Tim Kuniskis is the CEO of Dodge, which is about to discontinue its iconic V8 muscle cars forever and make its most powerful models electric, much to the concern of many of the brand’s most loyal fans. He shared his thoughts about the transformation with American Cars and Racing from the sidelines of the Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge festival in Michigan and tells American performance car enthusiasts why they don’t need to worry.
Is the muscle car an endangered species?
That question comes up constantly and it didn’t used to. It comes up constantly now because of everything that’s going on in the industry. The industry is in a huge change. The biggest change since the invention of the automobile, in fact, with the transition to electrification.
A lot of people, performance enthusiasts in general, are very worried. Very concerned that this is the end. I look at it differently.
I tend to look at things and say, “what is the advantage here, what can we do with this?†When the rules change, you’ve got to adapt to the rules and roll with the punches and make the best of it.
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Because if you don’t … they say there are a couple of truths in life: Death, taxes and I’ll add a third one to that: Darwin. If you don’t adapt, you will go away. And in 1972, the performance industry pretty much went into hibernation, because it didn’t see change coming and it couldn’t adapt.
It took almost four decades to get back to the performance levels that we had then when we didn’t anticipate that change, when we didn’t see Darwin coming for this sport and this hobby that we all love. It took us 40 years to get back to those power levels.
But then, once we adapted to that change, once we accepted the fact that these are the new rules, within another decade we eclipsed any performance that we could have ever dreamed of. And now we’re selling street-legal, 1,000 horsepower cars, and we did that with the benefit of technology. Technology enabled that advancement in performance.Â
Now, I’ve said it before, we didn’t ask for the rules to change, we don’t want the rules to change, but, you know what? Go back to Darwin. They did change, and we have to adapt to them, and we don’t want to repeat 1972.
So, we’re not going to put our head in the sand and say, “we’re going to fight this.†We’re going to look at it, we’re going to look at the rules, we’re going to use the rules and we’re going to adapt to that performance. And performance will not go away.
The all-electric Dodge Charger SRT Daytona will offer more than 670 hp in a top of the line Banshee model and is equipped with an eRupt transmission that simulates gear shifts. (Dodge)
How we accomplish that performance for sure will change, but look at electrified vehicles. They’re very fast. We’ve just got to adapt them and make them cool and fun and engaging — the things that we’ve come to love about performance cars today. And we will do that.
When you look at some of the things that we did with the new electric Charger, the Banshee in particular that’s coming out. We added a lot of things in that car that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with compliance, have nothing to do with efficiency. As a matter of fact, they make it worse for efficiency and they make it worse for compliance, but they make it cool. They make it fun, they make it engaging, they make it more like what we’re used to with muscle cars.
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I always tell everybody, this is our first shot. We’re going to get better and better and better at this. I ask everybody, “what is your favorite performance car from the 1920s and 30s?†Blank stares. You can’t name one. Everyone fast forwards and says, “well, I like the ’60 this and the ’70 that.†It took a long time to get there.
The 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda was available with a 425 hp Hemi V8. (Stellantis)
Well, right now is 1920 of the electric era. Give us a little bit of time. Let us accelerate the learnings of this technology and we’re going to bring you, not just fast, but cool and engaging cars that are going to make performance live on forever.
The technology will change, but the spirit and the passion behind going fast and having fun is not going away.
— Tim Kuniskis