2025 Ram 1500's New Twin-Turbo Inline-Six Barely Beats Old V8's Gas Mileage

Photo: Ram

For the 2025 model year, Ram dropped the V8s from its full-size pickup truck lineup and replaced them with a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six that’s available at two output levels. The regular version makes 420 horsepower and 469 pound-feet of torque, but if you upgrade to the high-output engine, you get 540 hp and 521 lb-ft of torque. Both have better specs than the outgoing 5.7-liter V8 and its 395 hp/410 lb-ft rating except in one area: fuel economy.

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If you had assumed that the Ram 1500 dropping two cylinders, reducing displacement and adding forced induction would give it significantly better fuel economy than the old naturally aspirated V8, that would be completely understandable. Unfortunately for potential Ram buyers, it didn’t exactly work out that way.

While the Environmental Protection Agency rated the 2024 Ram 1500 with four-wheel drive and the 5.7-liter V8 at 18/22/19 mpg (city/highway/combined), a similar 2025 Ram 1500 with the standard-output inline-six is officially rated at 17/24/19 mpg. So you’ll get slightly worse gas mileage around town, slightly better gas mileage on the highway and probably come out about even unless you do a good bit of highway driving.

Upgrade to the high-output version, and the EPA rated the 2025 Ram 1500 at 15/21/17 mpg. On the one hand, that’s an improvement over the 10/14/12 mpg that the 2024 Ram TRX got, but you’re also giving up more than 150 hp along with the roar of that magnificent V8.

Still, this is far from the end of the world for Ram. It’s always nice to get better gas mileage, but it’s not like any of the other turbocharged six-cylinders in other full-size trucks are significantly more efficient unless you count the hybrid version of the Ford F-150, and good luck finding a new one of those for less than $65,000. So the 2025 Ram 1500 might not be a full-size fuel-sipper, but as long as it’s in line with its competitors, we can’t imagine that will be a dealbreaker for possible buyers.