Tim Kuniskis, head of Fiat Chrysler’s passenger vehicles division in North America, reveals the 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat SUV throughout a web based occasion on July 2, 2020.
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DETROIT – Dodge has saved American muscle vehicles alive greater than another model within the U.S. auto trade through the previous decade, resulting in a cult following that saved retail gross sales of its car-heavy lineup within the black final 12 months through the coronavirus pandemic.
However autos resembling its infamous Hellcat models with supercharged V-8 engines that crank out greater than 700 horsepower – double that of most mainstream autos – will ultimately have to come back to an finish on account of tightening gas financial system necessities and the rise of electrical autos.
The state of affairs is one thing Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis, an icon amongst gearheads for the Hellcat fashions, is effectively conscious of … and surprisingly not afraid of taking place.
“The times of an iron block supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 are numbered,” he instructed CNBC throughout a current video interview, referring to engines such because the Hellcat. “They’re completely numbered due to all of the compliance prices. However the efficiency that these autos generate is just not numbered.”
Kuniskis, who first launched the Dodge Hellcat Challenger in 2014, believes electrification – whether or not its hybrids with a much less highly effective engine or all-electric autos – will really save what he has referred to as the brand new “Golden Age of muscle vehicles.” He calls electrification “Efficiency 2.0,” and he predicts it’s going to happen as soon as EV applied sciences come down in value and change into extra mainstream.
“The entire world goes to shift to electrification, proper? We all know that is coming,” he mentioned. “The entire world’s going get there and when it does, the value level of that expertise goes to come back down and … the loopy individuals are going to take the electrification that has now change into accessible from a value level and make that performance-based as an alternative of economy-based.”
Dodge’s present lineup features a two-door Challenger coupe, four-door Charger sedan and Durango SUV. All provide Hellcat variants with greater than 700 or 800 horsepower and prime speeds starting from 180 mph to greater than 200 mph.
Surpassed expectations
Kuniskis’ feedback might shock trade onlookers. Dodge’s $70,000-plus Hellcat models have change into halos for the model, that means they appeal to super quantities of consideration that end in trickle-down gross sales for less-expensive autos. Most lately, a limited-edition Hellcat model of its Dodge Durango SUV bought out for the 2021 model-year.
“What Hellcat has achieved is method past what our preliminary expectations had been as a result of it is method past what a standard, very high-end trim does,” Kuniskis mentioned. “Within the final 5 years or so, we have bought effectively over 50,000 Hellcats. That is a variety of Hellcats in 5 years if you consider you already know the value level of that automotive.”
Dodge SRT efficiency lineup: Challenger SRT Tremendous Inventory, Durango SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye
Fiat Chrysler
Kuniskis defends electrification being the savior of autos just like the Hellcats by trying again at how the primary so-called Golden Age of muscle vehicles through the Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies got here to an finish. Such autos had been a grass roots phenomenon, adopted by automakers making them, which led to authorities rules. Automakers overwhelmingly had been pressured to discontinue such autos for extra fuel-efficient fashions with much less efficiency.
“1972 was the start of the top of the Golden Age of muscle vehicles,” Kuniskis mentioned. “They went away for gas financial system, for the oil disaster. They went away for security. They went away for insurance coverage, they usually went away for rising emission requirements. It is form of loopy to consider we’re getting near an identical record of issues proper now.”
The Biden administration is predicted to tighten gas financial system requirements, promote the adoption of EVs and be far much less supportive of the oil trade, which may probably result in larger costs. On the similar time, automakers are creating self-driving autos that haven’t any want for a driver of the efficiency of a muscle automotive.
“So is that this 1972 proper now and we simply do not know it as a result of we’re simply drunk on the horsepower? I fear about that each single day as a result of take into consideration how lengthy it took us to get right here,” Kuniskis mentioned, citing the decades-long development of the horsepower of vehicles to what Dodge and different producers provide at the moment.
Dodge launched the 2015 Challenger SRT Hellcat with 707-horsepower in 2014.
Dodge
Dodge’s Hellcat fashions have assisted the model in its gross sales since being launched in 2014. Gross sales of its Charger have often topped 80,000 or 90,000, whereas gross sales of the Nineteen Seventies-inspired Challenger have surpassed General Motors’ Chevrolet Camaro yearly since 2018. Ford Motor’s Mustang stays the top-seller of two-door coupes from the Detroit automakers.
EV plans
Dodge’s former mother or father firm Fiat Chrysler, which turned Stellantis by means of a $52 billion merger with French automaker Groupe PSA on Jan. 16, has been far slower than many in adopting electrification.
Dodge has no all-electric or plug-in hybrid autos. Kuniskis mentioned that may change however declined to supply further particulars.
“I am tremendous enthusiastic about the way forward for electrical as a result of I believe it is what is going on to permit us to not fall off the cliff.,” he mentioned. “With out that expertise, with out electrification. That is 1972 proper now, this factor goes to finish.”
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares instructed reporters final week that each new car the automaker launches from now till 2025 will offer an “electrified” variant, together with 10 new fashions globally in 2021.
Stellantis — now the world’s fourth-largest automaker — was fashioned largely to help the smaller automakers with investing in rising applied sciences resembling electrical and autonomous autos.
Forward of the merger finalizing per week in the past, Kuniskis mentioned that Stellantis’ 14 manufacturers — starting from European items resembling Maserati, Peugeot and Fiat to America’s Jeep, Ram Vehicles and Chrysler — will enable Dodge to stay a efficiency model within the upcoming age of EVs.
“Now we have all these completely different manufacturers, which permits us to be very targeted on what the positioning of that model is,” he mentioned. “I haven’t got to be form of generic … All I do is American muscle so my advertising and every thing that I do might be very targeted on precisely that.”