Inside Stellantis’ plan to revive its Ram Trucks brand after declines

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis reemerged from a seven-month retirement late final 12 months saying he “missed the combat” 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 lengthen by way of 2026.

The plan contains greater than 25 bulletins by way of subsequent 12 months. To this point 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 lately, a brand new industry-leading powertrain guarantee for its Ram merchandise.

Since returning after a CEO shake-up, Kuniskis is invigorated. He is “flying and not using a parachute,” as he lately described it, whereas taking part in 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 report 12 months again in 2019.

“I’ve excellent readability of my return as a result of, after I left and had an opportunity to relaxation, I noticed I did not want to go away, I simply wanted a break. Then I used to be itching to return again,” Kuniskis instructed CNBC throughout a latest interview in his comparatively undecorated workplace. (He gave lots of his profession keepsakes away when he retired.) “Now we have a window of alternative right here to repair loads of stuff, and a few persons are stressed by that chance, and a few persons are fueled by it. Fortunately, our group is fueled by it.”

Kuniskis, who was main Ram and Dodge upon his retirement mid-last 12 months, 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 12 months after the car’s launch.

“We tried to do too many issues directly,” Kuniskis mentioned of the Ram 1500. “We actually modified the whole lot 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.

Ram is among the most important of Stellantis’ 14 manufacturers — if not an important. It competes within the extremely worthwhile full-size pickup truck market and {industry} specialists mentioned its success is essential to the corporate reestablishing itself within the industrial gross sales market.

“It is form of the spine of their enterprise,” mentioned Joseph Yoon, shopper insights analyst at CarMax‘s information and shopper automobile procuring website Edmunds.com. “The market share is vastly essential.”

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 12 months, in response to 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 response to firm information, permitting rivals equivalent to Common Motors and Toyota Motor to extend gross sales throughout that point.

Whereas it is early into the turnaround plan, which fits into subsequent 12 months, Ram has already resurrected its fashionable 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 might 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 marketing campaign and delayed the model’s electrified pickup vans amid low market demand.

“There’s at all times a technique to the insanity,” Kuniskis mentioned. “There’s at all times a enterprise motive behind one thing that looks as if enjoyable.”

A part of that “enjoyable” features a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place followers can “Journey the Hemi” – a mechanical bull journey that appears just like the model’s new “Image of Protest” emblem 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 car 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 Vehicles had a roughly 17% share of the U.S. full-size pickup truck market in 2024, in response to {industry} information.

“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.”

However Kuniskis mentioned market share is just one metric and that plant utilization and earnings are additionally essential. Whereas Ram’s general gross sales are down, he mentioned retail gross sales — a intently watched metric — are anticipated to be up by about 28% by way of the primary half of the 12 months.

“You do not wish to chase share only for the sake of chasing share,” he mentioned. “I wish to have all crops operating at full capability to maximise my effectivity.”

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 will. The latter half is an acronym with many meanings, together with “let’s freaking go.”

“If you had been at school, they instructed you ‘Get an ‘A,’ the whole lot shall be nice. You may achieve success in life.’ Not true. Not true,” Kuniskis mentioned. “They keep in mind the man that approach pushed past simply getting an ‘A’ at school and did one thing totally different, push that final tenth.”

Kuniskis handed out the wristbands to his group in addition to the model’s sellers throughout his return to an annual seller convention in January as a solution to regain the belief of outlets after years of contentious relations over incentives, merchandise and value will increase.

To this point it appears to be working, in response to Michael Bettenhausen, a seller in Illinois who chairs the Stellantis Nationwide Supplier Council.

“All the pieces 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 outstanding.”

Bettenhausen additionally mentioned the full-size pickup truck market is essential to the success of the corporate and its sellers. It’s made up of consumers who usually 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 folks, it would not matter if their model is objectively the most effective product or not. It is simply that regardless of the automaker is doing, they really feel prefer it’s greatest for them.”

Bringing again the automaker’s well-known Hemi V-8 could have been a great 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 12 months. He mentioned the plug-in mannequin — often known as an extended-range electrical car, or EREV — will start manufacturing this 12 months however declined to specify when shopper gross sales will start.

Kuniskis mentioned he believes the EREV shall be extra of a differentiator available in the market and extra essential within the model’s turnaround plan by way of 2026.

“I am actually bullish on the 12 months. I am actually pleased with how we began this 12 months and that is simply utilizing conventional ways,” Kuniskis mentioned. “We have not gotten to the brand new stuff but.”