Photo: Dodge
From a historical standpoint, the Ford Mustang is the best-selling sports car to come out of America. This segment, however, has seen a slow but steady contraction in the past few years. The downward spiral has been exacerbated by the health crisis, and the results for the third quarter of 2020 paint a rather bleak picture.
16,332 units of the Dodge Challenger open the list, followed by 13,851 units of the 'Stang and 8,366 examples of the 'Maro. All three nameplates have posted negative results in comparison to the third quarter of 2019 in the United States, and taken together, the fall stands at 18.21 percent.
As far as mainstream sports cars are concerned, only the Subaru BRZ has posted encouraging results this quarter with 784 sales as opposed to 436 this time last year. Indeed, the crisis has hit Mazda, Nissan, and Toyota as well.
Given these figures, does it come as a surprise that Ford has pulled the plug on the Shelby GT350 in favor of the Mach 1 for the 2021 model year? How about that report on the next-generation Camaro project? In layman’s terms, General Motors has reportedly stopped development of the Gen 7 in favor of electric vehicles on the BEV3 platform such as the new GMC Hummer EV.
Dodge is feeling the pressure to change the Challenger as well, but in a different way from Ford and General Motors. To the point, "the absolute future is the electrification of these cars,” said head honcho Tim Kuniskis about the two-door coupe and Charger in an interview from 2019.
It remains to be seen how Fiat Chrysler will keep its promise, though. The eTorque mild-hybrid system is the least Dodge can do for the Charger and Challenger, but hybrids and PHEVs also need to be taken into consideration. An e-axle would be interested too, translating to e-AWD under acceleration for increased straight-line performance and improved fuel economy.
As far as mainstream sports cars are concerned, only the Subaru BRZ has posted encouraging results this quarter with 784 sales as opposed to 436 this time last year. Indeed, the crisis has hit Mazda, Nissan, and Toyota as well.
Given these figures, does it come as a surprise that Ford has pulled the plug on the Shelby GT350 in favor of the Mach 1 for the 2021 model year? How about that report on the next-generation Camaro project? In layman’s terms, General Motors has reportedly stopped development of the Gen 7 in favor of electric vehicles on the BEV3 platform such as the new GMC Hummer EV.
Dodge is feeling the pressure to change the Challenger as well, but in a different way from Ford and General Motors. To the point, "the absolute future is the electrification of these cars,” said head honcho Tim Kuniskis about the two-door coupe and Charger in an interview from 2019.
It remains to be seen how Fiat Chrysler will keep its promise, though. The eTorque mild-hybrid system is the least Dodge can do for the Charger and Challenger, but hybrids and PHEVs also need to be taken into consideration. An e-axle would be interested too, translating to e-AWD under acceleration for increased straight-line performance and improved fuel economy.
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