Hellcat Era to Wrap Up in 2023

As the character Q said to Captain Picard on the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “All good things must come to an end.” This time around, the phrase refers to a snippet of information about the mighty Hellcat engine family, plus a few other details gleaned in a conversation with Tim Kuniskis at last week’s L.A. Auto Show.

To put it bluntly now’s the time to act if you want a brand-new Hellcat-powered vehicle.

According to the crew at Motor Authority, the Dodge CEO was frank in his assessment of the Hellcat’s future, telling them “I will have this car, this platform, this powertrain as we know it through the end of ’23. There’s two more years to buy a Hellcat, then it’s history.”

It doesn’t get much clearer than that unless one takes your hand and leads you right into a time machine whose destination is set for 2023.

This isn’t a surprise, of course, given the myriad emission and fuel economy regulations, not to mention the small matter of looming electrification plans. On that front, Kuniskis promised Mopar gearheads will see those efforts bear tire-smoking fruit in 2024 when Dodge unleashes an all-electric muscle car. Look for that rig to be the demarcation point between the Hellcat era and an EV future. Dodge suits told Motor Authority to expect a concept version of that car to appear in the first quarter of next year. A shadowy glimpse of that machine, along with a suggestion that the old ‘Fratzog’ logo will appear on it, was shown during the Stellantis EV day earlier this year when the company laid out something of a roadmap for its electrified future.

Speaking of, Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares told finance nerds attendees at an event for Wall Street types that each of the brands under the company umbrella has been given a full decade to try and make their case as a going concern.

“We’re giving each a chance, giving each a time window of 10 years and giving funding for 10 years to do a core model strategy,” Tavares said in May. “The CEOs need to be clear in brand promise, customers, targets, and brand communications.” Nothing like a potential date carved into your tombstone to spur action, eh? There are 14 brands currently under the Stellantis tree.

That missive likely brought the Hellcat’s demise into clearer focus for those pulling the strings at Dodge; sketching out a plan for enthusiast-oriented EVs is all part and parcel of answering those four pillars in the Tavares mission statement.

Meanwhile, get yer Hellcat fix while you can. After 2023, it seems the only way you’ll be able to buy one is by raising a bidder’s paddle at Barrett-Jackson. Come to think of it, that’ll probably be the place where the right to buy ‘The Last Hellcat Ever Made’ will be auctioned off.

[Image: Dodge]