Dodge Charger, Challenger firm for Oz

Crunch product planning meetings in the USA over the next couple of months are expected to play a vital role in determining the success of a plan to get the current-generation Dodge Challenger and Charger performance cars on sale in Australia as early as 2016.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia has developed a business case and is campaigning hard to add the Challenger coupe and Charger sedan to its sole current rear-wheel drive V8 contender, the Chrysler 300C.

FCAA sees the end of production of the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore as a big opportunity for it to tap into a healthy and profitable market with an expanded US-built rear-wheel drive V8 range – if it can get Motown to approve the business case.

While Ford will compete with the Mustang, Holden will effectively vacate the space following General Motors' decision not to offer the new-generation Chevrolet Camaro in right-hand drive.

Motoring.com.au believes FCAA boss Pat Dougherty is currently in the USA and is understood to have used the Camaro decision as ammunition to press his claims for the Charger and Challenger. We also believe he heads back to Detroit in June for more product meetings.

Internally, within FCAA, the 2016 target is understood to be regarded as a best-case-possible scenario. A green light would need to happen in June if the process of development, testing, tooling, production and delivery of the hi-po Dodges could happen in the 2016 calendar year.

As reported back in April, Dougherty and his team used the visit to Australia in April of global product executive Steve Bartoli to lobby for the two Dodges – as well as right-hand drive production of the RAM 1500 pick-up.

At that time Bartoli told motoring.com.au he was well and truly aware of the Australian appetite for V8s and rear-wheel drive and indicated the local availability of the 300C – on the same fundamental architecture – smoothed the way for the Dodges.

However, he used the term “mid-term” when it came to timing, indicating that 2016 was probably sooner than he had on his radar. The next-gen Challenger and Charger are due in 2018.

"Whether we want to do a Charger version or a Challenger version that's up to me to work through, but certainly we could make more improvements on the 300C we already have ... we can work that very actively. That is not a long-term proposition. Improving that car and making it more competitive is something we can do almost immediately, which we will," said Bartoli.

"Then we say 'OK, is there an added extra, an enhancement to that with another car?' That's the bigger question and that's more mid-term. It doesn't have to wait for the next platform because we have that structure already.

"It's 'can we make a business case for it? Do we think there is enough demand in the market? Do we have that capability to draw that demand from the market to make it worthwhile?'"

At the top of the agenda for FCAA would be two of the most sought-after muscle cars currently available in North America – the 527kW SRT Hellcat versions of the Charger and Challenger.

FCAA has already secured a facelifted 6.4-litre Chrysler 300 SRT specifically for Australia from September, in response to strong demand for sub-$50,000 performance models here, where V8s currently comprise up to a third of all Commodore sales.

An FCAA spokesman made it clear to motoring.com.au that, unlike the deal that will see the Walkinshaw group design, engineer and manufacture heavy-duty RAM trucks for the Australian market from September, the RHD Charger and Challenger vehicles will be factory-built in the US – if the business case is approved.

The FCAA spokesman this morning reiterated our April story, saying the current Charger and Challenger "are not built for right-hand driver markets yet, but should they become available FCA Australia would certainly make a play for them".