PONTIAC, Mich. — Thundering gas-powered muscle cars, for decades a fixture of American culture, will be closing in on their final Saturday night cruises in the coming years as automakers begin replacing them with super-fast cars that run on batteries.
Stellantis’ Dodge brand, long the performance flag-bearer of the company formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, is officially moving toward electricity. On Wednesday night, Dodge unveiled a battery-powered Charger Daytona SRT concept car, which is close to one that will be produced in 2024 as the sun sets on some petroleum models.
Stellantis says it will stop making gasoline versions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and the Chrysler 300 large car by the end of next year. The Canadian factory that makes them will be converted to electric vehicles. Other automakers are moving — or have moved — in the same direction.
General Motors has said it will build an all-electric Chevrolet Corvette. Tesla says its Model S Plaid version is the fastest production vehicle made, able to go from zero to 60 mph in under two seconds. Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and other European automakers already have high-performance electric models for sale. And Polestar, an electric-performance spinoff from Volvo, just announced a new Polestar 6 roadster for 2026.
One reason for the industry shift is that electric vehicles are simply faster off the starting line. Their handling is typically better, too, because their heavy batteries create a low center of gravity.
Stricter government pollution requirements are another factor. As automakers in the U.S. face more stringent fuel-economy requirements adopted by the Biden administration and produce a broader range of electric vehicles, they will have to jettison some of their gas-fueled muscle-car models.
Tim Kuniskis, CEO of the Dodge brand, said the possibly of government fines for not meeting gas-mileage requirements hastened the shift to the electric Charger.
Still, it will take a few years for the gas-powered classics to go away.
“Over the next several years, I think, we’ll continue to have some internal-combustion stuff, probably through most of the decade,” said Sam Abuelsamid, a research analyst at Guidehouse Insights. “But increasingly, the focus is going to be on the electric ones.”
Under new gas-mileage standards that were unveiled in April, the fleet of new vehicles will have to average around 40 miles per gallon in 2026, up from 25.4 mpg now, the EPA says. The standards are likely to become even stronger in the future, a trend that will compel U.S.-based automakers to shed some gasoline muscle cars if they are to avoid fines.
Of all major automakers, the EPA says, Stellantis had the lowest average fuel economy — 21.3 miles per gallon — and the highest average carbon dioxide emissions. So the company likely will have to eliminate some models to avoid fines. Its limited-edition Charger SRT Widebody, with a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi Hellcat V-8, for instance, gets only 12 mpg in city driving and 21 mpg on the highway.
To many gearheads, the thought of a muscle car without noise and smells is heresy. But Kuniskis says Dodge is working to make the electric experience match internal combustion.
When the electric Charger was driven through a garage door and entered a building Wednesday night at a racetrack in Pontiac, Mich., it roared just like a gas muscle car.
