The 2023 Ram ProMaster will be offered with a battery-electric powertrain, positioning it as a direct rival to General Motors’ upcoming BrightDrop EV600 electric utility van.
In a statement released Tuesday, Stellantis said its Ram Commercial division will introduce a battery-electric ProMaster in 2023 “in response to customer demand.” Details on the van are limited at the moment, although we anticipate it will share a body and certain chassis components with the internal combustion engine variant to cut back on costs – similar to the new Ford F-150 Lightning.
2021 Peugeot E-Expert
Stellantis already sells battery-electric utility vans in Europe and other foreign markets under its Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and Vauxhall brands. It’s possible the electric 2023 Ram ProMaster will share certain powertrain components with these vans, which have competitive EV powertrains offering decent power and range. The Peugeot E-Expert van, for example, is available with a 75 kWh lithium ion battery, which provides an estimated driving range of around 200 miles, along with a single electric motor producing 134 horsepower and 191 pound-feet of torque.
The 2022 model year Ram ProMaster will be offered in 18 total configurations, including two roof heights, three wheelbases and four vehicle lengths. The largest version, the ProMaster 3500 High Roof, offers about 420.2 cubic feet of cargo space. The BrightDrop EV600, for reference, boasts roughly 600 cubic feet of cargo space. While it’s not clear which body style will be offered as an EV, it seems as though the BrightDrop EV600 will have the electric ProMaster beat with regard to total cargo capacity.
The first 500 examples of the BrightDrop EV600 will be delivered to FedEx early next year. The vans will at first be produced by German supplier Kuka AG at its facility in Michigan before GM moves production to the GM CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario late next year.
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Comments
Gonna get me a Brightdrop, yah!
This van will also come on the roads as the new Opel/Vauxhall Movano, if this news of the former European subsidiary of GM is allowed here. This generation of Opel Movano is thus no longer a badge engineered Renault Master (which leaves this Renault Master and its SOVAB factory in Eastern France in an uncertain future).
Also news on the former “GM Manufacturing Poland” in Gliwice (de: Gleiwitz) in south-eastern Poland, which used to assemble the Opel/Vauxhall Astra and Cascada (also Buick and Holden Cascada) , is being expanded and retooled as 2nd European assembly plant for the European version of the Ram ProMaster. The new Astra on PSA platform EMP2 will be assembled only in the historic Opel site in Rüsselsheim, near Frankfurt on Main.
The decisions for these changes were already taken befor the merger of PSA with FCA to form Stellantis, regarding the Movano (i.e. Fiat Ducato/Peugeot Boxer/Citroën Jumper/Ram ProMaster) already 2019 in conjunction with the prolongation of the SEVEL joint venture of FCA and PSA formed in 1980, where a clause was added that PSA had the right to establish a manufacuring site for their versions of the van under PSA ownership.
Now SEVEL (Società Europea Veicoli Leggeri Sevel S.p.A.) is no longer a 50:50 joint venture of FCA and PSA, but a 50:50 joint venture of Stellantis with Stellantis. :-))
The battery-electric versions of the mid sized van of ex-PSA brands (Peugeot Expert, Citroën Jumpy, Opel Vivaro) on the one hand, and the battery-electric versions of the full size SEVEL vans were developed mainly before the merger of PSA to FCA, so I have my doubt that the BEV systems of those two have very much in common. But I may be in error.