America’s list of favorites is well established. Our favorite pastime? Baseball. Our favorite pie? Apple, of course. And as for our favorite truck engines, well, we like our V6s.
Sorry, but that last line was meant to make you flinch—not because it’s fake ragebait, but because it’s true. Just as Ram revived the Hemi V8 in its half-ton truck lineup last week, I set out to learn which engine configuration is the most popular among the U.S. of A.’s full-size pickup buyers. In talking with automakers, market analysts, and other industry experts, I learned that the answer, by far, is the six-cylinder.
So, how did this happen?
A lot of it boils down to the choices on offer by manufacturers. Toyota dropped the V8 from the Tundra entirely for this generation, switching to a twin-turbo V6 with or without hybrid assist. And up until last week’s announcement, Ram ditched the Hemi altogether for the 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six. Since Hemi Ram 1500 production doesn’t start for another few months, that means two of the biggest players in the space don’t have a V8 to sell you, even if you want one.
And then there’s Ford. While the Blue Oval has sold V8-powered pickups continuously since 1935, it began billing its EcoBoost V6s as the premium option more than a decade ago. The numbers back it up, too, as the 3.5-liter variant makes 400 horsepower—the same as Ford’s 5.0-liter V8—and 500 lb-ft of torque, which is a 90 lb-ft increase over the five-oh. It also offers a PowerBoost hybrid variant of the 3.5-liter, along with a smaller 2.7-liter twin-turbo V6. When I reached out to Ford, they said each engine offering accounts for an approximately equal split of their sales volume, meaning the V6s far outweigh the V8.
General Motors stands as the most prolific V8 half-ton truck manufacturer. It offers two of those engines to customers—the 5.3-liter and a 6.2-liter—and together, they power half of all new Chevrolet Silverado 1500s (making up 42% and 8%, respectively). GM also sells a stout 3.0-liter Duramax diesel inline-six, but its highest-volume engine that’s not a V8 is actually the 2.7-liter TurboMax four-cylinder. After the 5.3-liter, the base 2.7-liter is the most prominent by far at 36 percent.
Having learned all this, I reached out to Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at S&P Global Mobility. She told me that according to the firm’s U.S. data, V8 pickups made up 64.6% of half-ton truck registrations in 2020; by 2024, that number dropped to 38%. Meanwhile, full-size trucks with six-cylinder engines increased from 32.8% to 47.6% of registrations over the same period. Impressively, the four-cylinder GM half-tons accounted for 11.5% of registrations on their own last year.
“Reasons for the change include that the V6 and four-cylinder options are far stronger than they used to be,” Brinley explained. “The Ram 1500 provides a case in point as its Hurricane six-cylinder engines are more efficient and more powerful than the 5.7-liter V8.”
Brinley is right. The Hemi makes 395 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque, but the standard output Hurricane makes 420 hp and 469 lb-ft. Step up to the high-output Hurricane and those numbers are way higher than the Hemi’s at 540 hp and 521 lb-ft. There’s simply no comparison when it comes to performance.
“Still, many full-size pickup truck buyers do believe a V8 is the best solution for their truck, and at 38% of registrations in 2024, that amounted to about 530,000 V8-equipped trucks registered in 2024,” Brinley continued. “Offering multiple engine solutions remains important for the segment, as long as the engines can cost-effectively be made to be compliant with regulations. Over time, the V8 take rate is likely to continue to slow. But today, there are enough full-size half-ton pickup buyers looking for a V8 to make it advantageous to provide an option, particularly for the high-volume Detroit-based brands. As Ram learned, not providing the option gives buyers a reason to reject the truck and has an impact on overall sales.”
That’s almost certainly why Ford hasn’t ditched the V8 yet, even though it was the first to market with a turbo-six. Pickup truck customers love options, even if most of them choose the same ones. And brand loyalty matters far more in this segment than most others. Lose a customer, though, and it’s incredibly difficult to win them back.
“Stepping away from offering a V8 in the 1500 was definitely a big mistake, and Ram’s since likely steered shoppers to GM and Ford instead,” explained Robby DeGraff, manager of product and consumer insights at car industry research company AutoPacific. “Even with the return of the profitable Hemi, it’s good that buyers will have other powertrains available to suit their preferences including eventual electrification. Powertrain choice is king, and when remove that from a prospective vehicle buyer, that’s when your profits begin to sink. “
Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis hammered that point home when he announced the Hemi’s return. “Everyone makes mistakes, but how you handle it defines you,” he said. “Ram screwed up when we dropped the Hemi. We own it and we fixed it.” While it’s hard to project the V8’s take rate, Kuniskis estimates that it will be low during the initial production ramp-up—somewhere around 20% to 25%—though he noted it could be as high as 40% later on.
Another automotive market insider told me that could be great for Ram, but it’s unlikely to shift the tide back toward V8s industry-wide. “I don’t think the return of the Hemi is going to have much of an impact on the overall market, [and] other automakers are unlikely to change product strategy as a result,” said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Telemetry Agency. “You’re not suddenly going to see more V8s in other brands.”
Each manufacturer has invested a ton of money in its six-cylinder truck engines because that’s the direction the market has been going in, and likely will continue to in the face of emissions regulations. I’m not qualified to say that V8s are as good as they can get, but V6s are already good enough at making big power while delivering OK fuel economy and emissions results that automakers aren’t about to go back. And although there’s still a big chunk of truck customers that want the simplicity of a V8, the truth is that most people buying them are largely indifferent. So long as that’s the case, automakers will keep building and selling what works for them.
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