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Fiat Chrysler CEO hints at electrified RAM to challenge Hummer EV, Cybertruck

(Credit: Ram)

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Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley hinted at an electric Ram pickup truck in the legacy automaker’s future. According to the Detroit Free Press, Manley did not offer any other details about Fiat Chrysler’s potential electrified Ram pickup, but he did note that such a vehicle will be coming.

“I do see that there will be an electrified Ram pickup in the marketplace, and I would ask you just to stay tuned for a little while, and we’ll tell you exactly when that will be,” Manley said during Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Q3 earnings conference.

Manley’s recent statements hint at a bolder stance on electrification since in the second quarter. During FCA’s Q2 earnings call, Manley remarked that “Obviously, pickup trucks is a key franchise for us, and we’re not going to sit on the sideline if there is a danger that our position gets diluted going forward.”

Several automakers, from veterans like Ford and General Motors to newcomers like Tesla and Rivian, are going all-in on the electric pickup truck market. So far, GM has unveiled the gargantuan GMC Hummer EV, Ford has all but confirmed the work-focused F-150 Electric, Tesla has unveiled its futuristic Cybertruck, and Rivian is coming with the R1T, a luxury-adventure vehicle optimized for the outdoors.

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(Credit: Fiat Chrysler)

FCA introduced two Jeep vehicles in its Q3 presentation that showed the steps it took toward electrifying its lineup, such as the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and Jeep Wrangler PHEV. Neither of the Jeep variants were all-electric. It seems FCA, at least for now, is taking baby steps towards an electric future, but everyone needs to learn to crawl before walking.

The Jeep Wagoneer will have an electrified powertrain, which does not make it an all-electric vehicle, though it does show some progress on FCA’s part. The electrified Jeep Wagoneer’s production will start in Q2 2021.

Then there is the Jeep Wrangler PHEV 4Xe, which seems like a more serious step toward electrifying the company’s fleet. It will have a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine like any traditional ICE vehicle, but the Wrangler PHEV will also be equipped with two electric motors with 400-volt and a 17kWh battery pack. The 17 kWh battery pack is expected to provide the vehicle with 25 miles of all-electric range.

Fiat Chrysler’s steps to electrify two Jeep variants may be a stepping stone toward the electrified Ram pickup truck. He did not specify if the electrified Ram would be all-electric, though given the current trend in the pickup market with the Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T, and most recently, the GMC Hummer EV, it may be a missed opportunity if Fiat does not release an all-electric pickup truck.

(Credit: Good Car Bad Car)

Perhaps Fiat could turn to Tesla for inspiration or advice if it were planning to produce an all-electric Ram truck. After all the two companies are not exactly strangers. Fiat Chrysler, together with General Motors, has been buying regulatory credits from Tesla. Tesla’s regulatory credits help the FCA meet the European Union’s strict emissions regulations.

Tesla and the FCA’s deal proved fruitful nearly a year later in April 2020 when the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) announced the partnership made up 39% of total EV registrations in Europe. From that achievement alone, FCA must have a good idea of a RAM EV’s potential in the US market, where pickup trucks are popular.

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FCA sold 156,156 Ram pickup trucks in Q3 2020, recorded Good Car Bad Car. Compared to other pickup trucks sold in the United States in the third-quarter, the Ram pickup came in second after Ford’s F-series, which sold 221,647 trucks. The Ram pickup performed just as well in Q3 2019.

Demand for electric trucks have grown evident over time. Interest in newcomers to the pickup truck market, like Rivian and Tesla, reveal that there are customers interested in EV trucks. And the fact that GM seems to have gained some traction with its Hummer EV may be evidence that customers are also interested in seeing what legacy automakers could offer in the market. FCA could grab some of that potential momentum with an all-electric Ram pickup.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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Lucid unveils Lunar Robotaxi in bid to challenge Tesla’s Cybercab in the autonomous ride hailing race

Lucid’s Lunar robotaxi is gunning for Tesla’s Cybercab in the autonomous ride hailing race

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Lucid Lunar robotaxi concept [Credit: Rendering by TESLARATI]

Lucid Group pulled back the curtain on its purpose-built autonomous robotaxi platform dubbed the Lunar Concept. Announced at its New York investor day event, Lunar is arguably the company’s most ambitious concept yet, and a direct line of sight toward the autonomous ride haling market that Tesla looks to control.

At Lucid Investor Day 2026, the company introduced Lunar, a purpose-built robotaxi concept based on the Midsize platform.

A comparison to Tesla’s Cybercab is unavoidable. The concept of a Tesla robotaxi was first introduced by Elon Musk back in April 2019 during an event dubbed “Autonomy Day,” where he envisioned a network of self-driving Tesla vehicles transporting passengers while not in use by their owners. That vision took another major step in October 2024 when, Musk unveiled the Cybercab at the Tesla “We, Robot” event held at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, where 20 concept Cybercabs autonomously drove around the studio lot giving rides to attendees.

Tesla unveils the Robovan at ‘We, Robot’ event

Fast forward to today, and Tesla’s ambitions are finally materializing, but not without friction. As we recently reported, the Cybercab is being spotted with increasing frequency on public roads and across the grounds of Gigafactory Texas, suggesting that the company’s road testing and validation program is ramping meaningfully ahead of mass production. Tesla already operates a small scale robotaxi service in Austin using supervised Model Ys, but the Cybercab is designed from the ground up for high-volume, low-cost production, with Musk stating an eventual goal of producing one vehicle every 10 seconds.

At Lucid Investor Day 2026, the company introduced Lunar, a purpose-built robotaxi concept based on the Midsize platform.

Into this landscape steps Lucid’s Lunar. Built on the company’s all-new Midsize EV platform, which will also underpin consumer SUVs starting below $50,000. The Lunar mirrors the Cybercab’s core philosophy of having two seats, no driver controls, and a focus on fleet economics. The platform introduces Lucid’s redesigned Atlas electric drive unit, engineered to be smaller, lighter, and cheaper to manufacture at scale.

Unlike Tesla’s strategy of building its own ride hailing network from scratch, Lucid is partnering with Uber. The companies are said to be in advanced discussions to deploy Midsize platform vehicles at large scale, with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi publicly backing Lucid’s engineering credentials and autonomous-ready architecture.

In the investor day event, Lucid also outlined a recurring software revenue model, with an in-vehicle AI assistant and monthly autonomous driving subscriptions priced between $69 and $199. This can be seen as a nod to the software revenue stream that Tesla has long championed with its Full Self-Driving subscription.

Tesla’s Cybercab is targeting a price point below $30k and with operating costs as low as 20 cents per mile. But with regulatory hurdles still ahead, the window for competition is open. Lucid’s Lunar may not have a launch date yet, but it arrives at a pivotal moment, and when the robotaxi race is no longer viewed as hypothetical. Rather, every serious EV player needs to come to bat on the same plate that Tesla has had countless practice swings on over the last seven years.

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Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed

The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.

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Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has ordered the closure of an investigation involving Elon Musk and social media platform X. The inquiry had been pending for about two years and examined whether the platform was used to coordinate attacks against members of the judiciary.

The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.

According to a report from Agencia Brasil, the investigation conducted by the Federal Police did not find evidence that X deliberately attempted to attack the judiciary or circumvent court orders.

Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet concluded that the irregularities identified during the probe did not indicate fraudulent intent.

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Justice Moraes accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled that the investigation should be closed. Under the ruling, the case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges.

The inquiry stemmed from concerns that content on X may have enabled online attacks against Supreme Court justices or violated rulings requiring the suspension of certain accounts under investigation.

Justice Moraes had previously taken several enforcement actions related to the platform during the broader dispute involving social media regulation in Brazil.

These included ordering a nationwide block of the platform, freezing Starlink accounts, and imposing fines on X totaling about $5.2 million. Authorities also froze financial assets linked to X and SpaceX through Starlink to collect unpaid penalties and seized roughly $3.3 million from the companies’ accounts.

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Moraes also imposed daily fines of up to R$5 million, about $920,000, for alleged evasion of the X ban and established penalties of R$50,000 per day for VPN users who attempted to bypass the restriction.

Brazil remains an important market for X, with roughly 17 million users, making it one of the platform’s larger user bases globally.

The country is also a major market for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which has surpassed one million subscribers in Brazil.

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FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan

Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.

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Credit: @SecWar/X

U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Amazon after the company opposed SpaceX’s proposal to launch a large satellite constellation that could function as an orbital data center network.

Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.

Amazon recently urged the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million low Earth orbit satellites that could serve as artificial intelligence data centers in space.

The company described the proposal as a “lofty ambition rather than a real plan,” arguing that SpaceX had not provided sufficient details about how the system would operate.

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Carr responded by pointing to Amazon’s own satellite deployment progress.

“Amazon should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short of meeting its upcoming deployment milestone, rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit,” Carr wrote on X.

Amazon has declined to comment on the statement.

Amazon has been working to deploy its Project Kuiper satellite network, which is intended to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. The company has invested more than $10 billion in the program and has launched more than 200 satellites since April of last year.

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Amazon has also asked the FCC for a 24-month extension, until July 2028, to meet a requirement to deploy roughly 1,600 satellites by July 2026, as noted in a CNBC report.

SpaceX’s Starlink network currently has nearly 10,000 satellites in orbit and serves roughly 10 million customers. The FCC has also authorized SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional satellites as the company continues expanding its global satellite internet network.

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