Hellcat-Powered 2027 Ram 1500 Rumble Bee Is The Right Truck At The Wrong Time

I can’t help but feel like these trucks were designed with another America in mind, one that was riding high on power and aggression and being the bombastic, blunt, selfish guy. Ram calls proportions of the Rumble Bee “heroic” but then use the language of aggression and intimidation in its description of the truck. If it is heroic, it is a Randian Hero — defiant, individualistic, loud and without empathy.

And Ram has found undeniable success with that strategy, climbing out of a sales crater with a vast array of products that seized on a moment of triumph for its customers. The “Badge of Protest” gimmick with the return of the Hemi, the focus on off-roading during the height of rock climbing popularity, these are smart moves. But the cracks in that philosophy are getting deeper everyday. Loud and proud are harder to pull off when you’re eating beans as your protein three times a week to deal with inflation, stagnant hiring and wages and, most critically of all, high gas prices. 

Ram’s constant clarification that these trucks were the most powerful gas-powered trucks ever built also gave me pause. I wonder when that “gas-powered” asterisk is going to prompt those with a need for speed to wonder, well, what about non-gas powered trucks? If a person wanted a thrilling and fast truck, they could easily find deals right now on, say, the 1,025-horsepower quad-motor R1T, which can hit 60 from a standstill in 2.5 seconds and has an 11,000-pound towing capacity. The Extended-Range Ford F-150 Lightning gets 580 hp, which is higher than the Rumble Bee 392, as is its towing capacity at 10,000 pounds. Neither of these vehicles sacrifice usable space for their power and performance.

Not that EV trucks are doing their manufacturers any favors right now, but Ram is peering into the near future, and we’re peering with it, and we don’t like what we see for the Rumble Bee. EVs are suddenly on an upswing and, with no end to the U.S.-Israel war in Iran in sight, gas is likely going to continue to be extremely high for a long time. Rampant inflation will cut into the buying power of everyone, and I have to imagine the number of wealthy Americans looking to spend their fun money on a sports truck instead of a sports car with a lot more social cachet is vanishing rapidly. 

Look, it’s a cool truck. It’s really the sports truck we’ve been waiting for, the one we hoped Ford would offer with the Lobo. It would provide healthy amounts of loud stupid fun to Ram customers with the funds. But if you’re looking to fulfill a need for speed and power in a truck, there are more capable and likely more affordable trucks out there that won’t drain funds paying for dino juice. Hard times are coming to America, and fewer of us will have time to play with toys.