Almost since the car's reintroduction more than a decade ago, the Dodge Charger sedan has had police-specification variants. And in that time, Chargers have become among the most common police cars in America. With a new generation launching, one with very different powertrains, there's an open question as to whether Dodge will continue to offer specially-equipped Chargers. While nothing is concrete, Dodge's CEO implied that it's under consideration.
During a media briefing we attended, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis was asked about this market, and he said that police service vehicles are a "significant" part of the brand's business. He continued that they're definitely still looking at that part of the business, but they didn't have anything specific to announce otherwise. He didn't say anything about just how large a portion of Charger sales have been for law enforcement, though.
If Dodge launches a new Charger police car, it would almost certainly be the new generation sedan that's just been revealed, since the old model is simply no longer built. So there probably won't be a continuation Charger "classic" like what Ram has been doing with the 1500 pickup trucks. The outgoing model was also offered with the naturally aspirated 3.6-liter V6 and 5.7-liter V8, plus either rear- or all-wheel-drive. Neither of those engine options will be available for consumer Chargers, as all those will be either electric or powered by the "Hurricane" twin-turbo straight-six. There are some police-ready EVs out there, including the Ford F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E, and there's definitely a market for the higher-output engines like the old Dodge V8 and surely a variant of the new Hurricane engine. But many of the Charger police cars, not to mention other models of police car, run the lower-output engines like that old Pentastar V6. We would be curious if Dodge would make a special police-only version of the gas-powered Charger with that engine, which remains in production and will still be available in the base Ram 1500. So it would certainly be an option.
With the new Charger sedan going into production next year, it could be a little while before we see a new police car launch. That means that, at least for now, you won't have to double-check your speedometer every time you see the new Charger's nose in your rearview mirror.
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