Here’s Why The New Dodge Charger Will Never Get A Hemi

Dodge engineers say that a Hemi V8 would be at odds with what they were trying to achieve with the car – and anyway, it won’t fit

Mike Bartholomew

19 Dec 2024

Over in the US, the media’s just been getting hands-on with the new electric Dodge Charger Daytona, probably the most controversial car to be revealed this year. Until the Ford Capri came along. And the Jaguar Type 00.

While it’s launching as an EV with up to 670bhp, there will be a version with petrol power too, courtesy of parent company Stellantis’ Hurricane twin-turbo straight-six. In fact, demand for that one’s proving high enough that Dodge is fast-tracking it into production.

What it probably won’t ever have, though, is Chrysler and Dodge’s famous Hemi V8. The manufacturer has been slowly phasing the engine out over the last few years, with it now only available in the Dodge Durango and Jeep Wrangler (and not for much longer in either case).

Recently, though, there’s been hope that the Hemi could stage a comeback thanks to various factors: slumping EV demand, planned easing of US emissions rules by the incumbent Trump administration, and the revelation that, supposedly, the death of the Hemi was personally orchestrated by now-former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, despite the wishes of others in the company.

If that does happen, though, it won’t be in the Charger. At the Daytona’s launch, a Dodge engineer told Jalopnik that this is down to two major things. Firstly, despite Tavares, the main driving force behind the Hemi’s phasing out, no longer being in charge, a big V8 is still conceptually at odds with the futuristic image Dodge is trying to present with the new Charger.

Secondly, and perhaps more pertinently, the Hemi simply won’t fit. The Charger sits on Stellantis’s STLA Large platform, which is also set to underpin next-generation cars from Jeep, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati, and it simply wasn’t designed to accommodate such an enormous engine.

So, while the change in leadership at Stellantis in theory means there’s a bit more hope for the Hemi going forward, it’s probably not going to end up where many would argue it most belongs: under the bonnet of a big, snorty muscle car.

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.