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SRT Chief Unveils New Hellcats Before Admitting Electrification “the Future of Performance”

The prospect of an electric Dodge Charger was just too much for SRT boss, Tim Kuniskis, to ignore any longer. After unveiling the tremendously powerful new 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat and SRT Challenger Super Stock, he gave Motor1 a controversial take in the world of muscle cars.

We’re very interested in electrification, specifically for performance. I think it is absolutely the future of performance, and it’s what is going to enable performance to exist amid [environmental] regulations.

Kuniskis isn’t wrong. Dodge is one of the slowest to move towards electrification, as GM and VW set their entire future on EVs. FCA knows that its performance-minded customers love the idea of big supercharged engines, and recoil at the idea of silent motors.

In reality, Kuniskis was the guy behind the first supercharged Hellcats back in 2015, and knows what he is talking about. If the brand wants to keep up with commuter cars at stop lights, they’ll need to start thinking in terms of kW instead of HP.

I’m not going to say there’s no way to avoid it, because I’m not looking at it as something we want to avoid. I think it’s going to be the next evolution, the next step of even higher performance than anything that we’ve seen up until this point. It’s going to open up massive capability.

Let’s take the example of Audi, they’re relatively known for making quick cars, what with Quattro and the Transporter movies. They’re somewhat keeping up with the heard in terms of electrification, and their new e-Tron S will feature three motors and 496 horsepower, with 717 lb-ft of torque.

Compared to Kuniskis’ unveiled Durango Hellcat, which gets an insane 710 horsepower and 645 lb-ft of torque, that’s not too shabby. Of course their are trade-offs, but power doesn’t need to be one of them, especially not with SRT working on new electric muscle cars.

If Dodge sets their mind to it, we could start seeing the end of all those Tesla drag-race videos where they stomp Hellcat after Hellcat.

If they get the ball rolling soon enough, we could even have an affordable alternative to the Mustang Mach-e. One that doesn’t look like something your grandma would drive. Maybe it would be setting new speed-ticket records, and be affordable enough for every kid with an Army sign-up bonus.

Anyway, thanks Tim Kuniskis, I’m glad you’ve come around to making quicker cars.

 

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