Ram's new top sport truck gets 6-cylinder, serious off-road character, and a hefty price cut

Detroit — A military-themed hype video for the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO pickup has the usual hallmarks of the off-roader vehicle reveal: spraying sand and mud, catching air off a big southern California dune, even the presence of an action movie star in Glen Powell.

But the clip also has Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis mentioning something perhaps less expected in today’s world of ultra-luxury pickups: a lower price. The new RHO, available for order starting Thursday and hitting dealers in the third quarter, starts at $69,995 not including destination charge. 

That’ll still make many truck enthusiasts’ eyes water, but it’s a lot less than the 2024 Ram 1500 TRX, which previously took the top spot in the Stellantis NV brand’s sport truck lineup and starts at $96,590. It’s also several thousand dollars less than the base price of the Ford F-150 Raptor, a direct competitor.

“When you look at the window sticker, you’ll see this is not some decoy to get people excited about a truck built out of unobtanium,” Kuniskis says in the video. “The new Ram RHO pushes out more horsepower per dollar than any other full-size off-road pickup.”

Bob Broderdorf, Ram’s operations officer, also touted the price of the new RHO, or Ram High Output, in a recent media briefing, noting it’s part of a broader focus on MSRP realignment for the brand. Prices across the Ram truck lineup have recently been moved down $4,000 to $10,000 depending on trim, he said.

“If you're looking at the repositioning of our entire lineup, from Warlock all the way across up to our legendary Cummins diesel, the value proposition has improved significantly,” Broderdorf said.

The executive said Ram needs to focus more on its sport truck segment, which beyond the new RHO includes the Warlock, Rebel, 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel and Power Wagon, and currently makes up roughly a third of overall Ram pickup sales.

“Sport trucks — honestly this needs to be a staple for us,” Broderdorf said of the beefy pickups, which place a focus on off-roading and other recreation. “It needs to be something that we absolutely cherish, get behind and create a value equation that our customers are going to enjoy.”

At the top of that sport lineup, the RHO will have a Hurricane High Output six-cylinder turbo engine putting out 540 horsepower — no longer the big V-8 putting out 702 horses that was in the TRX. 

Ram executives pledged the smaller and lighter engine still feels plenty potent, though, due in part to some tweaked air intake and exhaust systems. They said the truck can go 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds. The truck also offers an array of drive modes, utilizing changes to wheel travel and damping to absorb big hits while romping through sand dunes, while still being able to shift over to carving on pavement through a canyon.

“It’s a fast truck,” said Doug Killian, Ram chief vehicle synthesis manager. “When you get behind it, it feels like it's got a lot more power than just the standard numbers will indicate and again, that's through the air intake and the exhaust freeing up that they give more of that real world power. Especially off road.”

Mark Trostle, head of Ram exterior design, said designers didn’t want to tweak too much at risk of upsetting the brand's loyalists, but they notably changed where the RAM badge is on the front for the new sport truck designs, moving it higher, and also thinned the headlamps, which adds a “sinister face quality” to the pickup.

Inside the RHO are more than 50 inches of combined screens including a 10-inch passenger screen, as well as other luxury features such as seats with memory settings and a massage function, and a Harman Kardon audio system. 

Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst at market research firm Guidehouse Inc., said competition for the RHO includes the Ford Raptor, Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 Bison, GMC Sierra AT4x, and even electric vehicles like the GMC Hummer EV. In the context of that upper-crust pickup truck market, the new Ram does offer “a fairly reasonable value,” he said.

And it’s got the same look, and comparable off-roading capabilities, as the outgoing TRX, if not the same super high-performance V-8 engine, the analyst noted. 

Abuelsamid suspects Ram will bring back the TRX at some point, though it will probably be electrified to some extent. 

The brand could create a super powerful iteration of Jeep’s 4xe plug-in hybrid vehicles for a future TRX, he said. Or it could use a hybrid technology like the one the brand is using for its Ramcharger, where a gas-powered engine can kick in but only as a generator to recharge the battery.

Then again a future TRX could be fully battery-powered, he said, possibly utilizing the same Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust system that Dodge is using on its new Charger, to provide the loud engine noise of old. 

Broderdorf, the Ram executive, acknowledged there is a “clear opportunity” to bring electrification to the brand’s sport truck lineup in the future. And he said the TRX could make a return at some point, slotting in above the RHO, though he wouldn’t talk specifics. 

“There is a time and a place to make something that's truly crazy, that fits the TRX letters,” he said. “Just not today.”

For today, it's the RHO — and a slightly more palatable price tag.

lramseth@detroitnews.com

@lramseth