Stellantis Commits to Dodge But SRT Future is Unclear

By Dave Ashton

With any large corporate merger or shakeup, there will always be winners and losers. Fiat Chrysler and the PSA Group recently merged to form the new company Stellantis. During a recent media roundup, Carlos Tavares, Stellantis chief executive officer announced Dodge and its performance vehicles will have a future along with Chrysler. Also, via a released statement, the SRT division will be ‘integrated’ into the global Stellantis brand.

Dodge and Chrysler Continue

The Dodge and Chrysler brands may be only a small portion of the 14 total carmakers in the group. But Chrysler, Fiat, and Peugeot have been earmarked to go the distance. While full plans for each brand will be announced in the coming months, Chrysler and Dodge are due to have a good shakeup. The Peugeot brand has also been announced to cease production in North America.

One of the possible directions for Chrysler is to showcase emerging automotive technologies. The new direction could include EV minivans and a new line of autonomous vehicles.

Dodge on the other hand has more specific criteria. Dodge and muscle cars are the most identifiable mix, but Stellantis are well aware that large displacement V8 engines will not meet emission standards forever. However, as echoed in a recent statement by Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis, the long-term future of muscle cars is to go electric, while providing the same amount of performance and torque.

Peak performance and torque levels are within reach to replicate a V8 engine. However, the V8 sound and subtleties of the platform are yet to be addressed. Therefore, the long-lasting V8 engine isn’t going away anytime soon. Which gives the company time to perfect the design for the inevitable EV future.

Dodge SRT Division

According to the website stellpower.com, the Dodge SRT division has been integrated into the various branches of the new company. The statement from the spokesperson from Stellantis as below:

‘In February 2021, all of the core elements of the SRT performance engineering team were integrated into Stellantis’ global engineering organization.

This action will have the two-way benefit of ensuring that our brands’ SRT and performance-focused product offerings continue to meet the highest quality standards and expectations while delivering key learnings from motorsports and other high-performance-technology applications across a wider mix of our company’s product lines.

These products have delighted enthusiasts for nearly two decades, and Stellantis will continue to sell and develop the next generation of Dodge SRT-branded vehicles, as well as Jeep and Ram vehicles that utilize high-performance SRT technology.’

The team members at the SRT division have been split between the Dodge, Jeep, and Ram groups. While the division itself will not exist anymore, the knowledge and expertise are still within the whole company.

 

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