Yahoo Autos Ram Revolution EV designer interview: How it's totally different (besides the electric motors)
Who would've thought that there'd be an electric pickup truck, period, let alone a complete segment of them from America's biggest truck makers? With the Ford F-150 Lightning already on sale and GM's electric Silverado and Sierra revealed and on the calendar to hit dealers, the Ram 1500 BEV Revolution Concept is the next EV pickup to join the group. While definitely a concept, what you see in the photos above isn't some fanciful show vehicle — much of it will be translated into the production version. It is based on an entirely new platform, not on the current Ram 1500, and as such, allows for radical new proportions for a full-size truck. The design is also subsequently quite the departure, and we got a chance to talk with Ram's chief design officer, Ralph Gilles, about it.
Autoblog: Designers often talk about the freedom EVs give them to create something new and different. How does that compare when designing an electric pickup?
Ralph Gilles: To me that is really what separates this particular concept. That if you look at it, you stare at it. And so you'll notice it's really a cab-forward truck. The cab is really pushing quite forward almost on top of the front wheels. Yet its overall length is about the same as a classic 1500, let's say, with 50 millimeters of one give or take. It’s also less tall.
We were able to really sandwich the battery within the frame, not below the frame. Not anything strange. It's all self-contained. By fussing around the cabin, we're able to increase the people space yet with no sacrifice to the cargo space. Cause the truck still has to be a truck. So I think what I'm really happy with here is we're able to get the frunk in there, get the people in there, add a jump seat (so there's actually a third row hiding in that proportion) while not sacrificing any functionality.
At the same time, I think we achieved a very slippery truck that doesn't look like a jellybean either, or a doorstop or anything weird.
Autoblog: Building on that, the cab doesn’t look as tall as the current truck. How different is it?
Ralph Gilles: It is considerably lower, and that helps the frontal area come way, way down. I'll let you guess by how much for now. You'll stand next to it and you'll see it's surprisingly lower, but it still has a lot of presence.
Autoblog: How do you balance what seems like the market’s expectation for EVs to be forward-looking and even overtly futuristic, with the lower-case-C conservative design expectations of truck buyers?
Ralph Gilles: I love that question because I think the market is definitely parceling out in a way. You have the, let's say, early adopters that want to tell the world what they've chosen to do. So for that, yeah, the futurism is there. In our case, we've been talking to our current owners, and a lot of them are looking with a lot of interest at this EV space. We are also our customers in a way. We’re very much truck owners and buyers and users.
And they’ve been saying, give me something futuristic. Show me that it is doing something different. But don't do it for doing its sake, if you know what I mean. They don't want a frivolous thing. They don't want something that just tries so hard to look futuristic that it's kind of lost in itself.
So we're really trying to make it still a truck that has a bold presence, zero sacrifice to functionality, great visibility, and great usage. In some cases, better usage considering the ginormous frunk. I don't want to say how many bodies you can put in it, but it's quite substantial.
So honestly, our customers say, make it, make it look cool, make it look tough.
