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Dodge will be ditching its Charger and Challenger muscle cars in an attempt to appease the enemies of its conventional combustion designs.

Stellantis, the parent company for Dodge, made the announcement this week, stating the last of the classic cars will run off the production line in 2023.

The Charger and Challenger will have one last hurrah, with the company manufacturing a limited number of “Last Call” versions. Each will come with numbered commemorative plaques attached to the engine bay.

Both versions will be replaced by an “Electric Muscle” alternative.

Unpopular Move

Well aware that its customer base has a sharp distaste for electric vehicles (EVs), Dodge announced the news alongside the release of the impressive EV Charger Daytona SRT Concept car.

The much-loved pop-culture icons are being mothballed for ideological and technological reasons, not because the brand is dead.

In what sounds a lot like self-sabotage, Dodge has chosen to capitulate to pressure placed on the market by what is best described as draconian eco-totalitarianism.

Instead of offering customers the choice between conventional and electric variants, the company has chosen to assuage climate change alarmism, and end production of its bread and butter.

A move, Stephanie Brinley, an automotive analyst quoted by the Daily Wire, said was “rare” to see.

“When a vehicle goes out of production,” she said, “it’s usually because it’s no longer popular. It’s something you don’t want to celebrate. In this case, change is happening, and the brand is going in a different direction.”

Such a drastic change would be the death knell for most businesses.

Rationalising

Defending Dodge’s decision on technological grounds, CEO Tim Kuniskis highlighted the company’s culture of expanding on what’s achievable. This includes pushing electric vehicles beyond their perceived limits, in order to see and experience what they can do.

Cited by CarsGuide, the CEO said,

“Our engineers are reaching a practical limit of what we can squeeze from internal combustion innovation.”

Kuniskis added,

 “We know electric motors can give us more, and if we know of a technology that can give our customers an advantage we have an obligation to embrace it to keep them in the lead. We won’t sell electric vehicles, we’ll sell more motors. Better, faster Dodges.”

So as not to lose their fiercely loyal fan base, Dodge’s iPhone on wheels will be fitted with an artificial exhaust.

The classic Dodge muscle car sound, explained MotorTrend, will be recreated by ‘air flowing through the “Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust” system. The sound produced goes through an amplifier and tuning chamber at the rear of the vehicle.’

Although the concept Dodge EV looks spectacular, Stellantis is being coy about what the smartphone-with-wheels replacement to the Charger and Challenger will actually be able to do.

Kuniskis speculated that the Charger Daytona SRT’s 800-volt model range could reach upwards of 800 kilometres.

However, the CEO cautioned that nothing was concrete. The company, he inferred, is looking to serve the interests of its customer base by focusing on “sound and experience”, not range.

In other words, it’s a hard sell. The EV Charger could be a challenge to keep charged.

Understandably, Dodge is operating in a climate catastrophiser’s marketplace.

Trying to please everyone by creating a product that meets the happiness of catastrophisers — who hate car manufacturers anyway — while still trying to meet the demands of the consumer, could be brand suicide.

Until car manufacturers can deliver an EV as impressive as KITT, without it looking like a toy car, investing everything in an expensive electric fashion accessory is a fool’s errand.

That said, if there’s an app option for the car to play Dixie, and the car comes in orange with the numbers 01 embossed on the side, price pending, I’m on board.

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Photo by Derwin Edwards.