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    Mortgage rates plunge and demand finally inches back

    The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased last week to 7.61% from 7.86%
    Applications to refinance a home loan increased 2% for the week and were 7% lower than the same week one year ago.

    House for sale in Millbrae, California.
    Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

    Mortgage rates saw the biggest one-week drop in over a year last week, causing the first increase in mortgage demand in a month.
    Total mortgage application volume rose 2.5% last week, compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

    The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) decreased to 7.61% from 7.86%, with points falling to 0.69 from 0.73 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment.
    “Last week’s decrease in rates was driven by the U.S. Treasury’s issuance update, the Fed striking a dovish tone in the November FOMC statement, and data indicating a slower job market,” said Joel Kan, vice president and deputy chief economist at the MBA.
    Applications to refinance a home loan increased 2% for the week and were 7% lower than the same week one year ago. Mortgage rates are pretty close to where they were at this time last year, so there is not a lot of incentive to refinance. Most homeowners refinanced two years ago when rates were hovering near record lows. The vast majority of current homeowners carry mortgages with rates below 4%.
    Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home rose 3% for the week but were 20% lower than the same week a year ago. The decline in interest rates is still not enough to offset sky-high home prices, which are still rising due to the very low supply of houses for sale.
    Mortgage rates started the week slightly higher, but this week holds fewer economic events or reports that would influence rates. Last week’s combination of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged and a lower-than-expected monthly employment report was the perfect storm for the dramatic move lower in rates.

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    UBS resumes selling the bonds at the heart of Credit Suisse controversy

    UBS confirmed to CNBC that it is offering additional tier 1 securities, but did not comment on the details of the contracts and said it will provide additional information when the offering is complete.
    The wipeout of $17 billion of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds, as part of the rescue deal brokered by Swiss authorities in March, caused uproar among bondholders.

    Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images

    UBS on Wednesday began selling Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds — which were at the heart of controversy during its emergency rescue of Credit Suisse — for the first time since completing the takeover.
    The Swiss banking giant is marketing two tranches of U.S. dollar AT1 bonds, a non-call five-year offering around a 10% yield and a non-call 10-year offering around 10.125%, according to LSEG news service IFR. Non-call bonds are bonds that only pay out at maturity.

    UBS confirmed to CNBC that it is offering additional tier 1 securities, but did not comment on the details of the contracts and said it will provide additional information when the offering is complete.
    The wipeout of $17 billion of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds, as part of the rescue deal brokered by Swiss authorities in March, caused uproar among bondholders and continues to saddle the Swiss government and regulator with legal challenges.
    AT1 bonds are considered a relatively risky form of junior debt and are often owned by institutional investors. They were introduced in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as regulators looked to divert risk away from taxpayers and boost the capital held by financial institutions to protect against future crises.

    Fitch on Wednesday assigned the new AT1 notes a “BBB” rating, four notches below UBS Group’s overall viability rating of “A,” with two notches for “loss severity given the notes’ deep subordination” and two for “incremental non-performance risk.”
    “UBS’s new AT1 notes will contain a permanent write-down mechanism at issue. However, subject to approval by UBS Group AG’s 2024 AGM, the permanent write-down mechanism will be replaced by an equity conversion mechanism from the date of the AGM, which will bring the terms in line with other European markets,” the ratings agency said.
    “The conversion feature would mean that, if approved by the AGM, the notes would be converted into a pre-defined volume of share capital of UBS Group AG if the latter’s common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio falls below a 7% trigger, or if a viability event is declared by FINMA [Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority].” More

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    China’s truck industry is buying more driver-assist technology

    China’s truck industry is finding more reasons to buy vehicles with assisted-driving technology.
    One broad transformation is that the trucking industry in China is changing from one in which individual drivers dominated, to one with fleets holding the majority share, said Gui Lingfeng, principal at Kearney Strategy Consultants.
    “In terms of customers, there is a sort of a counter-cyclical effect,” driver-assist truck startup Inceptio CEO Julian Ma said in an interview in late August. “The economy is getting tighter so the cost saving motivation is getting stronger not weaker that makes our customers more anxious to use our products.”

    People attend a launch ceremony of Inceptio’s autonomous driving system on March 10, 2021 in Shanghai, China.
    Huanqiu.com | Visual China Group | Getty Images

    BEIJING — China’s truck industry is finding more reasons to buy vehicles with assisted-driving technology.
    It’s a critical step toward monetization in a nascent business that’s drawn many investor dollars, with relatively little to show for it so far.

    One broad transformation is that the trucking industry in China is changing from one in which individual drivers dominated, to one with fleets holding the majority share, said Gui Lingfeng, principal at Kearney Strategy Consultants.
    He pointed out that five years ago, fleet operators only had about 20% of the Chinese trucking market. Today it’s at 36%, and projected to reach 75% in 2025, he said.
    The companies trying to sell trucks to fleet operators are including driver-assist tech as a way to make the vehicles more attractive, Gui said.

    That early tech integration gives truck manufacturers an edge on the amount of data they can collect — for training autonomous driving algorithms, he said.
    In addition, Chinese authorities require all newly manufactured trucks since 2022 to come with basic driver-assist tech for warning against forward collision and lane departure, Gui said.

    Chinese driver-assist trucking startup Inceptio claims it already has more than 650 trucks operating in China — mostly for logistics customers — and covered more than 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) in commercial operations.

    “The economy is getting tighter so the cost saving motivation is getting stronger not weaker that makes our customers more anxious to use our products

    Inceptio, CEO

    Inceptio develops the driver-assist tech system, and works with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for mass production.
    “In terms of customers, there is a sort of a counter-cyclical effect,” Inceptio CEO Julian Ma said in an interview in late August. “The economy is getting tighter so the cost saving motivation is getting stronger, not weaker — that makes our customers more anxious to use our products.”

    Express delivery customers

    China’s logistics companies have seen enormous growth over the last several years, thanks to the rise of e-commerce. That’s led to price wars, amid slowing slowing economic growth.
    Industry giant SF Holdings reported a 5.1% drop in operating revenue to 189 billion yuan ($25.97 billion) in the first three quarters of the year, including a 6.4% year-on-year decline in the third quarter alone.
    But vehicle upgrade cycles can support continued truck sales.
    Truck operators typically replace the vehicles every four to five years, Ma said. “In China there are around 7 million heavy duty trucks. Even if the market has zero growth, on the yearly basis there is between 1.2 to 1.5 million new sales.”
    The startup claims its trucks cost about 5% less than traditional options, on top of safety and environmental benefits.

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    Already, an average of around 95% or more of a thousand-kilometer truck drive is handled by the computer, meaning the driver is mostly in standby mode, Ma said. “So the workload is much reduced.”
    Ma said Inceptio’s focus over the next three years is on cost-sensitive customers, such as in logistics. He expects driver-assist features will dominate for the next few years, with 2028 the most optimistic scenario for the commercial deployment of fully driverless trucks.
    Being able to remove drivers completely will result in the most cost savings for truck operators.

    Platooning

    Other startups are testing out different forms of driver-assist trucks in China.
    Kargobot, backed by ride-hailing giant Didi, operates more than 100 autonomous-driving trucks between Tianjin, near Beijing, and the northern province of Inner Mongolia.
    Many of those trucks operate via what’s called platooning — having a human driver sit in the front vehicle and having two or three trucks follow behind in fully self-driving mode, with no human staffer inside.
    Kargobot CEO Junqing Wei envisions that in the next decade or two, a network of hubs on the edge of cities, connected by highways on which self-driving trucks transport products. That’s according to his remarks in October at CNBC’s East Tech West conference in the Nansha district of Guangzhou, China.

    Waiting to prove an inflection point

    Analysts at Yole Intelligence are closely watching whether robotruck companies can make good on production and delivery goals set for the next two years.
    It’s a $2 trillion market, of which China accounts for about $650 billion to $750 billion and the U.S. slightly more than that, said Hugo Antoine, technology and market analyst, computing and software, at Yole Intelligence, which is part of Yole Group.
    “This is the reason why we have many investors invest in this market,” he said. “Because if you have one percent or two percent of this market it is huge.”
    However, it remains unclear how quickly regulators will allow fully driverless trucks on most roads, even if operators want to buy them.
    “Even when the industry is technically ready, I think in any part of this world the transportation regulator will take another year or even two years, to validate the data and have their own testing before they can issue the driverless license,” Inceptio’s Ma said. More

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    Food-delivery startup Wonder Group gets $100 million investment from Nestle

    Food-delivery startup Wonder Group has gotten a $100 million investment from Nestle, according to sources familiar with the matter.
    Together, the two companies plan to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and food to businesses such as hotels, hospitals and sports arenas.
    Wonder recently struck a deal to buy meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million.

    Food-delivery company Wonder Group has gotten a cash infusion from Nestle, as the startup looks to sell high-tech kitchen equipment and prepared ingredients to businesses such as hotels, hospitals and sports arenas.
    The deal includes a $100 million investment from Nestle, along with a strategic partnership, according to sources familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because financial terms of the deal are not public.

    Nestle and Wonder confirmed the deal but declined to reveal transaction details.
    The funding could get Wonder a step closer to its ambitions of making it easier, faster and cheaper for busy families to have high-quality meals at home. The startup, which was valued at about $3.5 billion when it closed a $350 million funding round in June, was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur and former Walmart e-commerce chief Marc Lore.
    Wonder recently struck a deal to acquire meal-kit company Blue Apron for $103 million. It has also developed kitchen equipment that simplifies and speeds up cooking restaurant-quality food.
    Prior to Wonder, Lore founded and sold e-commerce startup Jet.com to Walmart for $3.3 billion in 2016. Walmart ultimately shut down Jet, but Lore oversaw the big-box retailer’s aggressive push into the online world and its race to close the gap with rival Amazon. He left Walmart nearly three years ago.
    Lore sold Quidsi, another business he co-founded and the parent company of Diapers.com, to Amazon.

    In an interview with CNBC, Lore said working with Nestle will help Wonder scale more quickly.

    Marc Lore, former CEO of Walmart eCommerce
    Scott Mlyn | CNBC

    Nestle, a food and beverage giant, makes ingredients, snacks and frozen meals carried by grocery stores, but also has a large food-service business and sells to clients including college campuses and cruise lines. Some of those companies may also want Wonder’s kitchen equipment, Lore said.
    The partnership will start with Nestle making pizza and pasta tailored for Wonder’s kitchen equipment, along with selling the kitchen equipment to clients.
    Melissa Henshaw, president of out-of-home for Nestle, said many of Nestle’s clients have struggled to keep up as customers seek convenient meals and bolder flavors, but the businesses lack the employees to make them. In many cases, that’s led to changes that limit sales opportunities and disappoint customers, such as whittled-down room service menus at hotels, limited hours at cafes or food that’s flavorless, soggy or cold.
    “With our partnership with Wonder, there’s this opportunity to help operators across multiple out-of-home segments be able to improve their food quality, have consistency, and actually open up some additional revenue streams that have been pretty challenged post-pandemic,” she said.
    Wonder began with a very different business model: A fleet of trucks with mobile kitchens that parked and cooked meals outside customers’ homes in the suburbs of New Jersey and New York. It pulled the plug on that approach in January and laid off hundreds of employees in a push to turn a profit quicker.
    Instead, the startup pivoted to opening a growing network of brick-and-mortar kitchens where it can make menu items across cuisines that customers would otherwise find at restaurants with large followings or celebrity chefs, such as José Andrés, Bobby Flay and Michael Symon. It has bought rights from a growing number of those chefs and restaurants, which allows customers to mix and match — diners could get entrees from four different restaurants for four different family members in a single order.
    The company currently has about 1,100 employees.
    As of the end of the year, Wonder plans to have 10 locations in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Each of those locations has about a dozen seats where customers can dine in, but the majority of orders are delivered or picked up for at-home dining, Lore said. Next year, it plans to open at least 20 more locations, he said.
    With the startup’s new push, Wonder is selling its white-labeled technology and the meal ingredients — specially made and prepared — that goes with it to other businesses. It’s already rolled out the business-to-business offering, called WonderWorks, at 50 locations, including convention centers, theaters and airports.
    Ultimately, Lore said he wants Wonder to be a “super app for mealtime” with a variety of tiered options that fit customers’ budgets, dietary preferences and schedules. The choices would include kits from Blue Apron and hot meals from its kitchens.
    Wonder competes with a diverse array of players in the food space. They range from delivery companies such as Uber Eats and DoorDash to quick-service restaurants including SweetGreen and Chipotle and even grocers such as Kroger and Amazon-owned Whole Foods, which have expanded prepared food offerings.
    Wonder wants to differentiate itself by how it makes that food, so it can prepare a lengthy list of meals and elevate the taste of those menu items, even in a 2,800-square-foot kitchen with little equipment and labor.
    “There’s no gas,” Lore said. “There’s no stove. There’s no fire. There’s no hoods. There’s no grease traps. This can go into a shoe store, a yoga studio or LensCrafters. It can go in anywhere. So it allows you to be very, very adaptable with the kitchen.” More

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    Planet Fitness shares surge as company raises revenue outlook

    Planet Fitness reported earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s expectations.
    The gym chain also boosted its revenue outlook for the year.
    Shares of Planet Fitness jumped after the earnings report.

    A person works out at Planet Fitness as they re-open at 25 percent capacity in Boston’s Dorchester on Feb. 1, 2021.
    Jessica Rinaldi | Boston Globe | Getty Images

    Planet Fitness shares surged double digits after beating expectations on both lines for the third quarter and raising its outlook for the year.
    Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street analysts’ expectations, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

    Earnings per share: 59 cents, adjusted, vs. 55 cents expected
    Revenue: $277.6 million vs. $268.2 million expected

    For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Planet Fitness posted a profit of $39.1 million, or 46 cents a share, up from $26.9 million, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, the company reported per-share earnings of 59 cents.
    Revenue jumped nearly 14% to $277.6 million.
    The company said it now expects to post 14% revenue growth for the year, up from its previous guidance of 12% and higher than analysts’ expectations of 11.6%.
    Interim CEO Craig Benson led the company’s quarterly earnings call with analysts and investors following the abrupt departure of former Chief Executive Chris Rondeau.
    The gym chain’s board ousted Rondeau in mid-September, stunning both investors and employees. The company didn’t share additional details on his departure during the earnings call, but Benson confirmed the search for his successor is “going well.” Planet Fitness shares have recovered since Rondeau’s departure, but remain down more than 20% year to date.

    Benson outlined Planet Fitness’ forward-looking growth strategy in the company’s press release.
    “We’re adjusting our store-level return model to further improve the attractiveness of opening and operating Planet Fitness stores in a new macro-environment,” Benson said. “The changes include decreasing certain capital investments by extending the timing for replacing equipment and completing remodels, to set us and our franchisees up for continued long-term sustainable growth.”
    New and existing franchise owners received updated agreement details in mid-October that included key changes to the business structure, including:

    an increased franchise agreement from 10 years to 12 years to eliminate the initial $20,000 franchise fees.
    shortening grace periods for franchisees from 12 to six months.
    reequip periods extended to free up capital and reduce store spending.

    “We think ultimately this was the best set of changes that we could develop to improve to free up some cash,” CFO Tom Fitzgerald said on the call. “To invest in new store growth, improve the store returns of those new stores.”
    Fitzgerald also confirmed the company is experimenting with price increases for its “Classic Membership,” from $10 to $15, in more than 100 test markets.
    “At the end of the day, our criteria is we don’t want to sacrifice member growth,” he said.
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    Fed’s Goolsbee says ‘golden path’ of a huge drop in inflation without a recession is still possible

    Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee believes there is still a chance for a soft landing.
    “Because of some of the strangeness of this moment, there is the possibility of the golden path … that we got inflation down without a recession,” he said.
    The Fed president said the central bank will be data dependent going forward.

    Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said Tuesday a soft landing is still on the table as the central bank seeks to combat inflation without hurting the economy significantly.
    “Because of some of the strangeness of this moment, there is the possibility of the golden path … that we got inflation down without a recession,” Goolsbee said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “If that happened … it would just be a continuation of what we’ve already seen this year, which is unemployment up very modestly, while inflation has come down a lot. … That’s our goal.”

    The Fed kept interest rates steady last week, the second consecutive meeting that the Federal Open Market Committee chose to hold, following a string of 11 rate hikes.
    Core inflation, per the personal consumption expenditures price index, is currently running at 3.7% on an annual basis, still well above the Fed’s 2% annual target. Goolsbee emphasized that the decline in price pressures so far has already been a great achievement.
    “The fastest drop in the inflation rate in any year was 1982,” Goolsbee said. “We’ll see what happens over the next couple of months. We might equal the fastest dropping inflation in the last century. So we’re making progress on the inflation rate.”
    The economy has held up well so far amid the tightening measures over the past year and a half. Gross domestic product expanded at a 4.9% annualized rate in the third quarter, stronger than even elevated expectations.
    Goolsbee stressed that accomplishing such a “golden path” against a historic surge in inflation won’t be an easy task.

    “Unusually for a soft landing of this magnitude, there has never been an inflation rate drop, to get inflation down as much as we’re getting it down without a big recession. That’s basically never happened,” he said. “Let’s shoot to try to manage that.”
    The Fed president said the central bank will be data dependent going forward, echoing Chair Jerome Powell’s comments last week.
    Powell previously said the central bank hasn’t made any decisions yet for its December meeting, saying that “The committee will always do what it thinks is appropriate at the time.”
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    UBS shares rise 4% as market focuses on strong underlying profit

    The bank recorded an underlying operating profit before tax of $844 million, well ahead of consensus expectations.
    Factoring in $2 billion in expenses related to the integration of fallen rival Credit Suisse, UBS posted a bigger-than-expected third-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders of $785 million.

    A logo of Swiss bank UBS is seen in Zurich, Switzerland March 29, 2023. 
    Denis Balibouse | Reuters

    UBS shares climbed on Tuesday morning after the Swiss banking giant resoundingly beat expectations for underlying profit.
    The bank recorded an underlying operating profit before tax of $844 million, well ahead of consensus expectations. UBS shares added 4% in early trade as a result.

    Factoring in $2 billion in expenses related to the integration of fallen rival Credit Suisse, UBS posted a bigger-than-expected third-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders of $785 million. Analysts polled by Reuters had anticipated a quarterly net loss of $444 million in a company-compiled poll.
    Here are some other highlights:

    Total group revenues were $11.7 billion, up 23% from $9.54 billion in the second quarter.
    CET1 capital ratio, a measure of bank liquidity, was 14.4%, unchanged from the previous quarter.
    Credit Suisse Wealth Management generated positive net new money inflows for the first time since the first quarter of 2022, contributing to inflows of $22 billion for UBS Global Wealth Management.

    “You could see that, sequentially, we improved the underlying performance across Wealth Management, Asset Management and our Personal and Corporate banking in Switzerland. They both grew on a quarter-on-quarter basis,” UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti told CNBC on Tuesday.
    “The IB [investment bank] has been facing more challenging market conditions, particularly when you look at our business model and the fact that we have been onboarding resources from Credit Suisse. But it was a very solid quarter, and we made very good progress in our integration plans, and at the same time we saw very strong inflows from clients.”
    A ‘good set of results’
    Analysts at Citi highlighted on Tuesday that the $844 million underlying profit before tax figure was “notably ahead of prior company guidance (of break-even), treble consensus expectations and 6% ahead of our above-consensus forecast.”

    “As we expected the beat is driven by better opex [operating expense], 7% below consensus, with revenues also 1% ahead. This is then slightly offset by heavier provisions,” they noted, adding that the acceleration of Wealth Management net new money inflows in September was also “encouraging.”

    UBS is also in the process of fully integrating Credit Suisse’s Swiss banking unit — a key profit center — and is expected to cut a hefty proportion of the legacy bank’s workforce.
    UBS reported net new deposits of $33 billion across its Global Wealth Management and Personal and Corporate Banking (P&C) divisions, with $22 billion coming from Credit Suisse clients and positive deposit inflows for P&C in September, the month after UBS announced the decision to integrate the domestic bank.
    The bank also announced earlier this year that it is targeting gross cost savings of at least $10 billion by 2026, when it hopes to have completed the integration all of Credit Suisse Group’s businesses. More

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    Stellantis’ new Ram pickup is an EV — with a gas-powered generator in case the battery runs out

    Stellantis plans to produce an industry-first pickup for its Ram Trucks brand that’s equipped with an onboard gas engine and electric generator.
    The truck can operate as a zero-emissions EV until the vehicle’s battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle after its initial charge.
    Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis characterized the new Ram 1500 Ramcharger pickup as the “ultimate answer for battery-electric trucks.”

    2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten

    DETROIT — Automaker Stellantis plans to produce an industry-first electric pickup truck called the Ram 1500 Ramcharger that’s equipped with an electric generator and a gas engine.
    If that sounds like an oxymoron, here’s how it works: The truck can operate as a zero-emissions EV until its battery dies and an electric onboard generator — powered by a 27-gallon, 3.6-liter V6 engine — kicks on to power the vehicle.

    The outcome is a truck with the benefits of an EV, such as fast acceleration and some zero-emissions driving, without the range anxiety synonymous with most current electric vehicles, according to Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis.
    “This is the ultimate answer for the battery-electric truck. No one else has got anything else like it,” Kuniskis told reporters during an event. “This is going to be a game changer for battery-electric trucks.”
    The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger is expected to go on sale in late 2024 alongside a previously revealed all-electric Ram 1500 truck without a gas-powered engine or range-extending electric generator.
    Stellantis estimates the range of the Ramcharger to be up to 690 miles, including up to 145 miles powered by a 92 kilowatt-hour battery when fully charged without the extended-range power from the gas engine and 130 kilowatt electric generator.
    That range compares with up to an expected 500-mile range of the all-electric Ram 1500 REV pickup. It also tops the current Ram 1500, which has a 3.6-liter V-6 engine and an up to 26-gallon tank with a total range of up to 546 miles, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

    Stellantis did not announce pricing of the Ramcharger, which was revealed Tuesday as part of a redesign of current gasoline-powered Ram 1500 pickups for the 2025 model year.

    ‘Not a PHEV’

    Kuniskis said the Ramcharger is meant as a bridge between traditional trucks with internal combustion engines and all-electric ones, which currently face significant hurdles regarding charging infrastructure and range anxiety, especially when the vehicles are towing — a main reason to purchase a truck.
    Such improvements could be a differentiator for the brand, according to Stephanie Brinley, associate director of AutoIntelligence for S&P Global Mobility.
    “It works to address the fact that right now the industry and the pickup truck segment in particular is not ready to just flip to EVs 100%,” she said. “It addresses some of those performance and range anxiety concerns, and it’s strong.— But the difficult part is going to be getting consumers to really understand what it does.”

    2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Tungsten

    Similar propulsion technology — referred to as extended-range electric vehicles, or EREVs — is available in overseas markets, specifically China. It’s also similarly been offered in vehicles such as the discontinued Chevrolet Volt sedan from General Motors.
    Stellantis engineers said the main difference between the technology of the Ramcharger and the Volt is that the truck is being exclusively propelled by electric motors, not the vehicle’s engine, once the battery dies. It’s also expected to be the first application of it in a production full-size pickup truck.
    The Ramcharger features 663 horsepower and 615 foot-pounds of torque and can achieve 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds, Stellantis said. The truck will be capable of bidirectional charging, where the vehicle acts as a generator to power appliances or even an entire home, the company said.
    Kuniskis, who also leads Stellantis’ Dodge brand, declined to comment on whether the technology of the Ramcharger will be used in other vehicles. Other Stellantis brands include Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat in the U.S.
    The Ramcharger operates differently from current plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, that offer a range of all-electric driving, followed by an engine powering the vehicle after the battery is depleted.

    Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis unveils the Charger Daytona SRT concept electric muscle car on Aug. 17, 2022 in Pontiac, Mich.  
    Michael Wayland / CNBC

    “The Ramcharger is not a PHEV,” Kuniskis said. “It’s a battery-electric truck with its own onboard, high-speed charger.”
    “There’s no connection between the engine and the wheels,” he said. “The gas generator is only there to charge the battery.”
    Ram’s truck strategy is different from its leading competitors GM and Ford Motor. The latter is offering traditional, hybrid and all-electric versions of its F-150 full-size truck, while GM has said it plans to transition from traditional trucks to electric ones without the use of hybrids.
    Stellantis currently offers PHEV versions of vehicles such as the Chrysler Pacifica minivan and Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee SUVs.

    Bye-bye Hemi

    The design of the Ramcharger is a mix between the all-electric Ram 1500 REV and the refreshed gas versions of the traditional trucks, which will be available early next year.
    The Ramcharger includes illuminated lines across its grille from the headlamps, new badging that debuted on the all-electric truck and other design and facia elements between the two.
    For the traditional Ram 1500 models, the biggest change is the company is dropping its well-known Hemi V-8. Replacing the current 5.7-liter Hemi engine offered in the truck will be a twin-turbocharged, inline-six-cylinder engine called the Hurricane.

    Ram’s 2023 Super Bowl ad debuts the production version of the Ram 1500 REV electric pickup that is expected to go on sale in late 2024.
    Screenshot

    “Some customers are going to be upset that you’re not going to have a Hemi in there,” Kuniskis said. “Sure, the Hemi’s an absolute legend. Americans love the Hemi, but this thing flat out outperforms the Hemi.”
    The 3.0-liter Hurricane engine is rated at 420 horsepower and 469 foot-pounds of torque, while a high-output version of the engine is rated at 540 horsepower and 521 foot-pounds of torque. That compares with the current V-8 Hemi at 395 horsepower and 410 foot-pounds of torque.
    Inline-, or straight-, six-cylinder engines have been used in U.S. vehicles by automakers such as BMW and Jaguar, however, they’re far from mainstream in the U.S.
    Other changes to the trucks include a new luxury model called Tungsten and a performance variant called RHO replacing Ram’s high-output TRX pickup that is equipped with a Hemi 6.2-liter V-8 capable of 702 horsepower and 650 foot-pounds of torque. More