The Hellcat era is coming to a close as Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis has revealed the almighty engine will die in late 2023.
Speaking to Motor Authority at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Kuniskis said “There’s two more years to buy a Hellcat, then it’s history.”
Kuniskis went on to explain the powertrain will remain around “through the end of ’23” and it’s death is partially the result of “compliance fines” that target gas guzzlers such as the Charger and Challenger SRT Hellcat.
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Sadly, the Hellcat isn’t the only thing that’s dying as MotorTrend is reporting the company is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. As a result, Kuniskis said the “cars that you know today will go out of production by the time we get to 2024.” The Charger and Challenger will reportedly be replaced by “new cars on new platforms,” although the executive declined to say if the vehicles will keep their familiar names.
The moves are part of the brand’s Never Lift strategy and Kuniskis noted there’s a lot in the pipeline including the electric muscle car concept that was teased earlier this year. The model will debut in the next four or five months, and help to preview what we can expect in 2024.
Nearer term, a mysterious Dodge plug-in hybrid will go into production late next year. Little is known about it, but the vehicle will be a “new car” that will be shown soon. That’s not much to go on, but the model isn’t a plug-in hybrid Durango and Kuniskis was non-committal about the SUV’s future. However, previous reports have suggested the model will die and that aligns with the executive’s statement that Dodge’s current lineup will be gone by 2024.
The plug-in hybrid isn’t the only new model on the horizon as Kuniskis told MotorTrend the company will introduce a “very, very, very, significant car at the end of the year.” Details are non-existent, but Dodge seems to think it’s a big deal.
While Dodge is undergoing a major transformation, it appears the Charger and Challenger will go out with a bang as the company is promising plenty of buzz models and special editions such as the Jailbreak variants introduced last week.
