Happy Friday! Welcome to this week’s edition of the Official DoubleClutch.ca News Rundown, where we recap the top automotive headlines from the week that was in one convenient package. Let’s go.
2026 Ram 1500 starts at just over $65,000 with the Hemi
The Hemi V8-powered Ram 1500 is about to hit dealerships in the coming weeks, and that means we finally know how much it’ll cost.
Ram is offering the 5.7-litre Hemi V8 across the lineup, from the work truck-spec Tradesman to the fully loaded Longhorn. Pricing ranges from $65,940 to start for the Tradesman, all the way up to $99,540 for the Longhorn — plus another $2,095 for destination.
After cutting the option in 2024, Stellantis announced last summer the Hemi will be rejoining the lineup following consumer demand and the departure of Carlos Tavares, the former Stellantis CEO who made the call to axe the Hemi in the first place. All 5.7s put out 375 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque, and will come bundled with Ram’s e-Torque 48-volt mild hybrid system, the previously optional sport exhaust system, and a larger 125-litre fuel tank.
Along with the Hemi’s return, Ram announced a warranty upgrade as well. As of the 2026 model year, Ram’s powertrain warranty now spans 10 years or 160,000 kilometres, up from 5 years/100,000 km.
Volkswagen brings back even more buttons
Volkswagen never sold the Polo in any official capacity in North America, and it probably won’t do so anytime soon. But the next-generation, all-electric ID.Polo due out very soon in Europe is still a big deal for us: it’s the next phase in VW’s plan to bring back buttons. Hallelujah!
Automakers swapping physical buttons and knobs for haptic-feedback controls in the name of cost-cutting aesthetics is nothing new, but Volkswagen’s implementation proved to be contentious among buyers. VW slowly but surely made things right by adding proper buttons back onto steering wheels and making its contentious touchpads and volume-slider light up, but the ID. Polo marks a big shift away from that.
As part of the seventh-generation overhaul due out later this year, Volkswagen is embracing actual buttons and knobs yet again. The new steering wheel uses a pair of button-clusters for the usual functions, and the centre stack now gets a row of toggle switches for climate controls. It gets better — there’s a proper volume knob, and four proper window switches instead of the two-switch layout on the current ID.4 and Buzz.
The new ID. Polo is due out in Europe later this fall. While we don’t yet know which Canadian-spec models will receive this new layout, it’s only a matter of time.
Volvo teases its next EV SUV
Volvo just teased its next model slated to join its all-electric EX lineup. If the EX90 is too big, the EX30 too small, and the EX40 and EC40 too aged, the upcoming EX60 ought to be just right.
While we don’t know everything about the EX60, to their credit, Volvo dropped a few enticing tidbits to whet our appetites ahead of the official reveal later this month. For starters, Volvo is promising up to 640 kilometres of range, and that’s with all-wheel-drive, something that typically saps overall range in other EVs. What’s more, Volvo says that figure is based on their own testing using similar methods to the EPA rather than Europe’s WTLP testing, which is often criticized for inaccurate and too-optimistic results.
In the realm of midsize luxury crossovers — given the relationship between the EX90 and XC90, we’re not exactly going out on a limb to say the EX60 will probably be similar in size to the XC60 — that estimate beats the Audi Q6 e-Tron and Tesla Model Y, and is pretty much on par with the upcoming BMW iX3. Moreover, Volvo says the EX60 will be capable of a zero-to-270-km recharge in 10 minutes using a 400 kW fast charger, provided you can actually find one fast enough in the real world.
Volvo will fully reveal the EX60 on January 21st.
