The V-8 will live on at Dodge for now, just not in a muscle car

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At the reveal of the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 in Las Vegas on Monday, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis didn’t mince words when asked whether internet reports suggesting the automaker was developing a new V-8 engine were true. “No,” he said.

But there will be a V-8 under the hood of the Dodge Durango sometime soon. When talking about the dying V-8, Kuniskis said, “Wait, not in that (Durango) car.” This likely means the Durango will have a V-8 option for the 2024 model year, though it’s unclear whether the V-8 will continue after that. The executive said he could not comment on future products.

Both the 5.7-liter V-8 and 6.4-liter V-8 in the SRT-badged Durango will continue.

Kuniskis has once again confirmed that the Hellcats will die at the end of 2023, and that the Charger and Challenger replacements will not be getting the V-8. However, when the new electric muscle car’s STLA Large platform was revealed, the company said it would be able to accommodate a petrol engine.

Despite the fact that the Durango Hellcat returned from the dead after mechanical changes were made to meet emissions, it will die at the end of 2023. Its lights went out on December 31 and like the rest of the Hellcat, it will not return. . The V-8 lives in the Durango, but won’t be restocked from the factory or Hellcat badged.

The Durango continues to use the legacy platform that was previously shared with the last generation Jeep Grand Cherokee (WK2). The Grand Cherokee is currently moving to a clean WL platform, and Jeep has ditched the V-8 engine in a two-row model.

Kuniskis would not comment on when the Durango will be updated or whether it will move to the Jeep Grand Cherokee’s WL platform. He noted that it would live on as it carved its own niche and suggested it would continue into the next generation. When asked if the Durango nameplate was tough enough to survive beyond the current model, Kuniskis said, “Yeah, absolutely.”

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