It’s no secret that Dodge is approaching the end of an era: a performance golden age centered around the Hemi V8 and its supercharged Hellcat derivatives. In its wake will be a more regulatory-friendly performance focus, focused on electrification. We first saw what that means last year in regard to Dodge future product with the debut of the Charger Daytona Banshee concept. In short, not everybody is happy (though some customers are), and the pressure is on for Dodge to keep the young, diverse and wealthy customer fanbase that it has acquired through the outgoing Charger, Challenger and Durango. This comes at a time when Ford is launching a new Mustang, with a V8, and Chevrolet continues to bring in new customers with the C8 Corvette. Also with a V8.
In short, as the Hemi fades away from the Stellantis engine portfolio, customers could be turning their attention to other companies to get their V8 performance fix, especially when considering the alternatives from both Chevrolet and Ford. Once again, we spoke to Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis for his insight on the matter.
What Future Products Are Next From Dodge?
“I think there’ll be some of that (switching to Mustang or Corvette). But we’re working on a couple of things, too.” Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis told MC&T. “We’ve got a couple of things that are interesting.” said Kuniskis.
2023 Dodge Hornet GT (left), shown in Acapulco Gold, and 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T, shown in Blue Steele.
Unfortunately, the Dodge and Ram CEO would not elaborate further, giving us plenty of room for speculation. As it stands, Dodge will have around a six-month gap between the end of production of the Dodge Charger and Challenger in their current forms and the arrival of the fully electric Dodge Charger Daytona, which will use the exciting Banshee powertrain. From what’s been announced, the brand will only have the Dodge Hornet as an available vehicle to fill the gap. And while the spunky SUV will offer some performance options, it’s no replacement for a Scat Pack.
The Hurricane GME-T6 engine. Image via Stellantis
Dealers, however, have been given a bigger window to look into the future when it comes to the Dodge brand. It’s expected that we’ll see a new Durango SUV (AKA the Stealth) that will share a common architecture with the WL Jeep Grand Cherokee. This likely means a plug-in hybrid powertrain, as well as a 3.0L Hurricane twin-turbo I6 engine (AKA GME-T6). Auto forecasting analysts have also decreed that Dodge will introduce a new Charger and/or Challenger with a gasoline combustion engine, also the Hurricane, as a non-electric option for muscle car customers.
The original plans for Roadkill Nights 2023 was to give each team a Hurricane crate engine, known as the Hurricrate, to power their homebrew racing builds. That plan didn’t materialize, with teams getting Hellcat Redeye crate engines instead. However, Dodge did have a special Challenger Drag Pak with a Hurricane engine making passes down the drag strip throughout the day. This can be seen as strong foreshadowing.
“Nothing’s delayed,” Kuniskis added.
