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The 28,495th and final Ram 1500 with a Hemi V8 for Australia has been completed, as the new twin-turbo six-cylinder version nears showrooms.
Australia's final Ram 1500 pick-up with V8 power has been completed in Melbourne ahead of an updated model with turbocharged six-cylinder power due by the middle of next year.
The 'Granite Crystal' Ram 1500 Limited rolled off the local production line as the 28,495th and final V8 pick-up to be 're-manufactured' in right-hand drive by the factory-backed Ram Trucks Australia operation.
The final vehicle – finished on Friday 6 December – has not been allocated to a dealership, but Ram says only "limited stock" of the V8 remains due to "strong interest" from buyers during its run-out phase.
It will be succeeded by an updated Ram 1500 in the first half of 2025, with revised styling, upgraded technology, and a new twin-turbo inline six-cylinder petrol engine.
The larger Ram 2500 and 3500 pick-ups use six-cylinder turbo-diesel engines from US company Cummins.
Ram says the final V8-powered 1500 was completed on Friday 6 December, with more than 100 workers gathering to watch it roll off the production line in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Clayton.
"We have been overwhelmed by the response to the Hemi V8 runout, and we understand some buyers who want one of the last V8s may miss out," Ram Trucks Australia general manager Jeff Barber said in a media statement.
"However, we hope to have enough stock to fulfil most orders.
"We will have a very worthy successor next year powered by a new-generation turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine, but we will have more to say about that closer to local showroom arrivals."
The tally of 28,495 Hemi V8-powered pick-ups built for Australia and New Zealand since June 2018 joins the larger diesel 2500 and 3500 models offered since December 2015, as well as diesel V6 1500s offered in the previous DS-series line-up.
Ram is the all-time top seller of US pick-ups in Australia to date, though Chevrolet is just 32 vehicles behind in the 2024 year-to-date race.
While Chevrolet is well ahead in heavy-duty sales – with 1339 Silverado HDs to 570 Ram 2500s and 3500s – Ram leads in 1500-sized pick-up sales (2962 vs 2161).
The 're-manufacturing' process takes 14 hours, and is backed by Ram head office in the US – unlike independent left- to right-hand drive conversions offered by smaller firms around the country.
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.
