The 2026 Hybrid Pickup With The Highest Tow Rating Yet

Let’s say your life doesn’t fit in a two-door sports coupe. It doesn’t even fit in a three-row, mid-size SUV. Not even close. Your life requires a full-size pickup truck with some serious towing power because you need to haul gear-laden work trailers, RVs, and boats. No problem. After all, there are plenty of full-size pickup trucks of the gas-powered and diesel persuasions with the sort of grunt necessary to tow toys and pull professional kit.

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Unfortunately, however, the hybrid versions of popular pickup trucks tend to lag behind their fuel-swilling counterparts. Things might look a bit different soon enough, though. There’s a full-size pickup truck that fits somewhere between a hybrid and a battery electric vehicle (BEV), and it promises the kind of towing and payload capacity you’d expect from a gas-guzzling internal combustion engine (ICE) truck. Better yet, it’s likely to go on sale before the year is out.

The Towing Spec War Heats Up

Gonna tow? More often than not, you’ll need a solid truck. That means a sturdy body-on-frame full-size pickup truck to maximize your towing capability. That said, in 2026, there are hybrid options in the full-size pickup truck segment that allow for a usable tow rating and better fuel economy than their ICE siblings. Of note, the 2026 Ford F-150 PowerBoost and 2026 Toyota Tundra i-Force Max tick those boxes. Trouble is, neither one quite matches the towing capacity of their gas-powered siblings. In short, full-size pickup trucks pull off some seriously Herculean tow ratings when they pack torquey gas engines. But things are set to change later this year with the first sales of a range-extended electric pickup truck from RAM.

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Meet The 2027 RAM 1500 REV

RAM’s Upcoming REV Promises A 14,000-Pound Tow Rating

RAM

Back in 2023, Stellantis and RAM confirmed the name of its first battery electric pickup truck. It was the REV, and it was intended to arrive in a couple of configurations. Most notably, the RAM 1500 REV and the Ramcharger, the electric-only and range-extended variants, respectively. Now, however, RAM has simplified the equation down to the 2027 RAM 1500 REV, a range-extended electric pickup truck that splits the difference between a battery electric truck and a hybrid. By the numbers: the RAM 1500 REV starts with two electric motors, one powering the front wheels and the other motivating the rear wheels.

2027 RAM 1500 REV Specs — What We Know So Far

The front and rear EV motors team up with a familiar Stellantis fixture: a naturally aspirated 3.6-liter Pentastar V6. But the six-cylinder engine doesn’t do anything to drive the wheels directly. Instead, the Pentastar acts as a range extender for the battery by powering a 130-kWh generator. That generator then converts the energy into electricity for the liquid-cooled 92-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

As such, the REV acts more like a plug-in hybrid than a gasoline-free battery-electric vehicle. Everything is direct drive, too; no eight-speed automatic transmission here. The result? If the numbers are to be believed, the 2027 RAM 1500 REV can achieve some impressive figures: 14,000 pounds of towing capacity and 690 miles of range. Of course, if you need more than 14,000 pounds of pull, you’ll have to go for a beefier option like the Ford Super Duty, RAM HD, or Chevrolet Silverado HD.

How It Stacks Against F-150 And Tundra

RAM

So, just how does the 2027 RAM 1500 REV stack up against the competition? The 2026 Ford F-150, with its 3.5-liter PowerBoost hybrid application, boasts an 11,600-pound towing capacity. That’s 2,400 pounds shy of the RAM 1500 REV. The 2026 Toyota Tundra i-Force Max maxes at 11,450 pounds, still well behind the REV’s tow rating. As for payload capacity — or how much weight in cargo and passengers your truck can accommodate — the hybrid F-150 and Tundra max out at 1,740 and 1,680 pounds, respectively.

Both of those numbers fail to match the REV’s brawnier 2,625-pound maximum payload capacity. Then there’s the standard, gas-powered RAM 1500. Minus the REV architecture, the RAM pickup truck will tow up to 11,610 pounds. Unlike the Tundra and the F-150, the ICE RAM 1500’s towing capacity falls short of that of the hybridized model, thanks to the EREV design. The RAM 1500’s payload capacity is 2,360 pounds, 265 pounds less than the REV.

Why Towing Spec Matters

RAM

There are a few things to consider here. For starters, towing is more than just a solitary tow rating figure. The Society of Automotive Engineers has a standard, SAE J2807, for determining the Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR) of vehicles up to 14,000 pounds. That includes testing in many categories, including braking, parking brake performance, handling, and acceleration. If that wasn’t enough, the testing includes real-world evaluations of cooling performance while towing a load.

For instance, the so-called “Davis Dam” test involves driving a tow vehicle up an 11-mile course, climbing 3,500 feet at temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit with the air conditioning on full blast. This testing is no joke. Then there’s tongue weight, or the force that the trailer tongue applies to your hitch. Before you hitch a fully-laden trailer to a RAM 1500 REV, consider that the ideal tongue weight for towing is around nine percent to 15 percent of the gross trailer weight. Exceeding that tongue weight, even with an impressive tow rating, can damage your vehicle and trailer.

What This Means For Truck Buyers

RAM

Before the latter part of 2026, truck buyers looking for full-size pickup trucks with the best towing capacities in the mainstream market had to look at fuel-drinking options. These included perennially popular options like the Ford F-150, RAM 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, and GMC Sierra. Hybrid options were available, but they tended to fall short of their ICE segment mates in tow rating and payload capacity. However, when the RAM 1500 REV goes on sale, that will change. The range-extended RAM promises a higher tow rating and payload capacity than other hybrid pickup trucks. So, if a greener truck with enough might to tow and haul with the best of them is what you need, the REV might be the ticket. For those noting that the REV isn’t yet available, the range-extended pickup truck is expected to go on sale before the end of 2026.

Sources: Ford, RAM, Stellantis, Toyota, Edmunds