Exec reveals sales trends for pickup powertrains from Ram, GM and Ford

It’s not every day that you make time for a high-ranking automotive executive who is willing to share juicy market information – not just about his own company, but also about his rivals.

In Detroit, where full-size pickups amount to trench warfare, it’s generally Ford and General Motors that claim segment dominance based on their reading of the data, while Stellantis and its Ram division continually scrape for any incremental gains in market share.

Big mistake cutting Hemi

A management shake-up at the top pushed Ram into bankruptcy in recent years, and it’s up to Tim Kuniskis, who returned to Ram as CEO just over a year ago after a very brief retirement, to regain lost ground and continue to grow Ram’s sales, however possible.

In 2025, he was instrumental in bringing the Hemi V8 back to Ram pickups, saying it was a mistake to discontinue this iconic engine and leave the full-size pickup lineup with nothing but six-cylinder engines, regardless of their capabilities.

‘People hate not having a choice’

During the press days of the Detroit Auto Show this week, Kuniskis said Top speed it was important that Ram 1500 pickups had the V8 option as offered by the competition. It was in June that Ram announced the return of the Hemi for the 2026 model year.

Ram truck buyers “were disappointed that we didn’t give them a choice. People resent not having a choice,” he says. “‘Let me make the choice. Do I want the turbo-six SO, do I want the turbo-6 HO, or do I want the Hemi?'”

Hemi Slot between 2 hurricanes

Kuniskis is referring to the Hurricane 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six-cylinder engines, which are available in standard power (420 hp) and high power (540 hp). And between the two sits the revived naturally aspirated 5.7-liter Hemi V8 with 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque. There’s also the base 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 with 305 horsepower.

Piling on Ford, GM engines

This powertrain makes Kuniskis feel a little better when he looks around town and sees the Ford F-150 with one V8, the well-known 5.0-liter, as well as several turbocharged six-cylinder engines, including the 3.5-liter EcoBoost hybrid.

Meanwhile, General Motors has two V8s in its Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, displacing 5.3 liters and 6.2 liters, as well as the 3.0-liter Duramax six-cylinder diesel with 490 pound-feet of torque and, yes, even a four-cylinder, the problematic 310 horsepower TurboMax 2.7 liters, of which the cylinder capacity and cylinder count count cannot be found in the Chevy truck build configurator.

100K Ram Hemis this year?

There were capacity constraints that would only allow Ram to sell about 10,000 pickups with the Hemi in 2025, but Kuniskis says Top speed that number should rise to 100,000 units by 2026.

And by the end of the year, after shoppers have had a chance to drive the Hemi and Hurricane pickups back-to-back and make their choice, Kuniskis expects that 35 percent of customers will choose the Hemi. That take rate should be about the same in 2027 and 2028, he says. “Some people say I’m way too high (with the estimate), and some people say I’m way too low,” he says.

Ford has ‘great engine’

His numbers are determined by what he knows about his rivals. “The only competitor I can make a good comparison with is Ford,” which he said sells about 25 percent of F-150 pickups with the 5.0-liter V8. “It’s a great engine,” Kuniskis says of Ford’s 5.0, but there’s no extra charge for it on the price sheet.

Ram, meanwhile, charges $1,200 for the Hemi, but even more for the powerful Hurricane six-cylinder in certain trims. Still, Kuniskis stands by his estimate of 35 percent for the Ram Hemi mix, based on pent-up demand for the V8. “Plus, Hemi is almost a sub-brand in itself. So I think it will be a little more than Ford’s 5.0-liter V8 blend.

GM Pickups: 80% V8?

General Motors takes a completely different powertrain approach two V8 engines, with displacements of 5.3 liters and 6.2 liters each, account for at least 80 percent of the Silverado and Sierra sales mix, according to Kuniskis’ estimates.

“They have a lot of trucks, that’s all you get. It’s a 5.3 or a 6.2, but they’re both V8s,” he says, recalling a similar situation for Ram not long ago. “Besides, when we didn’t have a six-cylinder and only had the Hemi or the Pentastar, we were in the same boat” as GM with its truck powertrain offerings.

Ram sales fell 2% through 2025

Ram ended a tumultuous 2025 with sales of 431,670 trucks, down 2 percent from 2024. Of the six Stellantis brands offered in the U.S., sales fell 3 percent in 2025 to 1.3 million vehicles.

Here’s the breakout for the remaining five brands: Jeep, up 1 percent (to 593,401 vehicles), Chrysler, up 1 percent (to 126,373 units), Dodge, down 28 percent (to 101,927), Fiat, down 14 percent (to 1,321), and Alfa Romeo, down 36 percent (to 5,652).

Source: Stellantis