EV Dodge Charger production good news for Windsor, Unifor Local 444 president says

Unifor Local 444 President Dave Cassidy likes the look of the new generation EV Dodge Charger and its potential.

“We're going to have the electric side of it. There's going to be the ICE side of it so it's going to be a really hot product,” Cassidy said.

Billed as the world's first EV muscle car, the all-electric Dodge Charger is set to be built in Windsor.

“By the way that EV will be faster than the ICE engine,” Cassidy said. “I mean, the electric speeds up right away.”

The Charger is expected to deliver 670 horsepower and go zero to 100 in 3.3 seconds.

“This is a big marquee name for Stellantis,” said Greg Layson, editor for Automotive News Canada. “Muscle car. It is pretty much the only one left and the projections are 130,000 per year built in the factory behind us. That is enough to sustain one shift.”

According to Cassidy, not since the TV show MASH went off the air in 1983 has a car come off the line at the Windsor Assembly Plant.

That car? A Chrysler New Yorker.

2024 Dodge Charger. (Source: Stellantis)Layson said the change in gears to EV gives the plant generational flexibility.

“This plant can change on a dime so if people want more minivans than electric muscle cars they can do that. If they want more muscle cars than they do minivans they can do that,” Layson said.

On top of the Charger, the plant is expected to build a new generation minivan.

“We're going to get our three shift operation back at Windsor Assembly,” Cassidy said. “Next year we have another product coming. They haven't announced it obviously. There's a lot of good things in the future for Windsor.”

Layson added, “The flexibility of the plant is really key and you're going to see that two and three years from now when you're building cars, crossovers and minivans all in one plant.”

He suspects the factory won't hit three shifts until 2026 when all of the models to be built are in production.

“You'll see probably two shifts almost immediately when Charger production starts because you'll be building the Charger and the minivan. There's demand for both,” Layson explained.

Cassidy said the Charger is revving up to help drive Windsor-Essex into the future.

“We struggled for a lot of years but manufacturing now starts in Windsor and Essex and this is the gateway to Canada for manufacturing,” he said.