WHITEFIELD, N.H. — Some latter-day puritans contend that excess is a moral abomination and just plain wrong. In the case of the latest Ram 1500 pickup, they would be wrong. Excess is precisely why the revamped Ram is so good.

The Ram 1500 was wholly redesigned for the 2009 model year, so the 2013 model was supposed to get what the auto industry calls a freshening. This typically involves a few small changes — adding some chrome here or an extra doodad there. The real work goes into the news release, which usually seeks to redefine the common understanding of the word “new.”

But when the Chrysler Group approached the freshening of the 1500, reality disrupted the process. Market research indicated that fuel economy was becoming a bigger concern among truck buyers.

So the product planners decided to install the 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 engine that was already found in many of the company’s vehicles, along with an 8-speed automatic transmission. Thus began a sequence of developmental dominoes in which one upgrade tumbled into another.