Hemi is short for hemispherical, which describes the shape of the engine's combustion chamber. This design helps the engine run more efficiently and produce more power.
Torque is like the engine's strength; it tells you how much force the engine can use to turn the wheels. More torque usually means better acceleration and the ability to pull heavier loads.
Term
T6
T6 is a type of engine that Ford uses, known for being powerful and efficient. It uses technology that helps it save fuel while still providing good performance.
The Hurricane is a type of engine made by Stellantis that has six cylinders in a row. It's designed to be powerful and efficient, making it good for trucks.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that looks sporty and can go really fast. It's popular because it combines the comfort of a regular car with the excitement of a race car.
Muscle cars are a type of car that is very powerful and fast, usually made in America. They became popular in the 1960s and are known for their strong engines and sporty look.
The Hellcat is a powerful version of certain Dodge cars, like the Challenger and Charger. It has a really strong engine that makes it super fast and exciting to drive.
The Pentastar is a type of engine made by Chrysler. It's a V6 engine, which means it has six cylinders, and it's designed to be both powerful and fuel-efficient.
A V8 engine is a type of car engine that has eight cylinders arranged in a V shape. It's known for being powerful and is often used in sports cars and trucks.
The Dodge Power Wagon is a tough truck designed for heavy work and off-roading. It's built to handle rough terrain and is great for people who need a strong vehicle for tough jobs or adventures.
Evolution in performance means making a car better over time by improving what it already has instead of completely changing it. It's about making small, smart upgrades to keep up with what drivers want.
The Ford Maverick Lobo is a type of small pickup truck made by Ford. It's popular because it's affordable and can be used for many different purposes, like carrying things or driving around town.
'Truck of the Year' is an award that recognizes the best pickup truck. It looks at things like how well the truck performs and how good it looks. Ford has won this award many times in a row.
ICE means the regular engines that run on gasoline, while HEV refers to cars that use both a gas engine and an electric motor to save fuel and be better for the environment.
The Mazda CX-50 Hybrid is a type of SUV that uses both gasoline and electric power to drive, which helps it go further on a tank of gas. It's designed for families and has a lot of space inside.
The Mazda CX-5 is a smaller SUV that is fun to drive and has a nice design. It’s a good choice for families because it has plenty of space and features.
The Mazda CX-90 is a big SUV that can fit more people inside, making it great for families. It has three rows of seats, so everyone can ride together comfortably.
LIVE
Introducing the five-year business boost from Comcast Business.
It's the certainty of a price lock for five years on qualifying internet bundles,
plus the most reliable Wi-Fi with our best equipment.
And ask about a $500 prepaid card when you add two lines of mobile.
The five-year business boost only from Comcast Business.
Powering possibilities.
INS 222.26, new customers only.
One-year contract required for guaranteed rate.
Five-year pricing applies a monthly service charge excluding taxes and fees.
Best Wi-Fi based on Open Signal Awards USA.
Fixed broadband experience report, May 2025.
At Capella University, learning online doesn't mean learning alone.
You'll get support from people who care about your success.
Like your enrollment specialist, who gets to know you and the goals you'd like to achieve.
You'll also get a designated academic coach who's with you throughout your entire program.
Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals.
A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.
Learn more at capella.edu.
Well, here we are inside the Detroit Auto Show.
And this is going to be very different from previous years
because we're going to talk with one of the representatives from the finalists who didn't win.
But let's start with something else.
They should have had an award for CEO of the year 2025 for what you did last year.
Coming back, no.
I'm bringing back that, no, the Raffi 300, the Hemi.
That was a huge thing.
And you put it in the finalist list.
So that was pretty big.
So I'm going to give you that award.
It's not official.
Thank you.
But that was really important, right?
I mean, and the industry is changing so much that like your personal situation,
what is an example of that?
It was important for our customers, you know, we heard very loud and clear from them.
Look, we can look at a spreadsheet.
And in this industry, we look at a lot of data.
We can look at a spreadsheet and we can reason away the Hemi all day long.
And we can talk about the T6 and the efficiency and the power and the torque.
And it's a great engine.
And it will be our volume engine.
There is no question.
But customers told us loud and clear, it may be great.
I want to make the decision for myself.
I don't want you to decide for me.
I know the Hemi.
I'm comfortable with the Hemi.
I would like to compare and contrast both of them myself and then I will decide.
There's a very American trait and we didn't fulfill that and so we fixed it.
And that's why we put the badge on there, the symbol of proof test.
Exactly, people love it.
I mean, the sales are going through the roof, right?
Again, with that model.
You know, if you look at the success that Ram had this year,
our sales were up about 50,000 units at retail sales to actual customers.
Sales were up probably about 17%.
Which is a great performance on a retail basis sales to customers.
The reality is, in that 50,000 incremental sales that I got year over year,
it wasn't a lot of Hemi's.
Everybody thinks it's a lot of Hemi's because they're very excited about it.
But we had shut down the Hemi assembly line.
Of course, yeah.
By the time we announced it, by the time we ramped it up,
there was very minimal impact on that 50,000.
So let's talk about something else or like not something else,
the same truck with the six inline hurricane.
That's a great engine, too.
And people, as you said, are emotional, but not very rational, can we say?
I caught so much heat on social media.
A lot of people may know this.
I have no social media presence.
I know, but you're alone with the plates anyway.
I have nothing.
But, and some people shared it with me,
I caught a lot of heat on something that I said recently.
I don't remember where I said it, but I said,
if you're looking for a truck, I said, we just launched a T-Rex.
I love T-Rex.
Look, I'm the Hemi guy.
I love the Hemi.
I love T-Rexes.
I love demons.
I love all that stuff.
Love it.
I said, but if you're looking for a truck
and you're looking for a daily driver,
the RHO is the better truck than a T-Rex.
And that's not disparaging T-Rex.
It's amazing.
I know.
But, the RHO is a great truck.
That T-6 engine is fantastic.
And that's why I'm the Hemi.
I don't think the Hemi's gonna displace the T-Sex.
I think the Hemi, at a natural run rate,
be 35% versus 40% versus.
Yeah.
And as an example, in the car category,
the charger one, I mean, it's within the family,
the Dodge brand.
And that's an example of how the combination
of new technology is also very relevant, right?
Yeah, the charger, the real game changer
on the charger that a lot of people
haven't discovered yet,
I think it's starting to catch on is the all-wheel drive.
Oh, of course, yeah.
The look of it's amazing.
The functionality of having the lift gate
and the fold-down seats.
I mean, it's got damn near UV capability inside.
But the real game changer is all-wheel drive.
It's all-wheel drive for performance
and it's also all-wheel drive for usability
for the customers.
Because if you look at muscle cars,
we did very well with muscle cars.
Of course.
But the reality is, the majority of muscle cars
got sold in what we call the smile states
in the lower, southern part of the country
where you didn't have to deal with a smile.
Yeah, you didn't have to deal with a smile.
And the eyes and all that kind of thing.
In the Midwest, people were buying
scat bags and Hellcats and things like that,
but then putting them away in the winter
and some people bought the all-wheel drive
and the penistar.
But the vast majority of the volume
was in those southern states.
Now, that's all gone.
Because with the all-wheel drive,
you can drive it everywhere.
I can have a 420 horsepower, which is coming out now.
I can have the standard output at 4995
with all-wheel drive and the capability that you have.
That is a fantastic bargain.
But the thing that people are now finally
starting to figure out is,
you take the 550 horsepower with all-wheel drive
and in real-world conditions,
it'll be the Hellcat.
It'll be the Hellcat.
Yeah, exactly.
So that's the thing with the trucks too.
I mean, like the technology evolved,
but people wanna see whatever they think
is what's better in the past.
But I don't know, in the 70s, a V8 engine
was producing what, 175 horsepower or something like that.
So people have to come up with the deal.
Also, think about this.
The muscle cars in the past,
the first, when we lost the L cars,
it's 2006 for the Charger and 2008 as a nine
for the Challenger, our highest horsepower offer,
highest that we had was 425 horsepower.
The highest, the SRT most extreme was 425.
Now our base condition is 420 with all-wheel drive.
Think about that.
And this is the first year of the car.
Where's it gonna go next?
So exactly.
I think that with all-new technology,
people have to experience it.
I mean, that's the only way,
because we can talk and you can say anything
that you wanna say, but people don't experience it,
they don't know, they don't feel it.
You also, and you know this better than anybody,
you also, it's not easy to bring a new car to market.
Oh, of course, yeah.
You have to have a life cycle of product during that.
You can't bring every possible thing
the day you launch the car.
It's impossible to get to it.
So I know it's impossible also
to answer this kind of question,
but what can you tell us what's coming up in Ram
next year or this year?
I guess now we're in 2016.
We got a couple of exciting things coming.
A few of which we've already announced,
obviously, Hemi, obviously, the Black Express,
that's a sweet spot that we've been missing in the industry.
TRX is obviously a huge one.
The diesel power wagon, that was almost a no brainer,
that we have that back now.
We have another one coming
that I'm personally super excited about.
We'll have coming in Q2.
I think that is gonna be,
I think that is gonna be,
it's an overused term,
but almost a weight space in the truck business.
Yeah, that's great.
Another thing that is important
is where my two worlds marriage,
because I work for NASCAR,
I've been working for NASCAR for 30 years,
you're coming back to NASCAR, so I know that.
We're NASCAR coming back.
We're coming in hot.
I know.
We're coming in hot.
With a lot of different things.
Even Tony Stewart you brought back.
That's amazing.
That's huge, isn't it?
Yeah, so that's,
tell me more about it.
I mean, and the reality show.
So like you making things completely different
than anybody else.
Yeah, we were gone for a long time, right?
So you're gone for a long time.
You can't come in slow.
You gotta come in.
Bralowski was the last champion with Dutch,
right in 2012, I think,
a long time ago.
Yeah, it's like 13 years ago.
Yeah.
So we said,
we've been talking to NASCAR for a while,
trying to come back in,
and we just couldn't put the whole thing together
and make it make sense.
And I was just telling somebody else earlier
that I had a luxury of taking a six month vacation
and then that six month vacation,
one of the things that I regretted was,
it's funny if you look back in history,
thankfully nobody remembers this.
When I started on Ram,
or I'm sorry, when I started on Dodge,
when I started on Dodge,
the first time was literally,
almost within days of when we announced we were leaving.
Oh, wow.
And so I got tattooed with,
too does it like NASCAR,
it's too much fault.
I got blamed for all of it.
And it had nothing to do with it.
It's probably due to fault.
So it was one of those things that I always thought,
man, I gotta fix that.
I mean, I don't wanna be tattooed
with that for the rest of my life.
I gotta fix that.
Try, try, try, try, try, try.
But I remember, I remember a meeting with NASCAR
and I said, look, we wanna come back.
And of course they wanted us to come back.
You know, the more OEMs, the better for the sport
and better for the fans as well.
But I said, please give us a little leeway
because we gotta do this different.
We gotta make our presence known
because we're coming in a truck first.
The truck is smaller than truck.
So if you bring Tony Stewart back,
a lot of people are gonna look at that,
at least for that race.
And if he wins, I mean, things start like building up, right?
The excitement behind, well, number one,
a team of the caliber of college,
that's a big win for us with, obviously,
at some point we wanna transition to cup,
otherwise they wouldn't be working.
Yeah, of course.
And then we did, you know, we were very lucky
to be able to work with Dana White on the TV show
because what do I know about making TV shows?
If I said to you, I'm making TV,
you'd be like, that's gonna be terrible.
But if I say to you,
the guy who made the ultimate fighter,
which is the thing that actually created you.
So the right pieces in that right moment.
That's a huge piece of it.
I think that's gonna be super fun.
That starts on the 25th.
And then the free agent truck,
now with Tony Stewart being the first driver,
the response to that has been absolutely amazing.
Yeah, I've seen it.
But think beyond the response of the fans.
It's awesome for the fans, right?
So many people love Tony Stewart.
But think about the actual racing.
So you got the people in the truck series,
they get a chance to race the legend.
Exactly.
And the legend is gonna wanna be competitive
with the kids, right?
So the competition is gonna be next level.
It could be the grandkids.
I think you're gonna get a lot of new people
watching track racing now, which was our goal.
Yeah, and you have five trucks in the field of water,
30 something.
So you have a good odds of winning.
Yeah.
So congratulations for not winning,
not for not winning,
but like congratulations for everything you did last year.
And again, if that award was open,
I will give it to you because I think you did amazing
coming back and doing all these things.
So we'll see what happens in 26.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tim.
And now we're gonna hear from the winners,
including the Dutch charger.
Thank you.
Good morning and welcome to our announcement
of the 2026 North American Car, Truck,
and Utility of the Year.
The process of selecting the vehicles of the year
begins with dozens of eligible vehicles
that are all new or substantially redesigned.
Throughout the year, jurors conduct test drives
to evaluate these vehicles for excellence in their category.
The initial list is whittled down to semi-finalists
and then in the fall,
after our collective test drive event in Michigan,
the nine finalists that you see behind us.
Now, please welcome Treasurer John Vincent
to announce our first winner.
Good morning.
I'm John Vincent.
I'm the Senior Editor for Vehicle Testing
at US News and World Report.
And I have the honor of presenting our first award,
the North American Car of the Year.
And without further ado, the winner is...
The Dutch...
Woo!
Woo!
Woo!
We'd like to have Matt McLeer,
Dodge brand CEO, come up to accept the award.
Good morning.
Thank you to the entire jury.
It made up of so many of a broad background
that truly makes this thing special.
Without you, we wouldn't be able to get our message out there.
We truly appreciate it.
This is the eighth generation charger
which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year
as a nameplate.
And as we say, it's not about revolution,
it's about evolution and truly redefining
what performance stands for.
Thank you to the entire team back in Auburn Hills,
the engineering team, the brand teams, the design teams,
the manufacturing team across the river in Windsor.
We're excited to get the word out and start selling these.
Thank you to our dealer body for your support
and it's gonna be a great year for Charger.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Jill Simonello
and I am the secretary for the North American Car of the Year
Jury.
And I'm here to present to you the truck of the year winner.
All right, and the winner is the Ford Maverick Lobo.
And that is going to be received by
Pam Wiley, Ford Vehicle Line Program Director.
On behalf of Ford, thank you so much to the jury
for recognizing the Ford Maverick Lobo.
Super exciting for us today.
And Ford earning the truck of the year
for six years in a row is truly a testament
to Ford's commitment to truck excellence.
So thank you for all of these wonderful years
in the truck space.
We're thrilled to be here today to accept this award.
And it really is all about our customers
who inspire us every day to push the boundaries
in delivering Ford tough trucks.
Thank you so much.
And now, the award for the North American Utility Vehicle
of the Year.
The winner is the Hyundai Palisade.
Accepting for Hyundai, Ola B.C. Boyle,
Senior Vice President of Product Planning
and Mobility Strategy for Hyundai North America.
Good morning and thank you so much to the Nectore jurors.
Thank you for everyone who supported the Hyundai Palisade.
You know, the team is going to be so happy about this
because it was really a way to talk about a couple of things.
Let's bring you a vehicle at the right price that is a flex
and let's get a calm vehicle,
a vehicle that has ICE and HEV
and has flexibility for all our customers
and also listen to what they say
and make it the family vehicle that has the space
and the economic price that serves our families today
in these tough times.
And it came out at exactly the right time
and the team is so happy that they were able
to demonstrate to the jurors and to our customers
that we listen to their voices
and it's appreciated in this way.
So thank you again to the jurors.
Thank you to the customers.
We really appreciate this.
Thank you all.
On behalf of Nectore's jurors and officers,
thank you for coming.
This season, everyone deserves a little more
and Mazda delivers with the extended driving range
of the CX-50 Hybrid so you can spend more time together.
Standard all-wheel drive in every Mazda CUV,
including the CX-5, and room to bring everyone
with three-row seating in the CX-90.
Find more reasons to celebrate the CX-50
at the Mazda Mortar Movie Sales Event.
Every Mazda CUV offers you an elevated driving experience
and refined performance.
Discover it at your local Mazda dealer today.
Love the night?
Reach for ZIN after dark,
a limited cocktail-inspired series
for those who get up when the sun goes down.
Try ZIN's Mojito, Spiced Cider,
and espresso martini.
Find them at select retailers.
Available while supplies last.
ZIN after dark.
Bring on the night.
Warning, this product contains nicotine.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
About this episode
Tim Kuniskis discusses the revival of the RAM Hemi V8 and its impact on sales, emphasizing customer demand for choice in engine options. He highlights the success of RAM trucks, including the inline-six Hurricane engine, and the importance of all-wheel drive in modern muscle cars like the Charger. The episode also touches on RAM's return to NASCAR, featuring Tony Stewart, and the excitement surrounding upcoming models. The conversation concludes with the announcement of the 2026 NACTOY Awards, recognizing standout vehicles in the automotive industry.
Recorded at the Detroit Auto Show, this episode features Tim Kuniskis, CEO of RAM Trucks, discussing his return to the brand and the strategic decision to revive the iconic V8 HEMI. We also cover RAM’s strong momentum heading into 2026, including the RAM 1500’s finalist run for NACTOY Truck of the Year, and break down the 2026 NACTOY winners announced at the show.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
