Ram's new top sport truck gets 6-cylinder, serious off-road character, and a hefty price cut

 Ram's new top sport truck gets a 6-cylinder, serious off-road character, and a hefty price cut

Detroit — A military-themed hype video for the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO pickup has the usual hallmarks of the off-roader vehicle reveal: spraying sand and mud, catching air off a big southern California dune, and even the presence of an action movie star in Glen Powell.

But the clip also has Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis mentioning something perhaps less expected in today’s world of ultra-luxury pickups: a lower price. The new RHO, available for order starting Thursday and hitting dealers in the third quarter, starts at $69,995, not including the destination charge. 

That’ll still make many truck enthusiasts’ eyes water, but it’s a lot less than the 2024 Ram 1500 TRX, which previously took the top spot in the Stellantis NV brand’s sport truck lineup and starts at $96,590. It’s also several thousand dollars less than the base price of the Ford F-150 Raptor, a direct competitor.

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“When you look at the window sticker, you’ll see this is not some decoy to get people excited about a truck built out of unobtanium,” Kuniskis says in the video. “The new Ram RHO pushes out more horsepower per dollar than any other full-size off-road pickup.”

Bob Broderdorf, Ram’s operations officer, also touted the price of the new RHO, or Ram High Output, in a recent media briefing, noting it’s part of a broader focus on MSRP realignment for the brand. Prices across the Ram truck lineup have recently been moved down $4,000 to $10,000 depending on trim, he said.

“If you're looking at the repositioning of our entire lineup, from Warlock all the way across up to our legendary Cummins diesel, the value proposition has improved significantly,” Broderdorf said.

The executive said Ram needs to focus more on its sport truck segment, which beyond the new RHO includes the Warlock, Rebel, 2500 Heavy Duty Rebel and Power Wagon, and currently makes up roughly a third of overall Ram pickup sales.

“Sport trucks — honestly this needs to be a staple for us,” Broderdorf said of the beefy pickups, which place a focus on off-roading and other recreation. “It needs to be something that we absolutely cherish, get behind and create a value equation that our customers are going to enjoy.”

At the top of that sport lineup, the RHO will have a Hurricane High Output six-cylinder turbo engine putting out 540 horsepower — no longer the big V-8 putting out 702 horses that were in the TRX. 

Ram executives pledged the smaller and lighter engine still feels plenty potent, though, due in part to some tweaked air intake and exhaust systems. They said the truck can go 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds. The truck also offers an array of drive modes, utilizing changes to wheel travel and damping to absorb big hits while romping through sand dunes, while still being able to shift over to carving on pavement through a canyon.

“It’s a fast truck,” said Doug Killian, Ram chief vehicle synthesis manager. “When you get behind it, it feels like it's got a lot more power than just the standard numbers will indicate, and again, that's through the air intake and the exhaust freeing up that they give more of that real-world power. Especially off-road.”

Mark Trostle, head of Ram exterior design, said designers didn’t want to tweak too much at risk of upsetting the brand's loyalists, but they notably changed where the RAM badge is on the front for the new sport truck designs, moving it higher, and also thinned the headlamps, which adds a “sinister face quality” to the pickup.