The new Dodge Charger SRT8 will be part of a revived, standalone performance brand.
Who says performance cars are dead in an era of $4 gas? Not Chrysler, it seems. The maker is bringing back the SRT brand and plans to start expanding its line-up later this year.
Ralph Gilles, who had been serving as CEO of the Dodge division, will now serve as brand boss for SRT – which is short for Street and Racing Technology. Gilles will continue in his dual role as Chrysler’s design director.
The move is just one in a series of senior executive management changes.
The SRT brand originally appeared in 2002, when the Detroit maker announced it would “create a line of industry-leading performance vehicles and parts.” It was a time when performance products were making a comeback, and Chrysler began putting out SRT versions of a wide range of products. But, in recent years, as fuel prices began to soar and the market shifted from muscle to mileage.
At the moment, there is only one SRT model in the entire Chrysler line-up, the 2011 Dodge Challenger. But for 2012, the company will add three more: a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, a Dodge Charger SRT8 and a Chrysler 300 SRT8.
The move might seem counterintuitive considering the overall U.S. market has been shifting towards smaller, higher-mileage vehicles, but Chrysler – like a number of competitors – is betting there remains enough of a market to justify high-performance offerings that can add a halo to the brand. The 2011 Challenger SRT8 generated 2,901 sales for the first five months of the year.
If the expansion of its muscle car line-up might seem a stretch, Chrysler’s decision to create an entirely new brand for SRT also appears to defy conventional wisdom that argues for reducing brand complexity. General Motors abandoned four of its either North American brands following its emergence from Chapter 11 in 2009. Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, decided to shutter the long-troubled Mercury marque, focusing its efforts on the Ford and Lincoln brands.
Chrysler, however, has not only turned SRT8 into a more-or-less standalone brand, but split off the Ram brand from Dodge and introduced the Fiat brand to handle the sale of its smallest model, the 500.
The decision to name Gilles to head SRT doesn’t come as a surprise. He is a well-known “gearhead,” with a passion for performance cars. During the introduction of the Charger SRT8 at the Chicago Auto Show, earlier this year, Gilles went off-script to plant a kiss on the new car’s front fender.
Chrysler used the opportunity to make several other management changes. Fred Diaz, who has been serving at Ram Truck CEO, will shift to Chrysler of Mexico, where he will serve as president and CEO, also assuming responsibility for Chrysler’s expanding distribution network in Latin America.
Meanwhile, Reid Bigland, will take over from Gilles as CEO of Dodge. Bigland has been running Chrysler Canada and will remain in that position – though a new position for a Canadian Chief Operating Officer will now go to David Buckingham.
The changes announced this week will actually trim the number of executives reporting directly to Sergio Marchionne, CEO of both Chrysler and Fiat to 24, down from 25.