Stellantis will produce a hydrogen fuel-cell Ram commercial truck, the head of the automaker’s fuel-cell program said in a recent interview with German publication Welt am Sonntag (via Electrive).
Following the start of at-scale production of fuel-cell vehicles in Poland later this year, Stellantis plans to start building a fuel-cell version of the Ram 5500 in Mexico, for the North American market, Jean-Michel Billig said in the interview.
2024 Ram 5500 chassis cab
Stellantis began selling fuel-cell medium-duty commercial vehicles in some markets in late 2022, but only 350 have been sold to date, Billig said. The automaker hopes to grow production to 100,000 vehicles per year by 2030 as it targets 40% fuel-cell commercial vehicle sales, with a “completely decarbonized product range in Europe” by the end of the decade, according to the executive.
The Ram 5500 is the beefiest version of the Ram HD pickups, and is generally sold as a chassis cab in the U.S., making it much bigger than previous efforts at hydrogen pickups. Toyota, for example, has already revealed a hydrogen fuel-cell pickup overseas, but it’s a prototype and production plans haven’t been announced.
2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger
The Nikola Badger fuel-cell pickup might have been eventually sold by the hydrogen-focused company, though it reportedly would have depended heavily on General Motors. Once a leader in fuel cells, GM has backed away from their application in light-duty vehicles and instead is focusing on semi trucks. Hyundai and Toyota have followed similar paths, shifting away from fuel-cell passenger vehicles and toward larger commercial vehicles.
In the meantime Ram is set to offer an intriguing proposition—a series hybrid with a 92-kwh plug-in battery pack. Called the Ramcharger and expected to launch as a 2025 model, this variant of the Ram 1500 will go 145 miles on electric-only power from the battery, then another 545 miles with its gasoline V-6 engine running a generator and functioning as a range extender.
