fully expect to see the TRX return (with even more power, though likely not by much), and we also wouldn’t be surprised to see the 392 make its way into the light-duty Ram. The 6.4-liter remained in production in heavy-duty trucks despite disappearing from Dodge’s passenger cars and SUVs, but it was never offered in the 1500. With a gutted EPA, anything is possible, but Ram may be content to use it as a lure to attract buyers to the more-expensive HD lineup.
What we do know for certain is that you can once again order all three domestic pickup trucks with a (relatively) old-fashioned V8. It’s nice that something makes sense in 2025.
Quick Take
A V8 half-ton is nothing revolutionary, but that’s exactly why it needed to happen. In this case, meeting expectations is an absolute victory.
2026 Ram 1500 Hemi SpecsBase Price (Tradesman 4×4)$52,215Powertrain5.7-liter V8 | 8-speed automatic | 4×2 (late availability) or 4×4Horsepower410 @ 5,600 rpmTorque395 lb-ft @ 3,950 rpmMax Towing11,320 poundsMax Payload1,650 poundsEPA Fuel EconomyTBAScore8/10
Got a tip? Send it in: tips@thedrive.com
Byron is a contributing writer and auto reviewer with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
Car Buying Service
