If The Hemi V8 Comes Back, It Won’t Be In The New Dodge Charger [Update]

Carlos Tavares wanted the Hemi V8 dead while he was in charge of Stellantis, and he pretty much got his way. Right now, there are just three vehicles built by the automaker that carry the engine: the Ram 1500 TRX (and HD), the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 and the Dodge Durango. That’s it. Now though, it wouldn’t be a crazy idea to think this massive pushrod engine could make a comeback with the departure of Tavares and the incoming Trump administration that is poised to roll back emissions requirements. It’s impossible to know for sure if that’ll actually happen, but one thing is fairly certain: it won’t come back in the new Charger.

I just drove the 2024 Charger Daytona – the new all-electric “muscle car” of sorts from Dodge. In 2025, it’s slated to get the twin-turbocharged Hurricane I6 and be called the Charger Sixpack. This got some fellow journalists and myself wondering – with all of this recent news, Dodge put a Hemi V8 fit under the hood of the new Charger? Well, folks, I’m sad to report that, according to one Dodge engineer I spoke to, the answer is no.

There are a couple of reasons behind this. First is a general shift in attitude about what the Charger is supposed to be about. The engineer I spoke to said that adding a V8 to the Charger at this stage would fly in the face of what they were trying to accomplish with the car – namely the idea that it’s a muscle car of the future. To be fair, the two eclectic motors of the Charger Daytona Scat Pack handily outperform all but the highest-end supercharged Hemis of the old car. I suppose that with Tavares’ exit, there’s some wiggle room here on philosophy, but it’s too early to tell.

The other reason you probably won’t see a Hemi V8 under the hood of the new Charger is a far more practical one: it simply will not fit. This might not be too much of a shock to you, but the Hemi, whether it’s the naturally aspirated 5.7 or 6.4 or the supercharged 6.2, is a massive motor. Quite simply, there isn’t enough room under the hood of the Charger for it to fit, according to the engineer I spoke with. It would apparently require some very major cradle and firewall modifications for it to fit in there. The STLA Large platform the Charger runs on just wasn’t built to hold such a large motor, even if the Hurricane I6 isn’t exactly compact.

Still, though, a boy can dream. I really do respect what Dodge has done with the new Charger Daytona. Sure, it’s not perfect, but the 110-year-old automaker is taking a huge risk that not every other car company would be willing to take. That being said, it would be really sick if that car had a massive V8 under the hood.

Updated Wednesday, December 18, 2024, at 1:55 p.m. EST: Jalopnik received a comment from Stellantis about sticking a V8 in the Charger, and unfortunately, my suspicions were correct. Here’s what a spokesperson for the automaker had to say:

“Dodge is focused on launching the all-new, all-new electric Dodge Charger Daytona models, as well as the Dodge Charger SIXPACK ICE-option models coming next year. We have nothing additional to share in regard to potential future products.”