A red 2026 Dodge Charger Sixpack doing a burnout.After making a big fuss over the supposed end of the V8 muscle car and watching sales of its new electric muscle car absolutely eat horse doodoo, Dodge is apparently bringing back the Hemi-powered Charger Hellcat.At parent company Stellantis' investor day event last Thursday, the company took media behind the curtain inside its design dome (imagine the Thunderdome, except it's just people in blazers sketching minivans), showing a total of 20 future vehicles. For reference, this is just a fraction of the 60 new models planned to release by 2030 as part of the conglomerate's $70 billion turnaround.Among the planned cars shown was a "next-generation Dodge Charger ... confirmed to be getting a Hellcat engine," per the Detroit Free Press. Freep says the SRT-badged Charger Hellcat had a "new, aggressive hood scoop and front end" plus an extremely tall, Superbird-style rear wing. Behind that new front end is said to be a supercharged Hemi V8 putting out more than 700 hp. IneV8tableFront 3/4 view of a blue-gray 2026 Dodge Charger.Back in 2023, Dodge stopped taking orders for the last-gen Hemi Charger and Challenger as production came to an end. Dodge brought out several Last Call special editions as the next Charger would be electric or use the Hurricane inline-6, and there were no plans for any Hemi-powered variants.Fast forward to 2026, and EV mandates, public sentiment, and sales simply aren't what automakers and regulators wanted them to be, and electric versions of performance cars (especially those whose whole identities hinged on gulping gas) simply aren't desirable.For Stellantis specifically, the sharp pivot back to V8s was enabled by a change in leadership. Former CEO Carlos Tavares abruptly left the company in late 2024, and since then, people like Tim "Mr. SRT" Kuniskis have been brought back into the fold. Ergo, the electric Ram pickup was canceled, Stellantis reported its first profitable quarter in two years in Q1, and the 777-hp Ram 1500 Rumble Bee was recently unveiled for 2027.Given all that and considering how popular the Charger and Challenger Hellcats were in their heyday, the car's return was almost always a foregone conclusion. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.
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