2016 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat: Real-World Fuel Economy

CARS.COM — Dodge’s Hellcat engine, the 707-horsepower, supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 found in select Charger and Challenger SRT models, is the automotive equivalent of a frying pan to the face. From deafening cold-morning startups that set off nearby car alarms to the blast of the tailpipes on full-throttle launches that could be mistaken for horns announcing the impending apocalypse, it’s a monster. Whenever I park a car equipped with one, the question of “What’ll she do?” inevitably follows from passersby. The answer: a blistering 11.03-second quarter-mile at 126.61 mph on stock factory tires, straight from the showroom floor.

Related: Chasing 11.2: We Take the Challenger SRT Hellcat to the Strip

But during a recent loan of a 2016 Dodge Charger Hellcat that coincided with Detroit’s Woodward Dream Cruise classic car festival week, I pulled up to a gas station (for the umpteenth time) and was asked that question again. When I replied with the performance numbers, the gentleman rephrased his question: “No, no, no. How’s the fuel economy?”

Considering that I’d had to go to the gas station nearly every day during my four-day test of the vehicle, that was a fair question — and since I had a road trip coming up from Ann Arbor, Mich., to the Cars.com mothership in Chicago in the Hellcat, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to see exactly what it could do in terms of mileage. I knew the fuel economy was pretty bad in the Dodge Charger Hellcat, but exactly how bad?

Believe it or not, the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat actually has an Eco mode. It’s buried on the SRT Pages multimedia screen — the one that lets you switch between driving modes of Default, Sport, Track or Custom. Down at the bottom, next to Valet mode, is the Eco mode button. It softens throttle response, advances transmission shift points, disables the flappy paddle shifters and restricts engine output to “just” 500 hp instead of the full 707. Now the question became: If you drive the Hellcat in a calm, fuel-friendly manner with Eco mode engaged, what does the gas mileage look like?

Early one summer Monday morning, I topped off the tank, reset the trip computer, checked the tire pressures and headed west to Chicago via the straight and easy I-94. I engaged Eco mode, as proven by the tiny green leaf that appeared on the central LCD display. I set cruise control to 75 mph and employed it most of the time, but the automatic distance-keeping cruise control that’s available on the lesser Dodge Charger SRT 392 can’t be had on the Hellcat thanks in part to its different bumper styling.

The phrase that’s generally accepted among car enthusiasts is that it’s better to drive a slow car fast than to have to drive a fast car slow. Piloting a Hellcat on a mostly empty stretch of four-lane interstate for four hours at 75 mph or less demonstrates that in full fashion. If not for satellite radio, it would have been intolerable, as this car’s easy, comfortable cruising velocity is 90 mph. Or so we’re told… ahem. Instead, I ran it at speeds meant for muggles in the name of science and journalistic inquiry. The fact that it’s also painted bright orange and would undoubtedly attract the eye of the local constabulary was also a speed-limiting motivator. This car is made for traffic law infractions.

The 2016 Charger SRT Hellcat is rated at 13/22/16 mpg city/highway/combined by the EPA. The highway number proved easily attainable: During my drive, the trip computer routinely quoted on-the-spot measurements of about 24-25 mpg at steady, level cruising. I didn’t perform any hard acceleration but neither did I do any “hypermiling” activities like feathering the throttle — I just drove the Hellcat the way one might drive an average four-cylinder family sedan. Rolling into the BP station in downtown Chicago to refill after 235 easy-does-it miles, the tank took 10.712 gallons for a calculated fuel economy of 22.0 mpg. The trip computer was a bit more ambitious, registering 23.8 mpg, but given that I used two different gasoline pumps, some variation is to be expected.

And now that I’ve driven a Hellcat that way for 235 miles and four-and-a-half hours, I’m never going to drive one that way again. Because Hellcat.