Challenger Hellcat gets 1000hp upgrade, via Tesla Model S Plaid EV swap

A workshop in the United States has carried out a wild Tesla conversion by fitting the body of a Dodge Challenger – a wild V8 muscle car – on top of Tesla electric vehicle underpinnings.

Looking for the best of both worlds, it combines two of the fastest factory road cars – the battery electric Tesla Model S Plaid and the petrol-powered Dodge Challenger Hellcat – to create ‘Cybercat’, a truly polarising machine. 

“The Hellcat guys are going to be so mad,” said ‘Kilowatt Kyle’ Wade on the BoostedBoiz YouTube channel documenting the build.

“I couldn’t think of a better group of people to not want one of their cars taken and turned into an EV [Electric Vehicle] – it got me excited just thinking about it.”

Reported on Carscoops, BoostedBoiz founder Wade had – get this – previously fitted the Model S Plaid, the most powerful, rapidly accelerating Tesla, with the body from a humble Honda Odyssey eight-seat people mover.

Yet the Honda shell didn’t quite match up, meaning it wasn’t as convincing or drivable – yet Wade then found a near perfect match for the Tesla dimensions in the Dodge Challenger.

In a two-worlds-collide epiphany, he discovered only a 7mm difference in wheelbase – the space between the centre of the front and rear axles – between the Model S Plaid and a Dodge Challenger, which was also almost identical in width.

Finding a 2013 Challenger shell for a mere $US700 ($AU1090) proved the easy part, with the team at BoostedBoiz cutting and slicing to marry sections of the Dodge donor-shell and the Tesla underpinnings.

Once in place, the shell was completed using body panels from a Challenger Hellcat SRT – badges and all – one of the wildest hot-rod versions which came from the factory with a supercharged 6.2-litre 'Hemi' V8 making as much as 807hp (602kW).

The result sees this weird, wonderful idea combine Tesla electric car performance – with the cabin remaining as close to the standard Model S Plaid as possible – with the looks of one of the most fire-breathing, biblically tyre-shredding V8-powered production cars ever produced.

It will either delight – or repulse – both camps: the Tesla Muskovites and the classic, rock-n-roll loving traditionalists who prefer the sound of eight cylinders to Elon Musk’s voice.

While the Dodge brings the ten-gallon hat and cowboy boots, the Tesla’s three electric motor set up delivers 761kW and 1423Nm of torque – out flexing the factory Dodge.

“On a regular road, ain’t no Hellcat out here beating this thing from a dig – not one,” Wade said in the YouTube footage.

Yet it should also beat a factory Model S Plaid, too, because during the makeover the car’s weight dropped from the standard Tesla’s 2237kg to 1964kg – although it’s yet to be proven on the drag strip.

Dodge ended production of its V8-powered Challenger and Charger in 2023, followed by the last V8 Ram Trucks this year, with the first official pictures of a battery-electric replacement Challenger shown in January 2024.

More recently, reports suggest a twin-turbo six-cylinder petrol engine may be part of the next-generation line-up, sold alongside the electric Challenger – but with a V8 version unlikely to return.

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