Rumor has pegged the Saltillo plant’s Hurricane twin-turbo-straight-six output at 200,000 or more engines per year—but is that enough? It depends on whether the Hurricane engine series will replace the Hemi V8.
The Hurricane beats the Hemi in peak power and torque, low-end torque, and fuel economy. Its 10% boost in fuel economy is a big deal, since Stellantis wants to stop buying efficiency credits; and it’s unusual to gain 10% in economy just by swapping to a more powerful engine, with the same transmission, body, and such.
Regardless of how you feel about replacing the Hemi with the Hurricane, the switch could require more engines than Saltillo can supply. FCA US, a/k/a Chrysler, already has plants which could switch over to the Hurricane without having to tear their fixtures out of the concrete. It could still take the better part of a year to convert an existing engine plant to Hurricanes, so this isn’t likely to happen tomorrow (if at all). What’s more, it’s possible the 6.4 “truck Hemi” isn’t going anywhere for a long time yet.
We are still at the “speculation and hints” stage (and FCA US had no comment). None of this is definite, and “what if” plans sometimes hit the grapevine. Stellantis could simply add more Hurricane capacity to Saltillo if needed; or, if battery-electrics and 4xes are popular enough, they might never need more Hurricanes than they can make now.
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