RUMORS PERSIST ABOUT NEXT-GEN DODGE CHARGER AND CHALLENGER HAVING ENGINES

With the new Dodge Charger Daytona Banshee concept revealed, we’re pretty convinced that Dodge is going full hog on electrifying its future product portfolio, offering a rowdy, all-American take on the silent EV segment that simply doesn’t deliver the same drama and sensations that today’s muscle cars do.

However, the rumor persists that not all future Dodge Charger and Challenger muscle cars will be electric vehicles.

Dodge itself shut down the rumor from a Motor Trend article, saying: “the story is incorrect. The Hemi in that platform, as well as that platform, are going away. The next generation will be BEV.”

“The next generation will be BEV” are the heavy words that a lot of Mopar fans simply do not want to hear. That said, the STLA Large architecture is advanced enough to support both ICE and BEV propulsion systems, which sounds wild to us.

Now, we have reasons to doubt reports coming from leading publications, as we’ve caught them mis-reporting before. However, the well-connected crew at Mopar Insiders are now also claiming that Stellantis’ new Hurricane straight-six would take the place of the base model Hemi in the upcoming vehicles, as it makes similar horsepower while coming it at 15 percent more efficient than the Hemi. That’s what we see with the Jeep Wagoneer, anyway. A paper trail also suggests that Stellantis has bigger plans for the Hurricane Six engine than it cares to admit.

Dodge seems to be playing this one pretty close to its chest, perhaps even throwing everybody a red herring. And it could be because of the upcoming Union labor negotiations next year.

According to Bloomberg, automakers want to pay people who assemble electric cars less money than those that assemble ICE vehicles. The math is pretty simple, there are fewer components to an electric powertrain than an internal combustion one, therefore less complexity is needed to manufacture them (this of course does not take into account the added engineering complexity/costs, supply chain complexity/cost, or sheer resource demand that hinder electric vehicles). This poses a big problem for those fighting for workers’ wages, as a fleet of all-electric vehicles means that jobs could be cut, which is of course something that workers will undoubtedly be upset about.

Thirdly, it could all just be old information. Remember when Dodge was looking at adopting the Alfa Romeo Giorgio platform for the Charger and Challenger? That ultimately never happened, and this intel could just as well be the same situation.

Whatever Dodge is planning, it’s clear that we’ll be kept mostly in the dark until closer to the reveal date of the actual vehicles. Whatever happens, you can be sure that we’ll keep you out of the dark here at MC&T.