Hemi V8 Outselling V6 in 2015 Dodge Challenger

While the Detroit muscle cars are best known for their powerful V8 engines, sales figures for the Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro in the past few years have favored those packages with V6 engines. While both Ford and Dodge saw the V6 engines outselling the V8 models by a small margin, the V6 was still the most popular engine in a segment where power reigns.

However, a combination of the awesome new Hemi-powered packages for the 205 Dodge Challenger and gas prices below $2 bucks a gallon have led to an interesting shift in take rate among Mopar muscle car buyers. According to the folks at Allpar, the V8 models are outselling the V6 models in the 2015 Challenger lineup by a rate of almost 2 to 1.

2015 Dodge Challenger Take Rates
According to Allpar, the new R/T Scat Pack, SRT 392 and SRT Hellcat models have drawn a great deal of attention from both the base model Challenger SXT and the Challenger R/T, while helping to improve the overall V8 take rate for the brawny muscle car.
During the 2014 model year, the Challenger SXT with the 3.6L Pentastar engine accounted for a whopping 53% of all Challenger sales while the Challenger R/T with the 375hp 5.7L Hemi covered another 37% of sales. This left just 10% to split among the R/T Shaker, the SRT Core and the SRT 392 models with the Shaker grabbing 4% of sales while the two SRT models each claimed 3% of sales, each.

Throughout the early portion of the 2015 model year for the Dodge Challenger, the introduction of the R/T Scat Pack (shown above) with the 392 cubic inch Hemi that is shared with the SRT 392, along with the new SRT Hellcat, have led to a huge spike in sales among the high powered models. Popularity of the SXT with the V6 model has dropped to just 38% and the Challenger R/T has also seen the take rate drop to just 31%. On the other hand, the R/T Scat Pack has posted an early take rate of 16% while the SRT 392 with the same engine has accounted for 6% of 2015 Challenger sales. Finally, the new Hellcat Challenger has accounted for an impressive 9% of 2015 model year sales.

2015 Challenger Galleries:
The 2015 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack in Sublime
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat in TorRed
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat in Sublime

Engines by the Numbers
While it is impressive to hear that the new R/T Scat Pack and the 707hp Hellcat models have posted lots of early popularity, it is interesting to see how the sales breakdown by engine numbers for 2014 and 2015. 53% of buyers of the 2014 Challenger picked the 3.6L V6, while 41% picked the 5.7L Hemi and just 6% of 2014 Challengers had the 392 cubic inch engine. For 2015 thus far, 38% have picked the 3.6L V6, 31% have picked the 5.7L Hemi, 22% have picked the 392 Hemi and 9% have gone with the most powerful American production engine of all time – the supercharged Hellcat.

This shift in sales is very clear proof that the new R/T Scat Pack with the 485 horsepower 6.4L Hemi has proven to be a big hit among those buyers who want the big power of the SRT lineup – but not the big price. Also, the 9% take rate of the Hellcat Hemi shows that even in an era where efficiency is at the foreground of so many automotive conversations, there is still plenty of interested in very (very) high performance engines.

Source: Allpar