The Charger is going to get its V8 back, probably sometime next year (2027) but only in 6.2 liter supercharged Hellcat form and that means it’s probably going to be priced beyond the means of most of the people who’d love to own one. Previously – back in 2023 and prior – you could get a 5.7 liter Hemi V8 (without the supercharger) in the Charger R/T for $34,924. Even adjusted for three years of money devaluation – what they pawn off as “inflation” – that’s still just $39,333 inn today’s corrupted dollars.
It’s also about $10k less than the least-expensive version of the current (2027) Charger, which has a six – and lists for $49,995.
Here’s another number for you:
Back in ’23, you could have bought a Charger Hellcat with the 6.2 liter supercharged Hemi for $60,568. Priced according to the devalued buying power of today’s dollars, it would take $68,214 to buy the ’23 today, if the same car were available new today. It is likely to be even more than that when it finally becomes available again, sometime later next year – and just because of inflation. Even though Trump has “rolled back” federal fuel economy mandatory minimums, they have only been “rolled back” to the current 35.5 MPG mandatory minimum average that each vehicle manufacturer’s roster of models must collectively average. When the 6.2 Hellcat was last available back in ’23, it averaged less than half that (15 MPG).
That’s why – according to Automotive News – the plan is build about 12,000 of them annually. Because the fewer of them made, the less the downward tug on Dodge’s (on Stellantis’) CAFE “fleet average,” which is the basis for applying fines for non-compliance with the 35.5 MPG mandatory minimum.
Whether they’ll sell that many is another matter.
Back in ’23 and before, Dodge sold a lot more R/T Chargers with the V8 – because it sold a lot more Chargers.
That final year for the Charger with either a V6 or a V8, Dodge sold 75,919 of them. If only 10 percent of that total were R/Ts with the 5.7 liter Hemi V8, it would be more than the total number of electric Chargers Dodge sold in 2024 and 2025. Not just annually. Not just combined. But times about ten.
Sit with that – as the AI narrators say.
Probably, the percentage of R/T Chargers was closer to 40 percent, because not only was the car desirable, it was affordable. The Hellcat with the 6.2 supercharged V8 was aspirational. It was the ultimate Charger, for those who had Corvette money to spend. But if you only had Camry money to spend, you could probably manage an R/T with the 5.7 V8, which was much more than a consolation prize.
It appears that, going forward, the consolation prize will be the six-cylinder-powered Charger that costs $10k more to start than the last R/T Charger with the 5.7 liter Hemi. This is both sad and potentially fatal – for the Charger. And by dint of that, for Dodge – which has got to start selling more Chargers if it wants to remain viable, as opposed to selling a few much more expensive Chargers.
Right now, the best-selling Dodge is – by far – the Durango, which is also the only model Dodge sells right now that you can buy for less than $40,000. To be exact, you can buy a brand-new 2027 Durango – with a 3.6 liter V6 and no turbos or hybrid-assistance – for $38,995. And you can buy a Durango with a 5.7 liter Hemi for $43,675 – which is about $6k less than the base price of the current Charger with a 3.0 six. To really drive the point home, you can still buy a Durango with the 6.4 liter “392” version of the Hemi V8 that’s an almost-Hellcat V8 in terms of the power (475 horsepower) for $50,995 – which means just about the same as it’d cost you to buy a new Charger with the 3.0 six (and 420 horsepower).
No wonder Dodge sold 81,168 Durangos last year. It is – by far – the best-selling model Dodge has in its portfolio right now.
It helps, of course, that the Durango is an almost full-sized SUV with three rows of seats and so far more practical than a four door sedan – and also that the current Durango is basically 15 years old – because it hasn’t been “updated” since 2011 – which is hugely appealing to people who do not want turbo-hybrid-augmented fours and electric power steering and the other things that are now near-ubiquitous in newer-design new vehicles.
Take away Durango sales and Dodge is on the crash cart.
The Hornet – Dodge’s Alfa-Romeo-based sporty small crossover – has been pulled off the market, ostensibly because of Trump’s tariffs, which supposedly made it too expensive to be competitive. But the truth is the Hornet never sold well – just 9,365 of them last year – not because it’s a bad little crossover but because generally speaking, Dodge isn’t the go-to brand for small crossovers. That’s Toyota’s and Honda’s and Mazda’s turf, plus some others. Dodge is the go-to brand for people who like muscle, as in big V8s in big cars and SUVs.
Other than the Durango, Dodge no longer offers that.
The current six-cylinder-powered Charger is a good-looking car, but it’s too expensive for openers. As mentioned earlier, it costs more than the last iteration of the V8 R/T Charger did back in 2023. Dodge hasn’t got the volume seller, which back in 2023 was the V6-powered sedan – which only cost about $33k – to float the V8-powered sedan.
Now comes (or soon will) a supercharged V8 sedan that Dodge doesn’t expect to sell more than 12,000 of annually. Add in the current sales volume – about 8,000 or so total, electric and gas – and you haven’t even got a third of the volume Dodge had back in 2023.
Maybe someone at Dodge will read this and give thought to bringing back the V6 – and the 5.7 V8 – and bringing down the price of the Charger.
It might, you know, sell.
. . .
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