The former head of the Dodge and Ram brands, Tim Kuniskis is back at Stellantis as the CEO of Ram, part of the larger Stellantis company portfolio. Since his return, he has been working to clean up the ills of the previous administration.
Kuniskis lept into the roll with both feet, making crucial business decisions about the future of electric trucks Ram will offer, among other things. His first public order of business was to flip flop the release dates of the electric and hybrid full-size Ram pickups. The hybrid RamCharger, with a V6 generator and electric motor will debut first in 2025 while the Ram REV battery electric will debut in 2026.
Ram competes directly with Ford and General Motors (Chevrolet and GMC brands), both of which already have battery-electric pickup trucks on the market. That market is not growing robust as quickly as many experts predicted and early demand numbers indicated.
"If you look at what's happening--okay, we were going to be the third player in a game that's not living up to the expectations that everybody thought it was. It will get there, but it wasn't there right now. If it was, we'd bring ours to market. We'd tell you how it's better than everybody else's, and we're going to try and get our piece of the pie," Kuniskis told Newsweek.
"But when the pie turned out to be smaller than we originally anticipated, we luckily had another alternative that I was also involved in and always thought that it should have been the priority. Now I had the opportunity to make it the priority. So that's what we did on the first day. I think it is a unique opportunity. No one else has it. It's a unique selling proposition, and everyone will follow it, but they can't right now," he said.
Kuniskis didn't need a sales pitch to come back after just six months of retirement. He was ready. Out of his 35 years working in the auto industry, 32 and a half of them were working on product in Detroit.
"This job is either going to intoxicate you and fire you up to do stuff that you never thought you could do, or it's going to kill you, one or the other. It's literally a drug and you must accept that, because it's the best business in the world. When you do that for any time, and stop, you start to have withdrawals. And I literally had withdrawals. I was calling the guys all the time going, 'hey, I read this article,' what were you thinking," said Kuniskis.
He said he was used to waking up with 50 things to do knowing he's only going to get 20 of them done right, while running 100 miles an hour. His wife told him to go back to work, but cautioned him to find a better work/life balance.
"And so I lied, and I said, yeah, I can do that," said Kuniskis.
He refrained from saying his return was a reaction to former global CEO Tavares' departure.
Why It Matters
Kuniskis is tasked with focusing on the Ram brand and turning it around. Ram sales fell about 16 percent for a total volume of 373,120 units in 2024. The truck is far outpaced by both Ford's F-Series and GM's GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado brothers.
What To Know
Kuniskis does not want to be considered for the role of Stellantis CEO, a spot currently vacant after the hasty exit of Carlos Tevares. He told Newsweek that isn't his style, explaining that some people love business and some love politics, but he loves product.
What People Are Saying
"The Ram brand has a significant year ahead, with the launch of Ramcharger and Ram HD trucks. The Ramcharger offers opportunity for Ram to change some expectations for electrification in full-size vehicles as well as increase general consumer exposure to electric and electrified vehicles," Stephanie Brinley, associate director of research and analysis at S&P Global, told Newsweek.
"After seeing brand sales decline 19 percent in 2024, sales in 2025 need to recover some of the decline. Though the Ramcharger is the product with the most opportunity to change how buyers perceive shifting to fully electric vehicles and if well executed could make meaningful change in the full-size pick-up truck segment, driving up performance of the internal combustion engine 1500 trucks is more critical to immediate Ram sales recovery," she said.
What Happens Next
Kuniskis has several priorities going forward in his new/old job. He explained to Newsweek the need to officially launch the new 2025 Ram 1500 light duty, though it's already on sale. He said dealers have a low supply of the 1500 RHO, Rebel and Tungsten trims of the pickup, which are some of the most desirable.
The boss is already ready to get the heavy-duty versions of the truck on the market, using the lessons learned from the challenging light duty launch.
Kuniskis also wants to look at his underperforming leasing markets, which are under his purview.
He is also eyeing what can be done about pickups in the sub-$55,000 range noting that Ram doesn't have the luxury of a midsize pickup like Ford, GM or Toyota.
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