The hoity-toity bought EV’s mostly to show what good Social Justice Warriors they are. As a novelty, they are impressive, but it wears off.
What doesn’t wear off is the sound of a real engine. In this case it’s a Hemi. It’s big and bad and what people want.
Yes, over 10,000 orders for Hemi V8-equipped pickups were received after the announcement in June – and that was only in the initial 24 hours. That’s a significant number when you consider that Ram has sold an average of 17,828 light-duty pickups per month in the second quarter of 2025.
“We continue to see total sales growth for Jeep and Ram brands, with Ram fueled by sales of the Ram 1500,” said Jeff Kommor, head of U.S. sales. “We plan to build on that success in the second half of the year. We’ve already seen consumer interest spurred by the return of the Hemi V8, with the brand receiving over 10,000 orders in the first 24 hours of the June announcement.”
Tim Kuniskis, CEO of Ram, admitted in June that the company “screwed up” when it discontinued the Hemi V8, and has resolved to give its customers the choice to select the powertrain they want.
Ram truck fans got exciting news two weeks ago when a dealer in Wisconsin leaked details of an internal Stellantis presentation confirming the return of the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 in the Ram 1500, which for the 2025 model year had gone six-cylinder-only. A new report claims other Hemis, including the 6.4-liter “392” and supercharged 6.2-liter “Hellcat” V-8s are also coming available again after a year off, and they’re not headed only to Ram trucks but also the new Dodge Charger, which launched this year in all-electric Daytona guise but with six-cylinder Sixpack models to follow.
(Okay, for sticklers, we should point out that the non-392 6.4-liter V-8 has remained in production for Ram HD models while other variants were discontinued for the 2025 model year.)
According to anonymous sources speaking with MoparInsiders, Hemi production will restart in August at the Dundee Engine Plant in Michigan, and it won’t be limited to the 5.7-liter V-8 as previously reported. If the sources are correct, the plant will build all Hemi variants, including the 392 and Hellcat engines. Whether that includes all variants of the Hellcat remains to be seen.
A separate report from the same outlet published a day later claims Dodge engineers are hard at work fitting the Hemi V-8 under the hood of the new Charger, which controversially dropped all eight-cylinder engines for this new generation, much like the Ram 1500. We reported back in 2022 this would happen based on information from our own sources, but Dodge denied that report and seemed to be committed to a Hemi-less muscle car future. The new report suggests the V-8 Charger will come to market some time next year, following the EV model already available and the Sixpack inline-six models coming this summer.
The initial report goes on to say the engines will likely be carryover designs, but that new enhancements could be in the cards. It also broached the possibility of a new Hemi variant with even greater displacement than the 6.4-liter engine already found in the Ram HD.
Reached for comment, a Ram spokesperson called the report “speculation.” Stellantis has not officially confirmed the Hemi is returning to production, only that the truck-specific 6.4-liter V-8 would remain in production.
According to the internal email leaked earlier this month, both the 5.7-liter and 6.4-liter V-8s will be offered in Ram 1500 models. Previously, only the 5.7 was offered in 1500s while the 6.4 was reserved for HD models, so this could be more than just a reversal, Ram may be going all-in on V-8s in an effort to boost flagging sales with sportier light-duty trucks. Recently returned Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis previously told MotorTrend two months ago he wasn’t sure the removal of the Hemi was to blame for sluggish sales and would need time to analyze the problem. Recent reports seem to indicate Kuniskis has come to that conclusion and may be working to rectify it.
Delusions of Adequacy 