Dodge Wants To Bring Back The V8 Hellcat

Happy Tuesday! It's October 13, 2026, and this is The Morning Shift — your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. This is where you'll find the most important stories that are shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning's edition we're looking at Dodge's desire for a new V8 Hellcat, as well as Stellantis' refusal to offload brands. We'll also look at auto sales in China, how BMW is doing badly, and Volkswagen is doing even worse. 

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Stellantis' marketing strategy with its American brands over the past few years has been to lean into being As Chud As Possible — look no further than the whole "Symbol of Protest" Hemi badging for proof. The electric Charger Daytona was an unfortunate misstep in that plan, being too woke (electric) for traditional Hemi buyers yet too unwoke (enormous dumb-sounding coupe) to capture new customers. Stellantis made a half-measure towards rectifying that already with the Hurricane six-cylinder, but now it seems the Charger is returning to its roots: A Hemi under the hood. From Automotive News: 

Stellantis is planning a V-8 engine variant of the Dodge Charger as the automaker leans harder on the Hemi to win back customers.

The company aims to launch production of the 6.2-liter Hellcat muscle car at the end of 2027 for the 2028 model year, according to a planning document reviewed by Automotive News. The company has informed suppliers that it intends to build around 12,000 of them per year.

The supercharged Hemi V-8 has been rumored for months, but Stellantis has not confirmed it. A Stellantis spokesperson told Automotive News that the launch details are "purely speculation/rumor" and that the company "will not comment on future product strategy."

Electric power is faster than internal combustion, without question — torque available from zero RPM is tough to beat. So Dodge's goal here is to actually decrease the performance of its flagship performance car, make it slower, in order to appease buyers who fear new things. The car will remain, inherently, new. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. 

While Dodge, Jeep, and Ram have dialed in their American marketing, the brands still have to play under the same roof as international marques like Fiat, Vauxhall, and Peugeot. Those latter brands need to sell in Europe and Asia, where the same "return to tradition" messaging doesn't quite hit, which has led some folks to ask whether Stellantis should split things up. Antonio Filosa, for his part, doesn't think so. From Automotive News: 

Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa rejected the notion of separating the group's European and U.S. brands, saying the company's strategy is based on all 14 of them "playing their unique role."

"It is not plausible at all," Filosa told Bloomberg Television Oct. 12 at the Paris auto show when asked about the idea of separating brands such as Citroen and Fiat from Jeep and Ram. Stellantis develops technologies globally for all its models, including powertrains and computing architecture, and each brand will use that as a base, he added.

Filosa has been reviewing the group's strategy as part of an effort to better allocate spending among its brands, many of which cater to the same mass-market customers.

Marketing helps, but there's still a core issue where environmentally conscious fuel efficient Fiats have to ride on the same platform as screw-the-haters, middle-finger-to-the-sky Jeeps. I wouldn't want to be the engineer who has to design one platform for both needs. 

Chinese customers are buying fewer cars, after years spent rapidly grabbing the latest and greatest on the automotive market, and the cars they're still buying are largely domestic. Import brands are feeling the pinch, and BMW has the numbers to prove it. From the Wall Street Journal: 

BMW group vehicle deliveries fell in the third quarter as the continuing challenging market in China offset growth in Europe and the U.S.

The German automaker, which houses its namesake brand as well as the Mini and Rolls-Royce marques and a motorcycle business, said Tuesday that overall group sales fell 6.3% in the quarter to 551,072 vehicles.

...

Sales of BMW and Mini branded cars rose 2.7% in Europe and 2.5% in the U.S., but fell by 25% in China to 114,355 vehicles, with BMW noting the figures reflect the performance of the automotive market as a whole.

The automotive market is certainly down, as BMW says, but 25% is a big gap to try and make up. If you're wondering why every automaker under the sun is firing every worker it can find, look no further than lost profits from China. 

What's worse than a 25% drop in sales, though? A 39% drop in sales! That's right, BMW's numbers are bad, but Volkswagen's are even worse. From Automotive News: 

Volkswagen Group reported a 14 percent decline in global deliveries in the third quarter Oct. 12, its sharpest drop in more than four years, as weakness in China, its largest market, continued to weigh on sales.

Deliveries, a closely watched proxy for sales, fell to 1.89 million vehicles in the quarter.

Deliveries in China tumbled 39 percent in the quarter and were down 30 percent in the first nine months of the year. Deliveries fell 5.8 percent in North America and 2.8 percent in Western Europe but rose 1.4 percent in Central and Eastern Europe.

Western automakers love the idea of an isolationist market at home, but hate one abroad — Europe shouldn't allow Chinese cars in, but China and India should buy as many European vehicles as the companies can possibly ship over. This is a rational and normal way to look at international business, and a good way to look at future plans. 

Why do we keep putting our leaders in isolated mansions? The President should have to live in a three-bedroom apartment in DC with two roommates that don't do the dishes. Give our leaders a real authentic American experience. 

It looks like this is just where prices are going to sit until we get some new updates with the Strait of Hormuz. Have fun with that!

Sometimes that's just the way of it.