Dodge Suspends SRT Hellcat Orders Amid Huge Demand
In a development that should surprise absolutely no one, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles says consumer demand for the new Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat coupe and Charger SRT Hellcat sedan has far outstripped supply. Orders for the 2015 Challenger Hellcat began in September 2014, with its Charger Hellcat sibling arriving in early 2015. Both rear-drive cars boast supercharged V-8s with an absurd 707 horsepower. Naturally, shoppers have lined up like it was Wal-Mart on Black Friday.
Related: 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Video
FCA, whose brands also include Jeep and Ram, says it received “more than 4,000 orders in just the first few weeks” after the Challenger SRT Hellcat went on sale. To date, the automaker has more than 9,000 orders for Hellcat editions of the Charger and Challenger. Now the automaker has reportedly suspended Hellcat orders until it can fill the backlog.
The mass of unfilled orders comes because FCA’s allocation system allows each dealer to receive just a slow trickle of Hellcats. But Gualberto Ranieri, FCA’s communications chief, posted Feb. 27 on an FCA blog that “a small number” of Dodge dealers had taken far more Hellcat orders than they could have possibly satisfied through FCA’s allocation system, which gave a maximum of one Hellcat per month (either a Challenger or Charger) to qualifying dealerships. The new Hellcats are in “overwhelming demand,” Ranieri wrote at the time, and FCA only permitted additional orders when dealers had takers for every Hellcat in stock. (A given dealership could order another Hellcat if it had examples in the showroom, as those cars might already be spoken for.)
The Challenger SRT Hellcat starts around $60,000 and tops out below $70,000 with factory options and a gas-guzzler tax. With the same parameters, the Charger SRT Hellcat spans roughly $65,000 to $75,000. As of March 17, inventory of all 2015 Chargers and Challengers amounted to 20,391 vehicles on Cars.com, but just 201 of them (less than 1 percent) were SRT Hellcats. Even that figure could be generous; FCA officials told us via email that the automaker has “well under 100 units” of Hellcats in dealer stock right now.
There’s no timetable on how long the suspension will last.
“Right now, we’ve said [it will be] temporarily while we validate current orders that are in the system,” FCA said. “Our goal in the near term is to validate each of those orders.”
