The Hurricane I6, equipped with twin turbos and a raft of high tech design features, has two versions, each of which easily outpowers the corresponding Hemi V8. The standard output engine’s peak horsepower and torque are above those of the 5.7 Hemi, while the high-output Hurricane runs over the magic 500 for both horsepower and torque, leaving the 392 (6.4) Hemi behind.
In gas mileage, there is a definite advantage as well, though it’s not as pronounced as some may hope. The EPA figures for Hurricane-equipped Wagoneers, rounded off to integers, are reportedly 17/23 for rear wheel drive, 16/22 for four wheel drive for the Hurricane.
For the Hemi, which again has lower power ratings, fuel economy is 16/22 with rear wheel drive, 15/20 for four wheel drive. The Hurricane adds one mile per gallon city for both setups, and one mile per gallon highway for RWD and two for 4WD.
That might not seem like much, but for a typical driver, it’s around one hundred gallons a year; multiply that by a 15 year vehicle lifespan and 60,000 vehicles per year, and you have a hefty amount of gasoline. The difference grows even bigger when one considers that the Hurricane may also be used in the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 and 2500. One mile per gallon is actually quite a large gain for vehicles rated at less than 20 mpg in the city; it would be trivial, on the other hand, to go from, say, 30 to 31 mpg in the city (miles per gallon is a convenient number but it is not a linear measure, which is why Europe uses liters per 100km; gallons per 100 miles would be a better measure if it could be made into a convenient acronym.)
Those who choose the Hurricane get more than better gas mileage—midrange horsepower and torque are also reportedly far better, along with peak output. The Hurricane delivers on both economy and performance.
(Hurricane figures courtesy “Mentalicca” at Allpar and via the most recent fleet brochure. These figures may be subject to change; the EPA has not yet added them to their own database.)
That is a lot of new tech, and forced induction and cost to gain 2mpg.
It certainly is; but 2MPG is a HUGE deal as far as Stellantis is concerned; it has a big financial upside.
The more important and greater difference will be the much better emissions numbers. The 5.7 will soon be unable to be sold at all for that reason.
Which body style were these figures for? The Ram 1500?
Thanks for the clarification!! 😃
In what vehicle?
I look forward to being able to order a 2-row Grand Cherokee Trailhawk with the standard output Hurricane. Light or regular hybrid would be great. No 4xe / PHEV for me.
The biggest question is, what will these two engines be offered in? The brand is truly being enigmatic about what is truly going on. As much as I love the Charger and the muscle car thing Dodge has right now, it’s almost irritating trying to follow everything they’ve got going on. In a truck, or Body on Frame vehicle, the EPA ratings are pretty decent but of course in a car those numbers would be higher. Would this kind of setup work in the new Jeep Grand Cherokee as well? absolutely. I would honestly love to see the Hurricane 3.0L HO powertrain with a hybrid 8-speed and performance AWD under the hood of a new Jeep Grand Cherokee performance model. Especially if Direct Connection gets involved with it and offers performance upgrades and things like that. It would also be great under the hood of a Jeep Wrangler or Jeep Gladiator with a bunch of Direct Connection off road performance upgrades as well. With the Durango rumored to go body-on-frame, we know that Dodge is going to move away from on-road performance vehicles with the Durango name plate as it’s looking to compete with vehicles like the Tahoe/Suburban & Expedition. While the 3.0L HO had 510hp/500lbft of torque, which is very close to what the SRT10 Ram 1500 had several years ago, Body on Frame vehicles aren’t known for performance and agility. While I’m sure the SRT skunk works engineers behind the scenes could deliver a mid-sized body on frame SUV with better than average handling, TRX styling with SRT flare and better than average performance than most body on frame SUVs on the road, I would say that the powertrain would need to have a hybrid transmission along with it to increase HP & torque and help with the EPA ratings as well. It would be the same with any Body on Frame vehicle this is going in, though.
Originally, the next-gen LB Challenger was to get a Hurricane. I don’t know if that’s still the plan, if the names have changed but the plans haven’t, etc., etc. Plans are changing pretty rapidly and I don’t know if everyone there is certain!
I also wouldn’t take too many of the Durango rumors too seriously, I suspect some are just educated guesses, e.g. they don’t want to waste the Wagoneer development money so they’ll make a cheaper Dodge. I don’t know if that makes sense for them, they need to do something about their donations to Tesla. Maybe they’ll use the Grand Cherokee platform again and they just didn’t want the Durango to get overlooked with the WL…
There’s no shortage of options which is not helping. It’ll take time to get Hurricane production up. I don’t expect it to be in Rams in 2023. Having it as an option in Grand Cherokee was a surprise.
They absolutely need help with mpg. Hornet’s a good start, maybe. As a side note, the only fuel economy figures known for 2023 Durango is for the V6! (19/26 which would have been considered good for a sedan just a few years ago.)
Thank you for the response, and yes there is definitely alot of uncertainty around the brand right now. To me, A Ramcharger would be the best idea as a Dodge Stablemate to the Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer and leave the Durango and Grand Cherokee together. For T.K to make the statement “Nobody wants cars anymore….” would to me, in my mind say “Okay, If we’re going to continue to be “Dodge” and everything that entails, we need to focus on making the Durango more of “the vehicle to have if you could only have one.” It was said awhile ago that the SRT brand is going to be dispersed into to brand so alot of the tech that was proprietary to the SRT vehicles is going to be used in other vehicles. If that’s the case, If I was a head honcho at Stellantis under the Dodge umbrella, I’d take the Durango and pull together all of the performance features from the Trackhawk, the Demon and the Maserati Levante Trofeo. I’d focus on handling and acceleration while still making it tow competitively with everything in it’s class. I would also change out all of it’s powertrain options from what is currently available. The 2.0L 4XE powertrain would be the base powertrain with 375hp/470lb-ft of torque, the 3.0L S.O with 420hp/468lb-ft of torque would be next, the 3.0L Hurricane H.O would follow up with 510hp/500lb-ft of torque would be next and above that would be the 3.0L H.O hybrid powertrain using the 4XE’s hybrid system along with the 3.0L Hurricane H.O engine to produce an estimated 615hp/675lb-ft of torque (using the fact that the regular 2.0L makes 270hp/295tq before the additional 105hp/175lb-ft gain from the hybrid setup). On the performance models I would be focused on different drive modes to enhance the performance aspect of the vehicle. I would be ensuring that Direct Connection would have upgrade packages for performance when it comes to things like cold air intakes, turbo upgrades, blow off valves, intercoolers and piping, downpipes, exhaust systems, brake upgrades, drivetrain upgrades, ECU tuning, etc. I would make sure that there were jailbreak packages for EVERY model from the bottom to the top. And seeing that the SRT moniker is being traded for the GLH moniker, I would definitely say that the Durango’s trim levels would be GT, R/T, GLH, GLHS and if there just happens to be a high performance all electric variant above that, we can figure out a name from there. I could go on and on about this idea but for the sake of all of that, the Hurricane engine package has a lot of potential that isn’t being shown and there are a lot of different platforms and ways that Dodge can do this and keep it’s customer base and the EPA guys happy.