The pickup specialist – and the wider Stellantis group – started to phase out the Hemi V8 in 2023, starting with the facelifted 1500 which lost both its 5.7-litre Hemi and supercharged 6.2-litre Hellcat V8s, replaced by the new Hurricane twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six.
However, then-Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares quit late last year, while former Ram boss Tim Kuniskis recently returned to his post, sparking speculation that the Hemi may not be set for extinction – something the executive never denied.
On Youtube, ‘Butter Da Insider’ – who claims to compile knowledge from Ford, General Motors and Stellantis’ US brands – published a document which showed the Hemi will come back to the DT-series for the 2026 model year.
Not only will the 5.7-litre V8 Hemi which powered the majority of 1500s return from July 2025, but so will the flagship TRX, Ram’s 523kW, 6.2-litre supercharged off-road monster.
This comes after US publication Mopar Insiders not only reported the return of the Hemi, but also a tentative start-of-production date in August, aligning with the most recent 2026 projection.
While the Hemi V8 does still live on, it’s only available in 6.4-litre guise in the heavy-duty 2500 and 3500.
Feeding the rumour mill has been Ram teasing a significant announcement on June 8 US time, complete with the tagline “Nothing Stops”.
One commenter on the insider’s video pointed out that in a separate video teasing the announcement, a character is seen wearing the uniform of a F-15 Eagle fighter pilot, with the Eagle name also shared with the 5.7-litre Hemi’s internal code.
Though the facelifted 1500 may not seem massively different on the outside, Kuniskis has previously pointed out the significantly updated electrical architecture would make retrofitting the Hemi extremely difficult.
“Number one, the Hemi was never designed to run in that truck on that electrical architecture, so that’s a huge challenge,” Kuniskis told Motor1 in January.
“They shut down production on that particular Hemi, the [5.7-litre] eTorque. There’s supplier work because when you shut something down, suppliers shut down their assembly lines, and they switch to something else.
“Even if you said let’s do it, we can’t do it right away. I didn’t say you can’t do it… you can’t do it right away.”
In Australia, the Hemi V8 powered almost every example of the 1500 officially sold here, apart from a short run where a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel was available, though it wasn’t as popular.
Deliveries of the straight-six Hurricane-powered 1500 have only recently begun.
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