American muscle-car brand is embracing electrification with open arms, and the future is nearly here
Dodge has confirmed it will reveal the next three chapters of its performance legacy at its annual Speed Week event set to be held in mid-August at the M1 Concourse motorsport facility in Michigan.
Three separate reveals will take place on three consecutive days; one revolving around the current Dodge muscle-car line-up, a ‘gateway muscle’ announcement and a ‘future muscle’ announcement.
The brand has already confirmed it will launch what it calls the world’s first all-electric muscle-car in 2024, a vehicle we expect to be formally previewed as part of the future muscle announcement, along with the formal retirement date of the internal combustion V8.
That’s not to say the supercharged bent-eight is going to go away quietly; swansong Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and/or Dodge Durango models with even more grunt than the current flagships are quite plausible propositions given the brand’s love affair with massive power outputs… how driveable they will be is another story.
With V8s on the way out and a monstrous EV around the corner, the ‘gateway muscle’ announcement will likely refer to a high-performance plug-in hybrid, specifically based around Stellantis’ new twin-turbo 3.0-litre ‘Hurricane’ straight six-cylinder petrol engine.
Already rated to 373kW/644Nm without any form of electrification, the Hurricane six will be capable of huge power and torque figures by the time one or even a pair of electric motors are added to the equation, not to mention an all-wheel drive set-up.
The petrol donk is no doubt capable of more even without e-boost, and it’s certainly going to be a tantalising few months while we wait to see what the go-faster boffins at Dodge can cook up with it.
“Our engineers are reaching a practical limit of what we can squeeze from internal combustion innovation,” Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said last year when teasing the upcoming ‘eMuscle’ car, which could source its battery-electric powertrain from the looming Maserati GranTurismo Folgore.
“They know, we know, that electric motors can give us more, and if we know the technology that can give our customers an advantage, we have an obligation to embrace it.”
Speaking yesterday at the 2022 Speed Week event announcement, Kuniskis reiterated that electrification was going to be a key part of Dodge’s performance exploits going forward.
“All I can say is the future of our brand will be on display during Dodge Speed Week, and we’re throwing open our garage doors so our fans can get a peek for themselves,” he said.
“It’s going to be an electric summer for Dodge.”
Most Aussie readers will be aware the Dodge brand is not offered Down Under, so the likelihood of local performance fans being able to experience these next chapters of American muscle is very low, but not zero.
Save for the age-old option of independently importing and converting a US-spec vehicle, your best bet to get access to these new vehicles will be to wait for the technology to spread and trickle down into the models we do get here.
The best and by far the most successful examples of this in the past were the Chrysler 300 SRT, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT and the savage Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, all of which had their powertrains lifted over from the Challenger SRT and Challenger Hellcat respectively.
Stellantis has made no bones about the Hurricane engine’s versatility and the broad array of vehicles it will be available in.
Last year global Jeep boss Christian Meunier waxed lyrical to Aussie media about the “limitless access to performance” that electrification will offer and said the future of performance Jeeps was secure.
Watch this space.
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Keyword: Dodge to detail its electric future in August