Msn.com has posted the following information, from Automobile magazine, about the future of the Challenger: "Fiat Chrysler's muscle/pony has had a checkered future, full of oft-cancelled replacements. The Challenger debuted in '08 in SRT guise, with the full line added for '09, and Dodge had planned a new "Barracuda" in the early 2010s that would be smaller than Challenger, though on the same platform. It was a pet project of Fiat Chrysler design chief Ralph Gilles. By Fiat Chrysler's second Five-Year Plan introduced by then-CEO Sergio Marchionne in 2014, the Dodge Challenger and Charger were to migrate to Alfa Romeo's rear-drive Giorgio platform, on which the Giulia is built. But delays and added cost in developing that platform put the Dodges on ice. By Fiat Chrysler's third Five-Year Plan presentation last year in Balocco, Italy, Marchionne confirmed that the Giorgio-based Dodges were off, and that constant updates of the Challenger/Charger/Chrysler 300 platform would keep the models fresh through the 2020s. Fiat Chrysler long ago evolved the chassis, cribbed from the Mercedes-Benz E-class during the DaimlerChrysler years, to the point that it considers the platform its own. For instance, AWD was added to the Dodge Challenger in the 2017 model year. Earlier in the decade, Fiat Chrysler had to pay a licensing fee to post-Chrysler Daimler for AWD systems for the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300. Meanwhile, ZF Friedrichshafen last week announced Fiat Chrysler has placed the second-largest order for the transmission supplier's eight-speed automatic for longitudinal-engine, rear- and all-wheel-drive models. The order includes a "significant share of hybrid transmissions," which means Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep, as well as Alfa and Maserati, will likely soon offer 48-volt systems like those seen on Ram pickups and the Jeep Wrangler/Gladiator. Fiat Chrysler now considers the Dodge's plus size an advantage, so we don't expect any significant downsizing when the next Challenger arrives, likely for 2022."
