New Dodge Charger five years away

Dodge's next-generation Charger won't materialise until next decade, meaning it will be at least five years before Australians could have official access to any Dodge muscle cars.

The revelation comes from US industry website Automotive News, which cites an unnamed source familiar with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' North American product plans as saying a new Charger will not be released until at least 2020.

According to Autonews, the next Charger sedan will be up to 500 pounds (225kg) lighter and powered by a 300hp (224kW) twin-turbo inline four-cylinder petrol engine -- borrowed from Jeep's next-generation Wrangler -- for the first time.

"The new Charger, however, likely won't roll off the line in Brampton, Ontario, until early in the next decade, as Fiat Chrysler squeezes one more freshening from its aging L-series large cars, according to an insider with knowledge of FCA's product plan," said AN.

As we've reported, the new Charger was previously expected to emerge in 2018, based on an extended version of the 'Giorgio' platform that underpins Alfa Romeo's upcoming Giulia sedan.

The same rear-drive platform is expected to form the basis of a new Dodge Challenger coupe, a born-again Barracuda convertible and a redesigned Chrysler 300 sedan – just three of up to 30 new models reportedly promised within the next two years by FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne at a US dealer meeting in Las Vegas last August.

According to AN, FCA showed an early styling buck of its next Charger that was described by observers at the private function as being reminiscent of a 1999 Charger concept car designed by former Chrysler design chief Tom Gale.

AN sources say the new Charger will remain about the same size as the current model, which was resurrected in 2006 and last updated in 2014, but FCA engineers and designers are working to trim its kerb weight down from the current car's 1795kg to less than 1600kg.

The Automotive News source the Charger is scheduled to undergo one more minor upgrade for the 2019 model year, before it switches to its new platform.

There's no word on the next Challenger, but both models share the same platform and product cycle.

FCA Australia's plan to establish a business case for right-hand drive production of the existing Challenger for Australia -- where it would have been sold as the Charger because Mitsubishi owns the Challenger name -- have now been abandoned.

Therefore the earliest opportunity for FCAA to import either the Charger or Challenger, which would be a direct rival for Ford's sold-out Mustang, is likely to be beyond 2020 – and only if RHD versions of them are produced.

An FCAA spokesman would not comment on the report, pointing only to comments made to motoring.com.au by company chief Pat Dougherty last August, when he said high-performance Dodge models remained firmly on FCAA's wishlist.

“I think there are certain products that will really resonate here,” he said at the time, without directly referring to either the Charger or Challenger.

"While we haven’t been talking about it, because they are further out in the scope, we do plan to have more Dodge products in-market… But it is kind of dependent on the long-range planning and the timing of the development of the new products.

“Coming in after a left-hand drive product is developed and trying to make it right-hand drive brings with it more cost than developing it up front.

“So, on the refreshes on some of the Dodge product ... as those products move forward, the plan would be to include Australia in the mix.”

Given recent reports that FCA could axe its iconic HEMI V8, it's not known whether -- in addition to a new turbo-four from next year's all-new Wrangler -- either the new Charger or Challenger will continue to come with V8 firepower, let alone the 500kW supercharged 6.2-litre V8 that powers Dodge's current SRT Hellcat versions.