The new year is a period of renewal for people and companies with some early surprises usually appearing in January. Ram will be one of the companies offering an early surprise for customers in January with a new teaser image suggesting the TRX could be making its return.

A dinosaur brought back from extinction

When we last saw the Ram TRX, it was getting axed due to fuel regulations and a disastrous miscalculation by Stellantis and former CEO Carlos Tavares that customers didn’t want V8s and would gravitate towards the new Hurricane inline-six. This included the TRX being rebranded as the RHO (Rhino) and being given an inline-six of its own.

Customers responded to this move, by leaving, and caused Ram sales to crater with Tavares responding to the news (among slipping sales in other Stellantis brands) the best way he could, by resigning. Since then, Ram has been on a redemption tour and has brought the Hemi V8 back into the Ram 1500. This push could coincide with the teaser video Ram released today. It starts off in the desert with the serene sandy scene giving way to the sound of a loud and powerful sounding engine approaching before the words “Power Reborn” leap onto the screen like a Sta Wars title card.

To us, it sounds like a V8 and the last TRX we drove did come with a supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 lurking under the hood which made 702 hp. Ram execs in the past said the RHO was never meant to replace the TRX (even though it sure felt like it did) and claimed it would have proper positioning if a TRX was ever brought back from the dead.

When will we see the new model?

If this is indeed a reborn TRX, it could appear in dealerships sooner than most folks realize. Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis confirmed a short while back that he tasked former SRT chief engineer Daryl Smith with the goal of finding a way to quickly get the old Hemi V8 back into the Ram and make it work with the new architecture.

Smith managed to get it done in six months and with this speedy performance, look for a sequel when it comes to the 6.2 liter supercharged V8. Assuming the timeline isn’t fractured in any way, the new model could be in dealerships by early next year though it remains to be seen when the truck will exactly appear? Neither Ram or new CEO Antonio Filosa are ready to talk about that yet, and we still have plenty of time to wait.