This past weekend, Dodge hosted the sixth Roadkill Nights automotive festival at the M1 Concourse road racing facility in Pontiac, Michigan. The event was held on Saturday, but on Friday, Dodge had a press conference to give media a chance to check out the venue and some of the key competitors without the massive crowd of spectators. While speaking at that press conference, Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis talked about more than just Roadkill Nights, briefly introducing the “Never Lift” program – in which Dodge will lay out the schedule for their new model plans for the next two years.
You read that right. During the fourth quarter of 2021, the Dodge brand will issue a schedule for the next two years highlighting the dates of every planned vehicle debut during that time. The “catch” is that we will know the dates, but we won’t know what will be introduced on that date. Kuniskis explained that those debuts will range from simple trim line changes or new appearance-based trim levels to what he called significant updates as the company says farewell to the Charger and Challenger that we currently know and love.
In other words, that calendar of debuts could state that on February 1st, 2022, Dodge will debut a vehicle (I just picked that as a random date in the future). That vehicle could be a Challenger in a new appearance based, special edition package that won’t get that many people very excited. On the other hand, Kuniskis told me that some of these debuts are going to be a big deal in the performance world. He explained that the simpler debuts may not pique everyone’s interest, but he assured me that along the way, there will be some key introductions that will grab the attention of the performance world.
The goal of this program is to keep enthusiasts on the edge of their seats, but more importantly, the Never Lift program shows that while Ford and Chevy are quickly transitioning towards a boring future where we all drive an electric appliance, Dodge still has two years of proper American performance cars on the way – including changes that Kuniskis stated would be more than just simple appearance packages.
In short, later this year, we will get a good look at the basic framework of the final two years of the current Dodge Challenger and Charger. Although the cars are both relatively old by industry standards, they are still selling well and based on that, the Dodge brand plans to continue introducing new iterations through 2022 and 2023.
We don’t know exactly when Dodge will introduce the two-year calendar of the Never Lift program, but they stated that it would come some time during the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter begins in 46 days and with any luck, the calendar will be issued earlier in Q4 rather than later, as we are eagerly looking forward to seeing what Dodge has planned for the Challenger and Charger over the next two years.
