Return Of The Redeye: With Carlos Tavares Out At Stellantis, Are Dodge V-8s Back On The Menu?

The development of Stellantis has been a tumultuous ride for everyone involved. Established in midst of a global pandemic, the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the French PSA Group (the latter of which includes European brands like Opel, Citroën, and Peugeot) in January of 2021 was originally the brainchild of late FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne. Marchionne’s turnaround of both Fiat and Chrysler after the formation of FCA in 2012 was nothing short of incredible, and it enabled the development of North American hot rods like the supercharged Dodge Challenger and Charger SRT Hellcat models, the record-setting Dodge Viper ACR sportscar, and the high-flying Ram 1500 TRX. 

But Marchionne also saw a storm developing as the industry began its transition to electrified vehicle platforms. Astronomical R&D costs looked like a genuine existential threat, and although his attempt to woo GM ultimately failed, his concerns were obviously shared by others within the company, as the search continued even after his untimely death in 2018. Now the fourth largest automaker in the world by volume, Stellantis should be positioned to make waves in the industry, but things haven’t exactly gone according to plan. 

There are, of course, a range of factors that have contributed to the fledging company’s teething issues. Like most automakers, Stellantis had planned to go all-in with an aggressive electrification strategy, but in recent months it’s become clear that the demand for EVs hasn’t met expectations. There have been pricing issues as well, along with a perceived neglect of the North American brands. And the latter has some merit to it: SRT, Dodge’s in-house high-performance development group, was effectively disbanded not long after the merger, and reception of Dodge’s upcoming replacement for both the Charger and the Challenger has been lukewarm at best. Despite the fact that the car isn’t even available to the general public yet, the company is already poised to offer incentives to get potential buyers in the door, which is not a great look for what should be a hotly-anticipated new product. 

Although he’s not solely responsible for these problems, the buck ultimately stopped at Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. Long known for his cost-cutting measures at PSA Group, Tavares eyed ways to trim the fat right out of the gate, and FCA’s practice of buying costly emissions credits to offset the production of engines that didn’t meet federal targets was one of the first items on the chopping block. 

He set a mandate which stated that none of the Stellantis brands would be allowed to purchase these credits going forward, an edict which effectively eliminated the Gen III Hemi V8 from the majority of Dodge, Jeep, and Ram products. In most applications, the Hemi has been replaced by the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter “Hurricane” inline six-cylinder engine, an all-new design which has proven to be a gutsy, refined, and fairly efficient mill, while others are poised to go all-electric, as Stellantis’ upcoming platforms are designed to work with a mixture of powertrain options. 

While that strategy is sensible for luxury vehicles like the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and Ram 1500 models that aren’t aimed at enthusiasts, it left Dodge – a company which has spent the past two decades courting fans of V8-powered muscle cars – with a serious problem. Muscle car enthusiasts haven’t been shy about expressing their feelings on both the all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona as well as its six-cylinder-powered counterpart in forums and on social media platforms, and one refrain has been unavoidably prevalent: Give us our V8s back. 

Unfortunately, that ship has sailed. Or has it?

As noted in a recent Motor Trend documentary, the platform of the upcoming Charger has been designed to accept a range of power plants, and that potentially includes a V8. But the Hurricane engine already outperforms the naturally aspirated versions of the Gen III Hemi production engines and – let’s be honest here – the Gen III Hemi has been in need of a comprehensive update for some time now. So the chances of seeing these V8s reintroduced into the lineup totally unchanged are basically zero. Dodge does have some options to work with here, though. 

First off, it’s important to note that production of the Gen III Hemi hasn’t ended entirely. Ram still offers the 6.4-liter version of this V8 in the Power Wagon, and Dodge continues to offer Hellcat-powered versions of the Durango to this day, along with crate versions of the Gen III Hemi through Direct Connection. So, it would appear there are still some V8s coming down the production line at the Saltillo Engine Plant. 

While a clean-sheet design would be cool – like an all-aluminum dual overhead cam mill built to handle a lot of boost, for example – an updated version of the existing pushrod architecture would be far more likely due to both development costs and the time needed to get it ready for production. Dodge could, for example, take a page out of General Motors’ playbook and toss out the multiport fuel injection system for direct injection, as GM did in the transition from the LS to LT generations of its modern small-block V8. That switch could potentially yield improvements in power, fuel efficiency, and emissions, but that alone is unlikely to push the naturally aspirated 6.4-liter Hemi beyond the horsepower and torque numbers of the high output inline-six, which makes 540 horsepower and 520 pound-feet of torque in the 2025 Ram 1500 RHO. 

It’s also reasonable to expect that if a V8 did return to the menu, it would likely be exclusive to low-volume, high-performance models – think Hellcat, TRX, and Trackhawk equivalents of a future model portfolio. That means the 5.7-liter Hemi is almost certainly gone for good, and any iteration of this hypothetical V8 would need a power adder of some kind. That could take the form of supercharging or turbocharging, but our money is on a hybrid setup that’s implemented a manner similar to the new BMW M5. 

That could theoretically resolve the power deficit between the Hemi and the inline six while also significantly improving fuel economy and the V8’s carbon footprint. It might even make the engine viable for the European market, which is beholden to even more stringent standards than vehicles sold exclusively in North America. 

This is, of course, completely speculation, and it’s entirely plausible that Stellantis will largely stay the course and hope for the best. But the winds of change are definitely afoot throughout the auto industry right now, and this executive shakeup at Stellantis is only the latest indicator that OEMs are desperate to correct the course. So while the return of a Dodge V8 is still unlikely, we’re not willing to rule it out entirely. 

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