Aurelia Butler

The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger plug-in hybrid will go on sale before the electric Ram 1500 REV but still won’t be out until later in the yeaer.Ram says it made the change due to waning demand for EV pickup trucks as well as higher interest from customers in the PHEV. The Ramcharger will now be available to order in the second half of 2025, with the REV slated to go on sale sometime in 2026. UPDATE 2/24/25: Just months after Ram announced the Ramcharger PHEV would leapfrog the Ram 1500 REV, brand CEO Tim Kuniskis has moved the goalposts again. According to Kuniskis, the Ramcharger is now scheduled to arrive sometime in the second half of the year. The battery-electric REV holds to Ram’s updated schedule and should arrive in 2026.Ram is rethinking its strategy for releasing its first electric pickup truck. Originally, the Ram 1500 REV was slated to go on sale sometime in the first half of 2025. However, the truckmaker has now decided to prioritize its first plug-in-hybrid pickup—the Ram 1500 Ramcharger—which will leapfrog the EV and take its production time slot.In December 2024, Ram announced that it had changed its initial plan. It cited waning demand for electric trucks as one of the reasons behind its decision as well as higher customer interest in the Ramcharger, which uses a gas engine to charge its battery and therefore eliminates the range anxiety that some buyers associate with owning an EV. It’s also worth mentioning that the Ramcharger is less susceptible to the shortcomings of towing with an electric truck. While it hasn’t been officially confirmed, Ram has said it’s targeting up to 500 miles of driving range from the REV with its larger 229.0-kWh battery. With a 350-kW connection, DC fast-charging is estimated to add 110 miles of range in about 10 minutes. Of course, skeptics will point out that it will still take less time to fill the Ramcharger’s fuel tank. It also remains to be seen how much either of Ram’s electrified trucks will cost, although we expect the all-electric one to be more expensive. According to Ram’s updated timeline, the Ramcharger will now be available to order in the second half of 2025, while the Ram 1500 REV is now slated to go on sale in 2026. Both trucks will be built in Ram’s factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, alongside the rest of the brand’s half-ton lineup. This story was originally published December 18, 2024.More Ram 1500 ReadingEric Stafford’s automobile addiction began before he could walk, and it has fueled his passion to write news, reviews, and more for Car and Driver since 2016. His aspiration growing up was to become a millionaire with a Jay Leno–like car collection. Apparently, getting rich is harder than social-media influencers make it seem, so he avoided financial success entirely to become an automotive journalist and drive new cars for a living. After earning a journalism degree at Central Michigan University and working at a daily newspaper, the years of basically burning money on failed project cars and lemon-flavored jalopies finally paid off when Car and Driver hired him. His garage currently includes a 2010 Acura RDX, a manual ’97 Chevy Camaro Z/28, and a ’90 Honda CRX Si. More

Volvo has discontinued the V60 Polestar Engineered plug-in-hybrid station wagon in the United States.A Volvo spokesperson confirmed to Car and Driver that the decision was made as Volvo moved V60 production to its facility in Ghent, Belgium.Thankfully, this doesn’t mark the death of all Volvo wagons in our market, with Volvo confirming that the V60 Cross Country and V90 Cross Country will continue. America’s misplaced lack of interest in the station wagon has struck again, this time taking out our favorite Scandinavian longroof: the Volvo V60 Polestar Engineered. Road & Track broke the news, reporting that Volvo’s consumer site reads, “The V60 Polestar Engineered plug-in hybrid is no longer available as a new vehicle in the US.”As sad as we are about it, we don’t blame the automaker for the decision. The company sold fewer than 3500 wagons in the U.S. last year, after all. In a statement to Car and Driver, a spokesperson for Volvo confirmed that the change came as production of the V60 migrated to the automaker’s production facility in Ghent, Belgium. Thankfully, the change doesn’t spell total destruction of Volvo’s North American wagon lineup. According to Volvo’s spokesperson, “Volvo Cars has decided to end production of the V60 Polestar Engineered model, focusing instead on the more popular Cross Country variant for the U.S. and Canada.” Well, beggars can’t be choosers. The most recent version of the most athletic V60 paired a 312-hp turbo four with a 143-pony electric motor for the rear axle to produce a combined 455 horsepower and 523 pound-feet of torque. An impressive 44 miles of EV range in our testing sweetened the pot even more. The surviving V60 Cross Country and V90 Cross Country feature less potent mills, with the former powered by a 247-hp turbocharged four-cylinder and the latter with 295 horsepower from a supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder with a 48-volt hybrid system. We just hope Americans can come to their senses in time to save the few remaining station wagons before the entire segment goes extinct. More on Volvo Station WagonsJack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1. After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf. More

Here’s a wonderful little Italian camper van, ideal for a slow-rolling holiday.Yes, Alfa Romeo did really once build vans. And isn’t “Autotutto” just fun to say?It won’t hit 50 mph, but taking it easy is the whole point.Fancy a little Roman Holiday? Check out this vintage camper built by Alfa Romeo. It’s up for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos). It will require a plane ticket and a bit of time off to properly enjoy, but we can’t imagine a more fitting way to meander through sun-kissed Mediterranean climes.Bring a TrailerAlfa Romeo is better known as the marque that built the racing cars Enzo Ferrari cut his teeth on. This wonderfully green T10 Autotutto is one of Alfa’s often-overlooked commercial models, vans and small trucks that delivered fresh foccacia and olives and who knows what else through the streets of Rome and beyond. Starting out life as a conventional van, this example spent its early life in Sicily and then Modena, and was later converted to a camper and refurbished. We love the details, from the white piping on the green vinyl seats to the roof-mounted 16-inch spare tire it wears like a beret.Bring a TrailerWhen new, the T10 could be optioned with a 750-cc engine shared with Alfa’s sedan range, or a small supercharged diesel inline twin. This camper has the latter, displacing 1158 cc, and it offers a very modest 31 horsepower. With a four-speed manual transmission, top speed is just 47 mph.Bring a TrailerThat’s not great for hammering down the autostrada, nor tackling the Alps. Instead, you’d simply have this little camper shipped down to Sardinia or Sicily, and spend a few weeks nosing around small towns on back roads, stopping in cafés and generally taking it easy. There’s a gas stove for cooking, a sink for cleaning up, and a picnic set for lunching in the shade of some gnarled olive tree.Bring a TrailerTake along a vintage film camera to document the trip, and you’d complete the 1950s European holiday experience. La dolce vita is waiting. The auction ends on February 27.Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. More

The Etna is a restomod take on the Lamborghini Gallardo from a Croatian firm. The V-10’s power gets a bit of a bump to 592 horsepower, but the big story is the 450-pound weight reduction.The build looks to capitalize on old-school baby Lambo charm and includes a conversion to six-speed manual.Built between 2003 and 2013, the Gallardo was a success for Lamborghini, with just over 14,000 sold over its production run. A decade later, it’s somewhat overshadowed by the Huracán, while the V-12-powered Murciélago of the same era is undergoing something of a renaissance. However, a Croatian coachbuilder says it has the fix for the first-generation cars.You probably haven’t heard of Zagreb-based Tedson Motors before, but the company has been around for a few years in the restomod 911 business. Its launch product was a reworked Porsche 964, although one that took a slightly different angle than similar 911 reimaginings from Singer or Guntherworks. Called the Daydream, Tedson’s machine incorporated a 540-hp air-cooled flat-six that paired with an electric flywheel to provide hybrid power. The added low-end torque was claimed to fling the car past 60 mph in under three seconds.Goran Turkić, Tedson’s owner, caught the restomod bug after studying physics in Irvine, California, and building his own 1975 911 project. The first Daydream was revealed in Monaco in 2022, and this new Gallardo-based restomod, called the Etna, now adds to the company’s portfolio.As is the case elsewhere, you have to provide your own Gallardo to start, although Tedson says it won’t mess with the rarer manual-transmission models. A full carbon-fiber body replaces the original sheetmetal, and when combined with a titanium exhaust sees a weight drop of an impressive 450 pounds. The car is also wider, with aerodynamic upgrades, but overall it looks quite subtle, capped off with 19-inch wheels.From an engineering standpoint, Tedson will convert the transmission to a six-speed gated manual unless a customer really wants to hang on to the E-Gear automatic, and the 5.0-liter V-10 is reworked to provide 592 horsepower. The factory suspension is also sorted with components from some of the Super Trofeo cars, and the brakes are upgraded too.Suitably remastered, the Etna retains some old-school Gallardo elements like hydraulic steering and an even-firing order for the V-10. (Quick sidebar here: later V-10 Lamborghinis share the Audi R8’s odd-fire order, which results in slightly more vibration and a different tone. Some Lambo purists prefer the note of the old even-fire.) Tedson says only 77 cars will be made, and each of them will take about a full year to make. Customers can of course choose all kinds of customization options, as you’d expect for the steep nearly-$800,000 price.The restomod 911 market is fairly saturated now, so it’s not surprising to see a company expanding into new space. The Etna looks like a well-executed effort, we’ll have to wait to see how many buyers want to dig deep for a modernized Gallardo. From the C/D ArchiveBrendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels. More