Dodge has built its reputation on tyre-shredding muscle cars with V8 engines that can be heard from blocks away.
The tyre shredding thing will still be part of the future Dodge muscle car equation. But the V8s won’t be.
Dodge is going through a major transformation. And while the iconic Challenger and Charger performance cars will live on, they’ll be very different to anything before them.
In the biggest sign yet that the V8 engine is on borrowed time, Dodge has confirmed it will unleash an all-electric muscle car by 2024.
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The yet-to-be-named new arrival was teased at the recent EV Day from parent company Stellantis, which was formed after the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot Citroen (PSA).
“We expect to thrive and define the future of American muscle … to tear up the streets, not the planet,” said Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis in announcing the radical change of direction for the proudly American brand.
It also contained some stunning admissions, like the one where Kuniskis admitted electric motors would step up the performance from the V8s that have been key to American muscle cars for more than half a century.
“Our engineers are reaching a practical limit of what we can squeeze from internal combustion innovation,” he said.
Wow.
“We’ve pushed this pedal to the floor,” said Kuniskis during the video presentation. “Electric motors can give us more. And if we know of a technology that can give customers an advantage, we have an obligation to embrace it.”
Helping the additional performance is all-wheel drive.
Dodge didn’t show the car in its entirety but gave some grainy clues, including some footage of it doing a four-wheel burnout.
So what will consumers who’ve been fed a steady diet of loud V8s think of this shift to an aurally different world?
“Our customers purchase an experience, not a technology. Dodge will not sell electric cars. Dodge will sell American muscle.”
Dodge says it will “amplify the elements of not just Dodge but the muscle car itself” in the shift to electricity.
All statements that will no doubt be sending shivers down the spines of the V8 faithful… at least until the stomp the throttle for the first time.
It’s not yet known what the new model Dodge EV mega muscle car will be called, although the company has confirmed it will continue to sell a Challenger and Charger in future.
It’s also teased a blast from the past – the triangular fratzog logo that was used in the 1960s and ’70s.