Trade show season is in full swing for the trucking industry, and NTEA’s Work Truck Week is a key event for the vocational trucking segment. While many companies were cautious with announcements, mindful of industry uncertainties, the Big Three truck makers – Ford, Ram, and General Motors – had noteworthy updates to share with their commercial clients.
Ram Focuses on Product Enhancements and Dealer Network Growth
Currently, the Ram brand’s commercial division is concentrating on its product offerings. In January, Ram launched its 2025 heavy-duty lineup, which was showcased at the Indianapolis show. The new generation of powerful trucks features a new powertrain, with either a Cummins 6.7L diesel engine or a 6.4L V8 Hemi gasoline engine. The column shifter, a standard feature across the lineup, returns for 2025 as well.
Both engines are paired with an eight-speed ZF TorqueFlite transmission, upgrading from the previous generation’s six-speed transmissions. This upgrade improves operational smoothness for towing and hauling. The lineup also includes aesthetic refinements, such as LED lights and new grille designs.
On the technology front, Ram is integrating its latest technology from the light-duty trucks. The heavy-duty trucks now offer larger screens, which serve as camera monitors to increase drivers’ visibility, particularly when towing or maneuvering in tight spaces. Customers can even order a relocatable rear camera directly from the factory, according to Dave Sowers, director of Ram Professional operations.
Sowers also indicated that Ram Professional, the OEM’s commercial-focused division, is making progress with its strategy to enhance efficiency through truck and van electrification, along with better telematics and preventive maintenance solutions.
Ram anticipates considerable growth for its ProMaster; the company added 200 ProMaster dealers to its network in 2024 alone, as announced during the Work Truck Week 2025 press conference. The company is also leveraging resources, including Stellantis Financial Services, with a focus on commercial market expansion and an increasing number of commercial vehicles in its offerings.
GM Reports Strong Sales and EV Gains
General Motors experienced a successful 2024, securing its position as the top-selling OEM for fleets. The company reported a 17% year-over-year sales increase for 2025, as reported by Jennifer Costabile, GM Envolve’s general director of marketing and sales.
Costabile attributed their success to GM’s broad product range, which offers “a vehicle for every industry in every location,” including a variety of EVs. As Tesla’s dominance in the EV market wanes, GM is making significant inroads. The company has the second-largest total market share of EVs at 12.6%, according to Car Edge. While these numbers primarily reflect the retail market, GM has also seen growing commercial interest in its EVs.
Several companies have already integrated GM’s EVs into their fleets, with positive results. “The reaction to the [electric] vehicles is that it actually is a substantial cost saver over ICE variants,” said Costabile. She shared an example of a GM customer using a Silverado EV for local parts deliveries, highlighting the savings over a traditional gasoline truck with no idling and no fuel costs, even in cold weather. GM is also expanding its reach by integrating the Brightdrop electric cargo van into its Chevrolet network.
On the technology front, General Motors is introducing its OnStar data capture for fleet management, beginning with its 2024 model-year vehicles. Fleet managers get a range of OnStar services with each purchase of a GM fleet vehicle, with features focused on vehicle health, EV data analysis, and connected services for navigation and voice commands. For fleets already using telematics, GM provides API access to vehicle data at no extra cost.
GM has partnered with Lytx to provide in-cab safety alerts for drivers.
Ford Pro Highlights Connectivity and Upfit Solutions
Ford Pro also celebrated its growth at the show. Ford Pro has experienced rapid expansion in just four years, since 2023. The number of connected commercial vehicles has grown by over 40% with 5.2 million vehicles in operation today, announced Dave Prusinski, Ford Integrated Services chief revenue officer.
Ford Pro is using data to enable fleet managers to make informed decisions about their vehicles, with offerings such as driver coaching, maintenance, and transitioning to EVs. Ford Pro will release a series of new safety features to enhance driver safety, including a top speed limiter and acceleration limiter. Additionally, a vehicle start inhibitor will allow fleet owners to stop the vehicle from starting if it is stolen.
“Fleets today are more intelligent than ever with increased connectivity and expanded capabilities,” Prusinski stated. “We’re building capabilities at the vehicle’s code level that seamlessly integrate with our fleet management solutions, something only Ford can do with our commercial vehicle.”
Ford Pro is expanding its Elite Commercial Service Centers, exclusive to commercial and fleet vehicles, to 67 locations. The company announced it will reach a total of 120 by 2027 during its press conference at Work Truck Week. Including all of Ford’s service centers, the company has added more than 4,000 service technicians and 2,000 service bays to support customers.
On the upfit side, Ford Pro presented its Vehicle Integration System (VIS) 2.0, providing easy access to over 100 vehicle signals without the need to cut into factory wiring. VIS 2.0 simplifies both the hardware and the software for upfitting, allowing customization for specific applications. “The beauty of this is that it’s a pretty simple and easy-to-use logic editor, and they can use any CAN signal, signals from their upfit, whatever they want to, to create custom logic for their upfit,” said Andrew Brown, Ford’s Super Duty commercial brand manager.
