Stellantis Built Another Engine… and It Still Ain’t a Hemi

What if I told you Stellantis rolled out another brand-new engine and somehow it’s still not the next-gen Hemi V8 we keep begging for?

They’ve introduced the 2.0-liter Hurricane4 turbo for the 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee — 324 hp, 332 lb-ft, lots of tech, assembled in Dundee, MI — and yes, this is the same family as the Hurricane inline-6. The problem is not that the engine is bad. The problem is they keep throwing smaller and more premium engines into vehicles that are already overpriced, while killing off the cheap engines that actually made volume.

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And I’m telling you right now: this is exactly the kind of motor that will get shoved into a cheaper Charger trim once the Pentastar bows out in a couple years. Stellantis Media

What the Engine Actually Is

This isn’t some rental-fleet 2.0. It’s basically a shrunken Hurricane:

2.0L turbo four, 324 hp @ 6,000 rpm, 332 lb-ft from 3,000–4,500 rpm
Variable-geometry turbo (35 psi)
Dual injection (port + direct) with a liquid-to-air intercooler
Miller cycle for efficiency
Turbulent Jet Ignition / pre-chamber setup, two spark plugs per cylinder
Built in Dundee, Michigan, with Kokomo support as volume ramps
First confirmed home: 2026 Jeep Grand Cherokee

That’s the good news. It’s a serious piece of hardware. MotorTrend even said Stellantis is using a “premium-spec 2.0” to replace the old 2.0 and get more power on less fuel.

Autoblog echoed it — this is meant to replace the old 2.0, not just sit next to it. So yeah — it’s real, it’s modern, and it’s meant to scale.

Here’s the Real Problem: Price Creep

Jeep’s own rollout of the 2026 Grand Cherokee already showed the pattern: Pentastar V6 = mid-$30Ks / low-$40Ks. Hurricane4 = +$5–6K. I’ve called out these new Hurricane engines coming in at a higher premium and losing focus on the brands needing to stay blue collar based. That matches exactly what I said in the video: you take away the cheap V6, drop in a high priced turbo four, and suddenly the “base” Jeep is a $50,000 Jeep once you add tax, destination, and a couple packages.

Now zoom out.

2026 Grand Cherokee with Hurricane4 → ~$46K before fees
New Charger Sixpack → ~$49K with a Hurricane inline 6
Ram with Hurricane → always more than Hemi but customers are being charged more for the Hemi
Pentastar → UAW doc says it’s not living forever

You see where this goes. Within 5 years, Stellantis won’t have many U.S. vehicles under $50K unless they build small stuff again. Ram for example is getting closer to $100k for a truck and so that opens the market for them to produce a mid sized truck. Big vehicles like the Charger is going to be only $50k plus, which opens the market for Dodge to make a smaller affordable car. And this Hurricane4 could be the engine that powers those smaller vehicles but will the Pentastar V6 still be a cheaper option?

And Yes — It Still Proves the Bigger Point

When Ram brought the 5.7 Hemi back, they got 10,000 orders in 24 hours. Nobody — and I mean nobody — has shown a story where a Hurricane-powered Ram or Jeep did that. This is why that Carbuzz piece trying to dunk on the Hemi for being “slower” completely missed the point: customers do not care if the Hurricane is 1.1 seconds faster 0–60 when the truck sounds wrong and costs more. You can run all the metrics you want — towing, payload, mpg — but the market already voted with its wallet: Hemi back = orders back. Hurricane only = dead showrooms.

Why This 2.0L Won’t “Save” Them

Stellantis is trying to do a European thing in a North American market. Small engine + turbo + big price + lots of software. So now mix that with a high-pressure, high-heat, high-boost four-cylinder running 35 psi and two injectors per hole. That’s a recipe for things to go wrong and the Hemi was simple. Plenty of displacement, plenty of sound, and decent performance. Even the Pentastar was a staple but those engines are getting long in the tooth and need updating. If Stellantis does that, they’ll get ahead. Going with these tiny engines in “American” brands clash with what customers want and the sales numbers prove it. When the Hemi is added. Sales go up. When the Hemi is removed, sales crash. It is that simple.

What They Should Do

Instead of dumping all this budget into new small engines nobody asked for, take this same tech — Miller cycle, dual injection, VGT learnings, better combustion chambers — and drop it on a 5.0–5.7L Hemi-style V8:

450 hp N/A with better BSFC
520–750 hp with a factory blower at 10–15 psi
900+ hp with twin turbos for Direct Connection
Works in Ram, Charger, Durango, Jeep
Sounds right, sells right, pays the compliance fines

GM said it publicly. Ford is still selling V8s. Stellantis is the one acting like the hurricane era didn’t face-plant. That’s the part I keep calling out and hopefully we will see a new Hemi announcement in the future or Stellantis might be doomed again.