Stellantis delays its first BEV pickup to push ahead its range-extended Ramcharger
Stellantis has announced that it is pushing ahead the launch of its range-extended Ram 1500 Ramcharger before the release of the Ram 1500 REV, the automaker’s first BEV light-duty pickup truck. The Ram brand originally planned to launch the Ram 1500 BEV in the first half of 2025.
Stellantis says the decision to push back on the EV launch was “driven by overwhelming consumer interest, maintaining a competitive advantage in the technology and slowing industry demand for half-ton BEV pickups,” the company said in a press release.
The new Ramcharger will be open for consumer orders in the first half of 2025 followed by the Ram 1500 REV (Revolution battery-electric vehicle) launch in 2026.
The Ramcharger is a battery-powered plug-in but also has a gas engine as a generator to charge the battery on the go, with a targeted range of up to 690 miles. The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger features a 92 kilowatt-hour battery pack, paired with an onboard 130 kW generator, sending power to 250 kW front and 238 kW rear electric drive modules (EDMs).
Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-home bi-directional charging allows the Ram 1500 Ramcharger to charge another BEV or provide power back to the grid. Performance figures include a 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds, 663 horsepower and over 615 lb.-ft. of torque, up to a best-in-class 14,000 pounds towing with a class 5 hitch and a best-in-class maximum payload capacity of 2,625 pounds.
Extended-range EVs, or EREVs, have become a siren call to automakers struggling to reach buyers with pure electric vehicles, serving as a sort of middle ground between kind of an electric car but also a plug-in hybrid, helping to break through to drivers still worried about getting stranded with no charge.
Earlier this month, news hits that Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was stepping down, after a series of missteps in the US involving bloating inventories of Jeep, Chrysler, Ram, and Dodge vehicles sitting in factories or dealer parking lots, which sparked scathing criticisms from dealers. Vehicle deliveries fell by 18% in North America in the first half of the year, with market share dropping from 10% to 8.2%, according to Reuters. Also, Stellantis was slow to lower vehicle prices in the face of tough competition from GM and Ford, with analysts saying vehicle prices were too high for core customers of those brands.
Still, Stellantis delaying its BEV risks putting the company even further behind rivals including Tesla Cybertruck, Chevy Silverado, and Ford F-150 Lightning.
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Is Elon Musk using the missing $1.4B to fund anti-Tesla protests as part of a massive false flag operation that will give him control of both the police and the courts? There’s absolutely ZERO evidence to support that idea (plus: I just made it up), but it’s 2025 and that means anything goes on today’s bats**t episode of Quick Charge!
If there’s one thing narcissists love it’s playing victim, and the guy who asked everyone at Trump’s inauguration if they’s seen Kyle and spent the last decade stacking billions by failing to deliver on a mission to mars, an all-electric roadster, an underground super-speedway, and a self-driving car seems to think it’s someone else’s fault that people don’t like him. We talk through the state of that debacle along with news from two credible car companies, and I predict Volvo will have the first mainstream L3 car in America – enjoy!
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Trump’s US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, who indirectly owns Tesla (TSLA) stocks through his firm, has publicly recommended buying Tesla stocks today.
This is likely the first time that a sitting US Commerce Secretary publicly recommends to buy a specific stock.
The circumstances in which this first is happening are genuinely astonishing.
Lutnick is known for his multi-billion-dollar stake and long-time leadership at the investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.
Starting in 2022, Cantor Fitzgerald began to buy Tesla stocks and significantly increased its investment in the automaker in 2024 during a bull run:
After Trump won the election last year with the help of a $250 million political donation from Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO started to recommend Lutnick for the significant role of Secretary of the Treasury. He tweeted:
My view fwiw is that Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas Howard Lutnick will actually enact change. Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change one way or another,”
Trump ended up going for Bessent, but Lutnick still managed to land the role of Secretary of Commerce – with the help of Musk’s push.
After being nominated by Trump, Lutnick said that he would be divesting from his holdings, which are mainly linked to Cantor Fitzgerald, within 90 days.
The 90 days are not up yet, but there is no update on whether he has started divesting yet.
Today, he went on Fox News and recommended viewers buy Tesla stocks:
“I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It’s unbelievable that this guy’s stock is this cheap. It’ll never be this cheap again,”
Here’s the video:
The blatant stock pump comes after Tesla’s stock lost more than 40% of its value so far this year.
Musk uses 238 million Tesla shares worth over $55 billion as collateral for personal loans. If Tesla’s stock goes too low, he could potentially be forced to sell his shares to cover the debt.
Furthermore, on the analyst side, Cantor Fitzgerald just upgraded Tesla’s stock to a buy earlier this week – raising their price target to $425 a share. Tesla’s stock closed at $235.86 today.
Howard Lutnick’s son, Brandon, is now in charge of Cantor Fitzgerald as Chairman.
Here’s a summary of Cantor Fitzgerald’s Tesla holdings:
- Early 2022: The firm held a very small position (only ~8,400 Tesla shares in Q1 2022) but rapidly increased to about 297,000 shares by Q3 2022 (worth ~$79 million at the time). This large buy-in during mid-2022 marked a significant ramp-up in their Tesla exposure.
- Late 2022: By the end of 2022, Cantor dramatically cut back its stake – holding roughly 72,000 shares in Q4 2022. This reduction from nearly 300k shares the prior quarter coincided with a steep drop in Tesla’s stock price in late 2022 (shares fell by roughly 50% during Q4 2022).
- 2023: Throughout 2023, Cantor Fitzgerald kept a modest Tesla position, fluctuating in the tens of thousands of shares. For example, they reported ~44,000 shares in Q1 2023, increased to 91,000 by Q2 2023, then adjusted to 56,000 in Q3 2023 and 83,000 by Q4 2023.
- These moves suggest active trading around Tesla’s short-term moves, with no huge long-only stake during 2023. Notably, it appears Cantor completely exited Tesla in early 2024 – Tesla was not listed in their Q1–Q2 2024 13F filings, implying they sold off the remaining shares during that period (when Tesla’s price rallied to local highs).
- Re-entry in 2024: In the second half of 2024, Cantor Fitzgerald made a bold re-entry into Tesla. Their holdings surged to about 1.2 million shares in Q3 2024 (valued ~$307 million as of September 30, 2024). This coincided with a mid-2024 pullback in Tesla’s stock price, suggesting Cantor bought the dip. By the end of 2024, they trimmed the position down to ~740,000 shares (from 1.2M), likely taking profits after Tesla’s price rallied late in the year.
Electrek’s Take
I mean, wow. This is something else.
The fact alone that a US secretary would recommend buying a specific stock is despicable, but it’s even more insane when it is the stock behind the fortune of Elon Musk, who has a relationship with Lutnick.
Lutnick’s Cantor invests in Tesla -> Musk invests in Trump -> Trump appoints Lutnick at Musk’s recommendation -> Tesla’s stock crash –> Trump recommends buying Tesla cars –> Lutnicks recommends buying Tesla stocks.
I’m no lawyer so I’m not going to claim whether this is legal or not, but it’s certainly not ethical.
Tesla must be really struggling if that’s what they are doing now: using US officials to promote Tesla’s stocks.
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