2019 Ram 1500 eTorque first drive review: The hybrid pickup truck you can (and should) drive

Late on a weekend night in the 1970s, Woodward Avenue in Detroit thrummed with the roar of V-8 engines and bias-ply rubber wailed as it roasted on the pavement.

Today’s Detroit is not 1975’s Detroit, especially on a cold January morning. Mopar now speaks with an Italian accent. Traffic flows alongside a brightly colored commuter train. Scooters and bike shares litter pavement in Detroit’s increasingly gentrified core.

The black 2019 Ram 1500 I’m driving has a big, honkin’ V-8 underhood that bridges the gap between generations.

Not that anyone inside or outside the Ram would know as it sits silently at a traffic light. This Ram has the company’s new mild-hybrid tech, which it calls eTorque.

The system features an air-cooled 48-volt electric motor mounted atop the 5.7-liter V-8 that talks to a 0.4-kwh lithium-ion battery slotted behind the rear seat. Ram says eTorque is good for 130 pound-feet of torque, but its delivery isn’t as simple as that.

At the red light on Woodward, the Ram’s engine turns off. If not for the tachometer needle dropping to zero, I would hardly notice. The heater fan pumping out warm air hums in the background, and if I listen closely, the V-8 engine’s distant tick-tick underhood is noticeably absent.

The light turns green.

Instead of mashing the throttle in honor of those ‘Cudas and Mustangs that once prowled Woodward, I accelerate with the flow of traffic. The Ram moves first under electric power before the gas engine kicks on a second later without a shudder or a sound. The electric motor provides enough thrust to move the big pickup truck a few feet before the V-8 kicks on imperceptibly—aside from the tachometer coming to life, that is. That stands in contrast to stop/start systems that rudely awaken a sleeping engine as soon as the driver’s foot leaves the brake pedal.

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