Sales Numbers Just Proved What We All Knew: Dodge's Hellcats Are Hits

In this day and age of slow muscle car sales and ambitious gas mileage goals, creating a car like Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcats is about the dumbest thing you can do. Really, who needs a V8 muscle car pumping out 707 horsepower? No one needs these tire-shredding beasts, but as it turns out a lot of people want them. Sales numbers for the 2016 MY Challenger Hellcat and Charger Hellcat have just been posted over at hellcat.org, and it doesn't take a math genius to see that business is booming.

In 2015 Dodge moved a total of 7,168 Challenger Hellcats and 1,334 Charger Hellcats. In 2016 those numbers are up to 11,995 and 4,025, respectively. The sales data posted to the owners forum is as in-depth as sales data can be, showing breakdowns of everything from paint color preference to purchases by state. In case you were wondering, Texas bought the most Challenger Hellcats (1,172) and Charger Hellcats (332), with California finishing second in both races. The most popular Challenger color was Pitch Black at 27.4% followed by Plum Crazy with a 10.7% take rate. Pitch Black was also the top choice for Charger buyers, commanding 28.6% of the market, with second place belonging to Bright White at 14.8%.

Gearheads who are on a quest to save the manuals will be happy to note that a whopping 32.9% of all MY 2016 Challenger Hellcats sold, or 3,944 cars, left the factory with a six-speed manual transmission. (The manual isn't an option on the Charger.) Dodge's Hellcats continue to prove that Americans still have a big appetite for ridiculously fast cars that are relatively affordable, at least when it comes to power for the price. As such it makes sense for FCA to drop the Hellcat engine into the Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it really wouldn't surprise us if it tries to find another car to shove it into. Shout out to hellcat.org forum members PLMCRZY and ResumeSpeed for compiling this data.