Chrysler Announces Ram 1500 Plug-In Hybrid with HEMI V8 Engine

Fresh out of the huge debt it owed to the US and Canadian governments, Chrysler made an announcement on Wednesday that took everyone by surprise: out of the clear blue sky, and just when everyone was beginning to give up on the hopes of seeing Chrysler-badged electric vehicles on the roads (the American manufacturer put an end to its EV program, ENVI, a few months before it filed for Chapter 11 protection), here come not one, not two, but one hundred and forty plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Using the Ram 1500 as a platform, Chrysler came up with a plug-in hybrid pick-up truck (probably the first in the US) that is powered by a liquid-cooled 12.9kWhr lithium ion battery pack and a 6.6 kilowatt (kW) on-board charger.

But that's only the electric component of the drive train. Can anyone guess what Chrysler is using for a range extender (or at least some type of)? No? A 5.7l HEMI V8. That's right. Chrysler main workhorse has been paired with an electric system. Who would have thought...

Anyway, Chrysler's idea of a plug-in hybrid is not the same as everybody else's. Apparently, the HEMI is more than a range extender for the electric side of the car. The exact details on how the combined system works have not been released, but Chrysler did say that the HEMI could be forced to use only four of its eight cylinders to reduce fuel consumption (which kind of makes you wonder why you need a V8 in a PHEV system in the first place).

The fleet of Rams has already begun delivery to select partners across the US, to be used as test platforms for thermal management, charging performance, fuel economy and real-world performance. The dead ENVI program remains dead, as Chrysler said it has no plans to actually produce the Ram 1500 PHEV in the near future. But hey, the $48 million grant from the Department of Energy had to be spent somehow...