The Dodge Charger is reportedly getting a V8 engine for the 2028 model year and Dodge is planning to sell a lot of them. Dodge hasn’t confirmed anything yet, but Mopar Insiders recently got its hands on an internal powertrain report that lists the Hellcat supercharged 6.2-liter V8 as one of the options.
It’s listed with rear-wheel-drive and an eight-speed automatic transmission, but there’s no information about its power output. The Hellcat has been offered with 707 hp to 900 hp and 1,025 hp when running on E85, so there are a lot of possibilities. However, the the smaller, lighter 2027 Ford Mustang Dark Horse SC’s supercharged 5.2-liter V8 is rated at 795 hp, you can likely expect it to be more powerful than that.
The Charger is currently available only with turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder engines in 420 hp and 550 hp tunes – while the Charger Daytona is all electric – but it hasn’t been lighting up the sales charts. Dodge delivered just 8,000 Chargers through the first nine months of the year. Its $51,990 base price and the lack of an entry-level V6 model have clearly limited its reach, even though the straight-sixes are more powerful than the 5.7-liter and 6.4-liter V8s they replace. The addition of a Hellcat may change things in a big way.
Automotive News reports that Dodge is planning to build as many as 12,000 Charger SRT Hellcats annually. If it sold them all, it would be a few thousand more more than the combined sales of the Charger SRT and Challenger SRT in 2023, which was the last time the engine was offered in a Dodge car model. It could also be worth around $1 billion per year to Dodge. The 2023 Charger SRT had a starting price of approximately $80,000 but could be optioned up to well over $100,000, so 12,000 should generate nine-figures of revenue to the company’s coffers.
Official word could come soon as production is expected to begin in late 2027. In the meantime, the Hellcat is available in the 2026 Durango SRT with 710 hp.
