The Ram 1500 EV Revolution Concept made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year, and one of the most exciting features is the three-row seating. At the time, Ram did not provide images of the third row but has since added photos of the seats and their layout in the cabin.
Stellantis' design chief, Ralph Gilles, also spoke with Automotive News, explaining the idea behind the seats. The Ram Revolution rides on Stellantis's STLA Frame platform and has almost nothing in common with the standard 1500 truck. CarBuzz spoke with Gilles at CES, who explained that the firewall was moved forward by roughly four inches, which gave the interior team more room to work with.
Combine that with the ingenious rail system, and you get a three-row truck.
The idea for a third row is the result of brainstorming sessions. Since Ram's engineers and designers had a clean sheet, no thought was too ridiculous. We know from previous interviews with Ram CEO Mike Koval that the automaker also spent a lot of time asking owners what they wanted, so we're talking hundreds of ideas from various sources.
The third row is described as a bonus, which makes sense. In most seven-seaters, the third row is only used on odd occasions, and the Revolution's tiny rear seats serve the same purpose. They're meant to be used when picking up friends from the airport or any one of thousands of everyday tasks that require a small seat for a limited amount of time.
"We jotted down all those ideas. Now the challenge was to take all those ideas and wrap it and put it into one concept that didn't look like a festival of ideas," said Gilles. "It looked integrated and looked holistic. I think we pulled it off.
Ryan Nagode, the chief designer of Ram truck/commercial interior studios, gave further insight into the third-row seats. The Ram rail system makes it possible to move all interior seats and even parts of the infotainment system.
This means you can slide the first and second-row seats on these rails until there is enough space for the third-row seats to fold down. While the seats aren't meant for long journeys, they're not made from cheap materials. The upper portion is made from a synthetic material similar to a SCUBA suit. The middle part is an office chair-like mesh. "We really wanted to make sure that cabin space was as optimized as it possibly could," said Nagode.
While these seats don't look particularly comfortable, they give Ram a unique selling point in the EV truck segment. It will be interesting to see whether Ford, Chevrolet, or Rivian come up with something similar when the time for a facelift arrives.
