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 struggle” 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 may lengthen via 2026.

The plan contains greater than 25 bulletins via subsequent 12 months. Up to now 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 just 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 with out a parachute,” as he just lately described it, whereas enjoying 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 depart, I simply wanted a break. Then I used to be itching to return again,” Kuniskis instructed CNBC throughout a current interview in his comparatively undecorated workplace. (He gave lots of his profession keepsakes away when he retired.) “We’ve a window of alternative right here to repair loads of stuff, and a few persons are wired by that chance, and a few persons are fueled by it. Fortunately, our staff is fueled by it.”

Kuniskis, who was main Ram and Dodge upon his retirement mid-last 12 months, stated 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 can be nonetheless being labored out greater than a 12 months after the car’s launch.

“We tried to do too many issues directly,” Kuniskis stated of the Ram 1500. “We actually modified every part 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 likely one of the most vital of Stellantis’ 14 manufacturers — if not a very powerful. It competes within the extremely worthwhile full-size pickup truck market and {industry} specialists stated its success is vital to the corporate reestablishing itself within the industrial gross sales market.

“It is sort of the spine of their enterprise,” stated Joseph Yoon, shopper insights analyst at CarMax‘s information and shopper automobile purchasing web site Edmunds.com. “The market share is vastly vital.”

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% via roughly the primary half of this 12 months, based on Edmunds.

Ram’s gross sales of full-size vehicles, which incorporates the 1500 and bigger variations, have declined 41% from 2019 via 2024, based on firm information, permitting opponents resembling Normal 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 widespread 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 vehicles throughout its lineup, amongst different issues.

Kuniskis has stated 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 vehicles amid low market demand.

“There’s at all times a technique to the insanity,” Kuniskis stated. “There’s at all times a enterprise purpose behind one thing that looks like enjoyable.”

A part of that “enjoyable” features a return to NASCAR truck racing, the place followers can “Experience the Hemi” – a mechanical bull trip 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 vehicles, however he stated the corporate is aiming for a market share someplace between 20% and 29.9% for its full-size vehicles by the tip of the plan. Ram Vehicles had a roughly 17% share of the U.S. full-size pickup truck market in 2024, based on {industry} information.

“I do know precisely the place we wish to be and what our expectations are,” he stated. “I ought to legitimately have a market share that begins with a two. … That is a place to begin for us.”

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

“You do not wish to chase share only for the sake of chasing share,” he stated. “I wish to have all crops working 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 finest as they’ll. The latter half is an acronym with many meanings, together with “let’s freaking go.”

“Once you have been in class, they instructed you ‘Get an ‘A,’ every part shall be nice. You may achieve success in life.’ Not true. Not true,” Kuniskis stated. “They bear in mind the man that manner pushed past simply getting an ‘A’ in class and did one thing completely different, push that final tenth.”

Kuniskis handed out the wristbands to his staff 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 worth will increase.

Up to now it appears to be working, based on Michael Bettenhausen, a seller in Illinois who chairs the Stellantis Nationwide Supplier Council.

“All the things 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 stated. “We’re actually excited that Tim is main this cost. It is actually outstanding.”

Bettenhausen additionally stated the full-size pickup truck market is vital 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 stated. “For lots of those individuals, it would not matter if their model is objectively one of the best product or not. It is simply that regardless of the automaker is doing, they really feel prefer it’s finest for them.”

Bringing again the automaker’s well-known Hemi V-8 might have been an excellent begin, as Kuniskis stated the corporate acquired 12,000 Hemi orders on the primary day pickup vehicles with the engine have been obtainable 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 stated the plug-in mannequin — referred to 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 stated he believes the EREV shall be extra of a differentiator out there and extra vital within the model’s turnaround plan via 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 stated. “We have not gotten to the brand new stuff but.”