If you haven’t been to a Dodge dealer lately, visiting one in 2026 might prove a bit enlightening. The showrooms that once held roaring V8 sedans and coupes are now dominated by the company’s now-15-year-old, three-row SUV. The Durango represents more than 89% of the company’s sales volume right now. Since their consolidation into a single model, the Charger and the Artist, Previously Known as Challenger, have been treading water. Just a few years ago, these bruisers were Dodge’s volume leaders. In Q1, the gas-powered Charger was outsold by the Mazda Miata.
That didn’t just happen, of course. Stellantis was among the last to commit to electrifying its U.S. lineup after the Inflation Reduction Act was signed in 2022, and as a result, it was among the last (along with Toyota) to bring its fledgling EVs to market. That introduction coincided with the first major redesign for Dodge’s sedan and coupe, which had been around since the 2006 and 2008 model years, respectively; their 2011 updates certainly freshened up their glum interiors and brought some much-needed hardware upgrades to the platform. However, neither was the subject of a comprehensive redesign.
The result? Dodge had 15 years of catching up to do, plus it had to accommodate an electric powertrain. And then the 2024 election happened, and that all went out the window again, along with the former Stellantis CEO—metaphorically speaking, of course. This left Dodge holding the bag. Its EVs were already rolling off the production line.
Fortunately, the company engineered the new Charger platform to accommodate both electric and internal-combustion propulsion, and its new Hurricane inline-six was destined for the platform from the beginning. But that didn’t happen overnight, and as a result, a casual glance at the sales chart (above) might give one the impression that customers have completely forgotten the Charger exists.
If you ask Dodge CEO Matt McAlear, it’s too soon to judge the Charger’s sales figures.
“I’m still excited. I’m still bullish on this car,” he told The Drive in an interview. “I think it offers something that no one sees coming in the industry and it wakes up some mundane car segments that there’s not many of them left.”
Many fans point to the lack of a Hemi in the redesigned Charger and Challenger as a reason for flagging interest; others point to the lack of a manual transmission. While both may be influencing enthusiast purchases, the six-cylinder variants of both models drove the bulk of sales for much of their life cycles; the Hemi became the engine of choice for Challenger buyers only near the end of its production run. Charger sales were dominated by V6 models throughout its life—and those old Pentastars had nothing on the Hurricane I6.
“We got scat packs, we’ve got RTs,” McAlear told us. “This is one year in. And if we’d said we would have launched that much stuff in the first generation car within one year, you would have laughed. So the future’s absolutely bright.”
And McAlear has been telling anybody who will listen that there’s more where that came from.
“I think it’s important to give customers the freedom of choice,” he reiterated. “I think powertrains are going to continue to evolve. If you look what we did in the past generation when we launched with the 3.5 and then we went to a 3.6, we had a 6.1. We went to a 6.4. We brought the 5.7. We brought out a 6.2 supercharged. We brought out the 6.2 red eye supercharged. We’re not saying still. We’re one year into the launch and we’ve launched 670 horsepower, 550 horsepower, 420 horsepower, two door, four door, all-wheel-drive—rear-wheel-drive when you want it.”
“We don’t even have all of the models across all of our dealers yet,” he pointed out.
“We started launching the two-door high-horsepower scap pack in January. We started shipping those, and we have an adequate supply of those, but we do not have an adequate supply of the 420-horsepower RT two-door and four-door. Those have just started shipping in the last 15, 20 days and they’re still making their way to dealers. So I think as we move through the summer, we’ll see what we’re made of.”
McAlear has all but promised that V8 models are on the way; enthusiasts will simply have to remain patient for the time being. Dodge needs to ensure it can source a sufficient number before it can commit to offering any more Hemi models for sale.
“Every single manufacturer’s always looking to refine to improve,” he told us. “And you can better believe the list is long of things that we’re looking to work on and continue to evolve Charger.”
“And believe me,” he added, “you don’t get anything right the first time.”
Got a news tip? Let us know at [email protected]!
Read the full article here