Hot Ram 1500 RHO and TRX on Australian wishlist

The upgraded 2025 Ram 1500 pickup range could be topped by not one but two new high-performance heroes in Australia, including the turbocharged six-cylinder RHO and the potentially born-again supercharged V8-powered TRX monster truck.

Arriving in dealerships this month, Ram has swapped the 5.7-litre Hemi V8 under the 1500’s bonnet for a new twin-turbo 3.0-litre ‘Hurricane’ straight-six which not only produces much more power and torque but uses less fuel.

In a traditional ‘top-down’ launch rollout, Ram Trucks Australia has so far released only high-spec Laramie Sport and Limited versions, fitted with Standard Output and High Output versions of the Hurricane six respectively.

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Entry-level Big Horn and Laramie variants of the six-cylinder Ram 1500 will become available before stock of the old Hemi V8 Big Horn are exhausted in the third quarter of this year.

They will be followed at the end of 2025 by upgraded MY25 Ram 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty trucks, and RTA is also considering the local release of the Ramcharger range-extender pickup.

While these are the only variants officially coming to Australia, Ram Trucks Australia general manager Jeff Barber has not ruled out other more expensive Ram 1500s coming to showrooms.

This includes not only the rugged six-cylinder RHO and the rumoured, reborn TRX performance hero, but also the Tungsten luxury flagship.

“The Ram 1500 RHO is under evaluation for Australia. It’s under consideration, but nothing’s confirmed at this stage,” said Mr Barber.

“I’m sure you’ve seen the vehicle on the road being tested. We’ve done some early engineering of the vehicle.”

Ram Trucks Australia and its engineering and production partner Walkinshaw Automotive have already imported and converted an example of the hot new Ram 1500 RHO to right-hand drive, which we spied in January.

The RHO is yet to be given the green light for Australian release as the brand continues to assess local demand for a more expensive six-cylinder Ram 1500.

If a business case can be established it’s unlikely to become available here until 2026, based on the previous 12- to 18-month gap between US and local launches of new Ram models.

A reincarnated Ram 1500 TRX could also eventuate in both the US and Australia.

Billed as the world’s most powerful pickup, the TRX was discontinued along with the Hemi V8 last year, but latest reports suggest new management at Ram and its Stellantis parent will revive the hallowed 5.7-litre bent-eight, including the 6.4-litre Apache version and the supercharged 6.2-litre Hellcat V8 that powered the previous TRX.

Last month, a report by MoparInsiders – a Ram, Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler specialist publication – claimed sources close to Ram have confirmed the revival of the hot 1500 TRX in 2026, once again powered by the ballistic Hellcat blown V8.

While the regular 5.7-litre Hemi V8 will apparently also become available again in the Ram 1500, at least in the US, the report suggests the returning TRX could be even more potent than its predecessor.

For context, the Ram 1500 TRX produced a mammoth 523kW of power and 882Nm of torque, sent to a full-time four-wheel drive system and an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The TRX’s spiritual six-cylinder successor, the RHO, employs the same High Output 402KW/706Nm tune of the Hurricane six as seen in the new Ram 1500 Limited – a big 121kW/176Nm deficit to the TRX.

Ram’s backflip on the Hemi V8 is not unexpected, since its former global CEO Tim Kuniskis refused to rule out its reinstatement in the Ram 1500 when he returned to the brand earlier this year.

Technically, Ram never stopped offering a V8, since the 6.4-litre Hemi is still available in the heavy-duty Ram 2500 and 3500 in North America.

However, significant engineering challenges must be overcome before Hemi-powered Ram 1500s including the TRX can live again, either in the US or Australia, because the updated MY25 model employs a new electrical system.

“Number one, the Hemi was never designed to run in that truck on that electrical architecture, so that’s a huge challenge,” Mr 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.”

If Ram does produce another Hellcat-powered TRX, it will take some time to materialise.

Electrical engineering work is likely to take at least 12 months, and if it gets the green light for Australia, local RHD engineering then durability and validation testing will take at least that long.

That would make its release 2027 at the earliest, and between now and then there are several significant unknowns, including the strength of the Australian dollar and potential penalties as part of the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).

Mr Barber remained cautious when asked about the prospects of a reborn TRX for Australia, and whether there was room in the local Ram 1500 lineup for both the RHO six and TRX eight.

“We can’t and won’t speak for Stellantis, but we’re hearing the same sort of speculation out there. I’m sure they’re watching the demand for V8 in the market,” he said.

“Like any new model, we’d have to look at the demand for the model. We’d have to look at the business case and then make a decision at that point.”

For now, the RHO is effectively the six-cylinder replacement for TRX V8, which was billed as the world’s quickest and most powerful mass-produced pickup when it debuted in 2021, accelerating to 100km/h in about 4.5 seconds despite its circa-3.0-tonne mass.

Revealed in April 2024, the RHO is about half a second slower to 100km/h despite its lower kerb weight and US reviews also lament the loss of the TRX’s supercharged V8 engine note, but say it handles better due to improved front/rear weight balance with less mass over the nose.

For the record, the RHO is about US$25,000 (~A$40,000) cheaper than the old TRX in North America, where it’s priced from around US$70,000 (~$112,000).

The 2024 Ram 1500 TRX had a base price of about US$99,000 (~A$159,000) in North America, and about A$225,000 in Australia.

The RHO comes standard with 35-inch off-road tyres and 18-inch beadlock-capable wheels, plus off-road suspension with Bilstein shock absorbers, almost 300mm of ground clearance, 330mm of front wheel travel, and 350mm of rear wheel travel.

There are nine drive modes – Mud/Sand, Rock, Baja, Valet, Auto, Tow, Snow, Sport and Custom – as well as a launch control mode, plus larger wheel-arch flares, dual 5.0-inch black-painted exhaust outlets and RHO badging.

Standard features for premium versions of the 2025 Ram 1500 including the RHO and Limited include a 14.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system, 12-inch digital instrument cluster, and the option of a 10.25-inch front passenger touchscreen.

There’s also onboard power, a power tailgate, a flat-bottom leather-wrapped steering wheel, leather upholstery, a 19-speaker Harman Kardon premium sound system, dual wireless phone chargers, and a digital rear-view mirror.

Mr Barber said RTA was also interested in North America’s fully loaded Ram 1500 Tungsten flagship.

“Tungsten is something we’ve looked at a couple of times. It’s a really nice vehicle, so it’s something we may consider in the future,” he said, adding that the Tungsten would cater to local demand for luxurious, high-end pickups in general.

“There’s no doubt about that. I remember saying at one point that I thought the air was thin up there, but it’s been amazing the amount of people that have switched from other vehicles to our vehicles, because the luxury is in them.

“So I think there is potentially a market for Tungsten. It’s not currently available to us, but that could change in the future.”

The Ram 1500 has been Australia’s most popular full-size American pickup for the past seven years, with RTA selling 28,495 Hemi V8-powered pickups since 2018, when the superseded DS-series was officially released here.

However, the last Ram 1500 powered by a Hemi V8, which dates back 74 years to 1951, was produced at Walkinshaw’s Clayton facility in December.

While stocks of the entry-level MY24 Big Horn V8 remain available, almost 1000 examples of the range-topping TRX were snapped up by the end of 2024, despite Final Edition versions costing more than $250,000.

Prior to the death of the Hemi V8 in the Ram 1500, 5.7- and 6.2-litre engines accounted for 85 per cent of the pickup’s sales in the US, with the remaining 15 per cent coming from the 3.6-litre Pentastar V6, which was never sold in Australia.

In Australia, where the Ram 1500 has been almost exclusively available with Hemi V8 power, sales slumped by 44 per cent last year following the discontinuation of the more affordable previous-generation DS-series truck, which continued to be available alongside the fifth-generation DT-series launched in 2020, and a bevy of new rivals including the factory-backed Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra.

In 2024, 3239 Ram 1500s were sold, once again making it more popular than the F-150 (2428), Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (2389), and Tundra (469).

The Tundra was only released in earnest in November and, like the Ram and Silverado, is also engineered and converted to RHD in Melbourne by Walkinshaw Automotive.

Combined with the 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty dual-cabs on sale in Australia and New Zealand since 2016, more than 30,000 Ram vehicles have now been converted by Walkinshaw – initially as part of a joint-venture with Ateco Automotive but now on a contract basis for the distributor’s RTA franchise.

But while the Ram 1500 remains Australia’s favourite US pickup, General Motors Specialty Vehicles (GMSV) sold marginally more Silverados overall for the first time last year.

However, RTA hopes to reclaim the overall full-size pickup sales crown from GMSV this year. It says DT-series Ram 1500 sales continue to bubble along strongly, and that its dealers are not mourning the loss of the Ram 1500 V8.

Mr Barber would not comment on calls for extra-large pickups to be banned from Australian roads or at least CBDs, saying only that most Rams are bought by provincial customers and that “30,000 owners think otherwise”.

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