Dodge's V8-powered Challenger and Charger muscle cars are going extinct next year and will be replaced by the all-electric Charger Daytona SRT.
But they may not be its last gas-powered performance models.
Ever since the Charger Daytona SRT was revealed, Dodge has been a bit cagey about what other new vehicles it has coming down the pipeline to fill the void left by the Challenger and Charger.
While no announcements have been made yet, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis has offered one interesting possibility.
Speaking at a reporter roundtable ahead of the SEMA auto show, where the first power specifications for the Charger Daytona SRT were released, Kuniskis noted that the platform it is designed around can be converted to accommodate an internal combustion engine (ICE) drivetrain.
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"We said that our next generation cars are built on the STLA Large Car Platform. The STLA Large Car Platform is a multi-energy platform. It has the ability to run an ICE engine," Kuniskis said, according to The Drive. "I can take the floor pan out. I can take the battery out. I can put a drive-shaft tunnel in there. The platform is made to be able to do that. It’s modular."
"If someday we wanted to add ICE to that car, could we? It’s totally protected for it," Kuniskis added, according to Muscle Cars and Trucks.
What the engine definitely would not be is a V8. Dodge is discontinuing those along with the Challenger and Charger.
However, it does have a new Hurricane turbocharged inline-six-cylinder available that was launched this year in several Jeep models with up to 510 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque, which is more than Dodge's current naturally aspirated V8s provide.
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The electric powertrain in the Charger Daytona SRT will likely be the only replacement for the supercharged V8 offered in the Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat models that have up to 807 horsepower.
The output of the most powerful version of the Charger Daytona SRT has not been announced, but a mid-tier model has been revealed with 670 horsepower, and the automaker has perviously said that the STLA Large platform can accommodate up to at least 885 horsepower.
Kuniskis clarified that there are currently no plans to offer an ICE-powered version of the Charger Daytona SRT.
