The headline of this article is the mea culpa of Tim Kuniskis, the back-again Stellantis executive who formerly was in charge of Dodge and is now in charge of Ram. Both Dodge and Ram are brands owned by Stellantis, the European combine.
Kuniskis left Dodge around the same time Dodge left its buyer base – by cancelling the popular Charger and Challenger and replacing both with a battery powered device that requires charging. It has not gone well for Dodge since then. Nor for Ram – which had a hot-selling truck until it was decided to replace the V8 with a turbo-hybridized six. It has not sold well since then – and that is why Kuniskis is back. He is seen as the guy who turned Dodge into the go-to brand for buyers who wanted engines rather than devices and – more than that – big V8 engines, because it was the only brand still offering them before management decided to stop offering them.
But it wasn’t because Stellantis had gone “woke” – as the New York Post put it. It was because Stellantis was going broke paying Elon Musk (via Tesla) for carbon credits to offset the “carbon footprint” of its V8-powered offerings. The sums involved were so enormous – in the hundreds of millions of dollars – that it had to offset the losses by increasing the prices of models such as the Charger and Challenger and Ram trucks and Jeeps equipped with V8 engines. This made them harder to sell because they became more expensive than many of the people who’d have loved to by one could afford to spend.
Also less profitable.
This is why then-Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares decided it made more sense to stop offering V8s, in order to stop having to pay Elon. The fly in the soup was most people had no interest in what Stellantis wanted to sell them, especially as regards the Dodge Charger device and Ram trucks with small sixes rather than big eights. It was a textbook study case of not knowing one’s market. More finely, of believing the market – its buyer base – was malleable. That bueyers could be sold anything – so long as the badge said Dodge or Ram.
It didn’t pan out. See New Coke.
See Bud Light.
“When Ram made the decision to discontinue production of the iconic HEMI V8, the internet erupted, and lifelong loyalists voiced their outrage across social media,” admits Lindsay Fifelski, who is head of Ram brand advertising.
“We own it. We got it wrong. And we’re fixing it,” Kuniskis said. Well, sort of. The V8 is coming back – and the Charger will, apparently, be turned back into a muscle car rather than a device made to look like one (and emit the fake sounds of one). The Ram 1500 will once again be available with a V8 as well. 
But none of this addresses the carbon credit problem. Dodge and Ram – which is to say, Stellantis – will once again have to deal with the costs incurred on account of having a larger-than-allowed carbon footprint, on account of offering big V8s and fewer devices. Because the regs have not been repealed.
President Trump recently signed a decree “ending” the EV sales mandate California imposed – and which a number of other states have mirrored. But all that means is that CA and other states can’t (for the moment, or the duration of Trump’s presidency) force car dealers to stock nothing except EVs. They are now free to sell what sells, which is great. But what no one in the car press has explained, as far as I can tell, is that Trump has not touched the federal regs that act as a de facto EV manufacturing mandate – because only EVs can comply with the regs pertaining to fleet fuel economy averages (CAFE) and regs pertaining to the lowering of CO2 “emissions.” The latter word is placed within air quotes because it is purposefully dishonest to refer to CO2 – which does not cause or worsen pollution – as an “emission.” It is an etymological trick to conflate these two things in the mind of the average person, who does not know better because they do not want him to know better.
And we all know who they are, don’t we?
In case you don’t, it is the aggregate of malicious regulators – such as the former head of the EPA, Michael Regan – and rent-seeking grifters, such as Elon Musk. The latter has extorted billions from legitimate companies such as Stellantis via the carbon credits scam that effectively forces them to buy these credits as the price of regulatory compliance. Their choice is either to pay Elon – via his Tesla grift – or lose even more money by wasting it on the development of their own, in-house devices that comply with the regs pertaining to “zero emissions” vehicles.
But there was – and still is – another choice. It is to publicly call Musk and the carbon credits scam out and to stop complying. Instead of spending hundreds of millions on carbon credits, spend a fraction of that on a media juggernaut – perhaps starring Kuniskis – explaining to the people just exactly how the carbon credits grift works and what it is costing them, in terms of diminishing choices, smaller engines – or no engines at all – and much higher sticker prices for the kinds of vehicles they’d like to buy but which certain elements are determined to prevent them from being able to buy.
This would require more than just money. It would require some balls. Maybe Kuniskis has a pair.
We’ll soon see.
. . .
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Great article and update on the Dodge situation. I saw for the first time an EV Charger in person finally. It’s not a bad looking car, just needss V-8 which I don’t think will happen. Great news about the V-8 1500 coming back. I may have to save my pennies and try to buy one new before the government does something else to get rid of them.
“He is seen as the guy who turned Dodge into the go-to brand for buyers who wanted engines rather than devices”
This needs to be addressed.
Long before Lil’ Timmy was even in the picture the LX platform that serves as the basis for the Charger and Challenger had the Hemi V8.
Likewise back in the mid to late 2000’s Dan Knott was instrumental in supporting the SRT project to up the HP of the Hemi’s in those products. Tragically Dan Knott lost his struggle with cancer.
There were many great guys working to make those Hemi based cars what they were. Unique in an otherwise bland market.
https://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com/newsrelease.do?id=12335&mid=
So to be totally clear, Lil’ Tim Cuntniskis did nothing but destroy that which was built long before he was even on the scene.
“What the American public doesn’t know is what makes them the American public”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16RuiTTQsus
Dude…
That quote is F–kin Hilarious….AND A FACT…I didn’t even watch the video, but the quote was enough.Thera are some major league Stupid people out there…:(
Have you caught wind of Hyundai’s fake and gay “Hybrid Cowboy” commercials? They are trying so hard… bless their hearts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R25U6T5ZD14
With the games that GovCo plays they’ll have us driving only Fiat Cucarachas with 500cc engines in 5 years.
As for the return of the Hemi; I’m guessing most people can no longer afford the 6 cylinder version let alone the 8 cylinder version.
Dodge/RAM, if you want us back, just a V8 won’t be enough….
Put the 8.3L in V10 back in production.
Pull the V12 out of mothballs and update it.
Make it optional for anything.
Give the people horsepower, and they’ll be begging you to “take their money, please!!!”
Morano: Zeldin has been unbelievable. Zelden has rolled back not only the 800 EPA grants, but he’s also done over 100 environmental actions. He’s dismantling the environmental justice agenda, he dismantled the EPA museum, he’s dismantling the EV mandate, and he’s dismantling the solar and wind mandates. He’s gone after the EPA, fraud, the gold bars of money, Stacey Abrams, and John Podesta; he has gone top to bottom of that agency with an eye on the permanent changes, unlike Trump 1.0, which was Ying Yang Obama Trump Biden.
Now we’re looking at removing the CO2 endangerment finding, which is the holy Grail of the climate movement, and they’re going after the UN climate treaty process.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2025/06/15/american-energy-alliance-trumps-epa-chief-lee-zeldin-an-american-hero-dismantling-the-climate-cult-in-america/
“Although Zeldin’s own Jewish background is in the non-Orthodox denominations — he is the grandson and grand-nephew of prominent Reform and Conservative Jews — his conservative views have won him major endorsements from Hasidic and Haredi Orthodox groups in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.”
https://www.jta.org/2022/11/04/ny/an-orthodox-favorite-lee-zeldin-discusses-his-democratic-grandparents-and-reform-upbringing
Zeldin is a genocidal psychopath like the vast majority of Jews. I’d take Speer any day of the week.
You can have him. I don’t want anything to do with any of the zio-psychopaths totally controlling the so-called ‘United States’ and ALL of its essential institutions, crypto-‘jew’ or not. Just like Drumpf. It’s great he shut the wide-open border–that never should have been swung open in the first place. It’s great he shut down some or most of the ‘jew’-faggotry and ‘jew’-transfaggotry sickness–that no way in hell such sick fucking faggotry should have ever been spread in the first place, much less on children! Poison phood, poison fluoride water, covid-cancer injections, wars, bombings, everything in our country debased, destroyed, and used against us by filthy lying so-called ‘jews’. I mean what the fuck it’s like a PROBLEM-REACTION-SOLUTION and DIVIDE AND CONQUER at once. THE CALL GOES OUT FOR MASS ‘jew’ EXPULSION!
I really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Zeldin but talk about ending the CO2 carbon scam HOLY GRAIL that they use to fuck up our cars with is what caught my eye.
Keep writing, I like reading your comments.
Men wearing skin tight yoga pants is as much a sign of the times as young men driving an electric fake Pickup.
This is all part of a Talmudic plan that first turned young men queer and then made them want to grow breasts and become a women. 500HP V8’s no longer belong in that world, nor does men who can maintain or modify their automobiles. Even John Deere farm equipment is made with electronic controls that prevent a farmer from modifying his million dollar tractor.
I think I read somewhere that the next Hemi will be a mild hybrid setup. Not quite the return that some were hoping for.
A mild hybrid Hemi — it is to laugh, comrade!
Maybe add GM’s legendary V8-6-4 feature, to cut out some of the cylinders some of the time.
And how about a plug-in version too? Dozens of buyers nationwide are panting for it.
What the hell is a “mild hybrid” hemi? That’s like mild salsa. Pace picante sauce, if you will.
They can forget about any sane person buying that crap.
The game is the same as it was before. Don’t buy their products.
These companies only care about profits. The consumer is a mark and a sucker. A longstanding pattern of enshitification will not be interrupted by the temporary return of V8 engines.
I agree, Bobby –
In this case, the commercial/marketing is very disingenuous. A couple of good ol’ boys cheering the return of the Hemi – which they will not be able to afford because a Ram 1500 equipped with this engine will likely sticker for at least $60k. So the V8 will be back – that is, available – but only for those rich enough to be able to buy it.
Exactly right Bobby!
Lil’ Timmy’s bio:
Timothy Kuniskis was appointed CEO of Ram in December 2024. He previously served as CEO of Dodge from January 2021 and CEO of Ram from June 2023.
He has broad experience in sales, marketing, brand management and business operations.
Translation: Lil’ Timmy is responsible for where Dodge now finds themselves. Lil’ Timmy was nothing but a yes man on his ascent to CEO. You don’t land in a position like that by lobbying to keep V8’s when your corporate overlords want to eliminate them.
Timmy doesn’t know squat about the actual design and engineering of vehicles. He’s the same type of marketing idiot as Alissa Heinerscheid of Bud Light fame. Li’nTmy thinks that you can just ignore your customer and sell them whatever the bullshit you desire based on their genius marketing strategies.
Don’t fall for it, don’t buy their fake and gay product’s.
Ultimately the consumer holds all the power. Marketing can’t make you spend money on something you don’t want.
Screw little Timmy Cuntniskis. Nothing but a corporate troll.
I was just passing by the former Chrysler Tech Center a week ago.
It is a dead man walking. If Chrysler/Ram/Jeep isn’t bankrupt in one year I’ll be surprised.
The former Chrysler museum on the site now bears the Maserati and Alpha Romeo logos. The museum building looks empty, abandoned, and the circle drive leading to the building entrance it is crumbling.
Three enormous parking decks on site. All were empty. Most of the surface parking lots are empty. None of the usual traffic around the building.
The C-suite tower has its usual graphic on it.
“America made us” it says.
So true … delicious irony!
Hi BID,
I hope that this isn’t just a desperate ploy to try to staunch the bleeding. But I do not see how Stellantis can produce the Hemi in numbers without having the same problem it had before that led to the pulling of the Hemi: The cost of compliance. Orange Man has not done away with the federal regs and Elon still wants carbon taxes – in addition to getting rich off his carbon credits scam. This will not end well.
Correct Eric
They don’t have enough sales to offset the cost of compliance for mass produced V-8’s.
Sure Stellantis is a global conglomerate, but they aren’t going to keep flushing money down the drain.
That Tech Center is an enormous albatross. The overhead and maintenance costs are almost beyond comprehension. Over 5 million square feet to be heated, cooled, and maintained.
It is too big to be wanted by anyone during a time when commercial real estate values are collapsing. It is too expensive to tear down to repurpose it.
The existence of that building was predicated on mass producing affordable automobiles the public wanted and could afford. That is no longer happening.
I don’t understand why these corporate car faggots won’t have a real meeting with the Trumpster and at least get the facts out. The fact is that they won’t because they are incapable of understanding anything about their business or their customers.
That ship sailed 60 years ago when GM got spanked for trying to set Ralph Nader with a prostitute. The low level thinking of GM execs was laughable. They obviously didn’t understand the objectives of the people that the House on Unamerican activities committee was trying to run out.
Right after the feds became involved, car copanies were falling all over themselves to demonstrate “compliance.” It continued according to this rough timeline:
1967-70 – collapsable steering columns, standard seat belts, PRNDL set up,
1973: 5 mph bumper standards
1975: 100 mph speedometers
1977: 80-85 mph speedometers
1970-80 – compliance with clean air act – 100 HP V8s, 2.56 highway gears (nothing wrong with that, but who needs with a 55 mph speed limit.
1974-87 Big 3 support 55 mph speed limit
1989-1994 Feigned opposition to airbag rule
1995 Daytime Runnign lights standard on all GMS
2000’s Development of OnStar technology (GM)
1990s developing remote start and drivers license activated key tech (Toyota)
2010’s Driver :”assistance” technology.
On and on.
The Automobile industry is disgusting and has turned its guns on its customers way faster than even Joan Claybrook, Ralph Nader and NHTSA could even dream of doing.
Elon has no concept of “enough money.”
This fact alone should automatically disqualify him from anything within 20 miles of “leadership.”
I’d like to see him out there on a work detail picking up litter on the side of a highway. At least then he’d be doing something useful for society.
Agreed, Publius –
I have always wanted to meet/interview someone like Musk – to try to understand what motivates them. It cannot be money – at least not primarily. Even say $10 million – pocket change for a billionaire – constitutes generational wealth. Not only are you yourself insulated from any money worries for the remainder of your life, your kids (and their kids) are also. So why not just pursue what interests you? Why not use the time you have, which is of incalculable value? Well, because the acquisition of more money – and power – matters more. It’s a sickness, I think.
From ChatGPT:
Yes, BlackRock is a top-tier institutional investor in Stellantis, holding around 3.4–3.8% of the company.
They are currently the 4th-largest shareholder, behind EXOR, Peugeot Invest, and Bpifrance, and marginally ahead of Dongfeng.
Overall, large institutions control nearly 60% of Stellantis stock, underscoring its broad institutional investor base.
BlackRock controls 3-4% of the voting shares of Stellantis. They explain their proxy voting strategy using the “Global Benchmark Voting Guidelines” document, published online as a PDF. These guidelines emphasize board independence, oversight, executive compensation, climate risk, and shareholder protections. In addition to BlackRock, the majority of shares in Stellantis are held by institutional investors- meaning mutual funds, retirement accounts and other managed portfolios where the people investing have no direct say in the makeup of the fund or control over proxy voting.
Again, from ChatGPT summaries: BLACKROCK also integrates climate and decarbonization stewardship guidelines, enabling more active voting stances on environmental proposals under certain circumstances
I wish Mr Kuniskis well and hope he succeeds, but when you have your shareholders voting against offering what sells, I see a major boardroom battle brewing.
Also, what’s up with Dongfeng? Again I ask ChatGPT about their ties to the CCP:
So, Dongfeng is not just “associated”—it is very much a CCP-controlled company via state ownership, Party oversight, and integration of CCP personnel in senior roles.
That’s just f***ing great. The CCP owns about 4% of Stellantis. Ya think maybe they might have an agenda too? Sure, they’re free to buy whatever they want and that’s just “the free market” at work, but maybe the US government could be a little less worried about Chinese drones and maybe a little more concerned that the 5th largest shareholder of the 3th largest US car company is a communist government?
Unlike other ownership interests, Dongfeng (and the CCP) prefers to turn a profit. That might actually be a positive. And China is not close to being a communist country, although it is still autocratic.
The state controls production through required controlling ownership, owns all the land (the Chinese real estate bubble is all based on 99 year leases) and there’s only one political party, the Chinese Communist Party.
Sounds pretty communist to me.
Now that Xi has made himself emperor, it also has the stink of a resource rich county too. Power flows up to the top through the corrupt. Except in this case the resources are human, not minerals.
Now you’ll probably argue that there’s little difference between China and the US at in practice. And I’d agree. Except our political system still allows for a dark horse like Trump to come in and get the status quo into a tizzy, even if he’s not much more than a blowhard salesman. No way that could happen in China.
There is effective and autocratic one-party control, but there are ‘wings’ with different agendas, much like the US uniparty (all gov is evil, let’s face it). The state does not control production and there is no required controlling ownership, although the state does own numerous corporations in key sectors. The state does regulate large private enterprises through bureaucracies which often suffer from corruption and ideological bias, much like the US. Land leases for homes and businesses are mostly 70 years now. People in rural areas have greater land rights than in cities; all own their buildings and there is no property tax, unlike the US. It’s shockingly easy (for citizens) to start a small business in China and taxes are low, unlike the US. There is much less intrusion into the daily lives of citizens than in the west. The cost of food and living is far lower, although the standard of living is lower as well, depending on what you consider important.
Your perspective of China is askew, predictably enough. It’s difficult to get a clear view of anything when you live inside one of the most extensive media bubbles ever created, a bubble designed to foster an ‘us v them’ mentality. No one in China is calling the USA ‘an unprecedented threat’ or threatening military action.
Very informative response. Well done.
‘It was because Stellantis was going broke paying Elon Musk (via Tesla) for carbon credits to offset the “carbon footprint” of its V8-powered offerings.’ — eric
This makes good red meat copy for Elon-bashers like myself. But it’s not the whole story:
‘Stellantis NV has paid a combined $190.7 million in fines for its predecessor company failing to meet U.S. fuel economy standards in two previous years, federal figures show.
‘The maker of Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles paid one of the civil penalties for $78.4 million in March, and a $112.3 million penalty in May, according to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and first reported by Reuters. The federal agency oversees the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program, which sets efficiency standards for vehicles.
‘The fines were for missing fuel economy requirements covering model years 2019 and 2020, according to NHTSA.
‘Reuters reported Friday that Stellantis has a much larger $459.7 million penalty that is still outstanding. NHTSA and Stellantis confirmed to The Detroit News that figure, which is also for the 2019 and 2020 model years, is correct. The agency didn’t comment further on the fines.’ — Detroit News, July 19, 2024
https://tinyurl.com/ms4sx78b
Stellantis is shoveling cash directly into the gaping maw of the NHTSA (what this has to do with saaaaaafety eludes me).
This is not to say that Stellantis isn’t ALSO buying carbon credits from Tesla. But a breakdown of Tesla’s $2.76 billion of carbon credit revenue in 2024 by
victimpurchaser isn’t readily available.In any case, these fedgov-imposed costs surely and certainly will be passed on to Dodge and Ram buyers. Call them the V8 tax.
This suggests a strategy for the Mo Parts boys going forward, make a high profile bankruptcy filing and rather than look for taxpayer handouts, simply politely request the rescission of all penalties, and the return with interest of all paid.
Carbon taxes amount to a religious tithe, as radical environmentalism is a pagan religion as much as anything, being based on beliefs that man and his works is offensive to Mother Earth. As such, the US government is absolutely forbidden by the first amendment to establish, promote, or support any religion.
Of course, that fight will go in front of Amy Commie Barrett, John Roberts, Jumanji Jackson, and the other fully corrupted, clay footed black dress wearing scumbags.
Couldn’t Trump pardon their “crime”?