2025 RAM 1500 LOSES THE HEMI V8
The Hemi is dead! No more 5.7! In its place, a new twin-turbo 3.0 litre straight-six; around that, a seriously pleasant face-lifted 2025 Ram 1500 pickup.
The fifth-generation Ram 1500 has been with us since 2019, and this update should earn some respectable staying power. Updated with new powertrains, new cabin tech, and still-better cabin garnishes, the 2025 Ram feels as near a new model as many outright new generations.
LUXURY TRAJECTORY
The 2025 Ram 1500 introduces a new capstone Tungsten trim, priced from $109,140 and including most everything shy of the additional towing and off-road packages. Taking a page from the Genesis luxury reinvention, investment in nicer materials and slicker cabin technologies loads this top trim with well-executed details including pleasant seat massagers and a head-up display. Held against its peers from Ford and General Motors, the Ram arguably offers the nicest available interior finishes, though its Gm-matching infotainment doesn't quite scratch the excellent new Toyota system launched with the new Tundra.
It's the trickle-down across the rest of the lineup that's most impressive though. Modern pickups' shift to independent front suspension and multilink coil-sprung rears have improved their roadholding and responsiveness significantly, but the 2025 Ram 1500 carries this further. Even in the base Tradesman trim and with tire pressures nearing 40 psi, the updated platform cruises with astonishing softness. Configured without
air height control, the base Tradesman's double-wishbone front and well-damped rear rides like some older-generation airsprung premium sedans; indeed, the Tradesman even felt steadier and more comfortable than the Grand Wagoneers we shuttled to and from the airport in.
Noise is also well managed in the new trucks, with laminated front glass standard from base. This helps insulate the cabin from wind- or exterior noise, and matches a broader apparent effort at noise and vibration control. This is significant, for it makes even the workaday Tradesman a wonderfully relaxing place to be.
2025 RAM 1500 ENGINES
The 2025 Ram 1500 has abandoned the classic 5.7 L Hemi V8 in favour of a new top powertrain, the twin-turbocharged Hurricane ' 3.0 L in-line six. Offered in standard SST and high-output SST HO specifications, the 3.0 L delivers either 420 horsepower and 469 poundfeet of torque or a higher-strung 540 hp and 521 lb-ft in the HO.
For perspective, the outgoing 5.7 L ran 395 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque. The new hybrid Toyota Tundra iforce Max, meanwhile, runs 437 hp, 583 lb-ft and a comparable 12,000-lb tow rating.
Light-duty buyers can also option the long-running 3.6 L Pentastar V6, making the 2025 Ram 1500 a rare “bisixual” among pickups. Note that the 3.0 L Ecodiesel is no more; those poor crankshafts can finally rest easy.
The new Hurricane engine fits two matching turbochargers, with one drawing short runners from the first three cylinders and the other from the latter. Each turbine gets its own full-bore exhaust, meaning that two full three-inch pipes run the inner length of the frame rail to the rear.
Turbos on a gasoline work truck are an unsurprising but nevertheless bold move. The 5.7's natural aspiration kept maintenance relatively simple and straightforward, as befitting a classic V8. Modern turbos benefit economy, but they also mean heat, cost and anxiety.
Ford's early Ecoboosts are said to have been instructive here, with engineers citing their fuel-economy and output issues as driving a major effort to mitigate knock with the new Hurricane. With displacement so reduced to ease emissions, turbos offer the volume to compensate for that reduction in lung capacity; likewise, narrow, undersquare pistons also aim to compensate by ensuring that expanding gases can reach the cylinder walls and press down quickly. To avoid any wasted power or economy from knock (premature fuel detonation), the Hurricane runs high injection pressures so that fuel can be introduced all at once, and only in the final moments of the piston cycle.
Also important for economy and longevity is thermal management, in this case through liquid-to-air cooling and more aggressive exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR). By running vapourdense exhaust gas back through the engine, water molecules from the initial combustion process have a second pass through the engine to absorb heat and carry it out through the tailpipes. The long-term reliability of this powertrain is yet to be seen, of course, but sets an encouraging tone.
The 2025 Ram 1500 runs all of its powertrains through the usual ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, with power going to all four wheels through your choice of 3.21, new 3.55, or 3.92 finaldrive ratios. As usual, differential options include open, limited-slip, or electronic locking.
The Ram 1500 Tradesman starts from $61,640 after destination, but the lineup stretches as far as a base MSRP of $109,140 for the loaded Tungsten trim.