Dodge

Dodge

Company type	Private (1900–28) Division (1928–present)
Industry	Automotive
Founded	December 14, 1900; 123 years ago (1900-12-14) (as Dodge Brothers Company) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Founders	John Francis Dodge Horace Elgin Dodge
Fate	Acquired by Chrysler Corporation in 1928
Headquarters	Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S.
Area served	North America South America Europe Middle East Angola Brunei Egypt Philippines
Key people	Timothy Kuniskis, president and CEO of Dodge brand[1]
Products	Cars, SUVs, vans/minivans
Parent	Stellantis North America
Website	dodge.com

Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis North America, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above Plymouth.

Founded as the Dodge Brothers Company machine shop by brothers Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis Dodge in the early 1900s,^[2] Dodge was originally a supplier of parts and assemblies to Detroit-based automakers like Ford. They began building complete automobiles under the "Dodge Brothers" brand in 1914, predating the founding of the Chrysler Corporation. The factory located in Hamtramck, Michigan was the Dodge main factory from 1910 until it closed in January 1980. John Dodge died from the Spanish flu in January 1920, having lungs weakened by tuberculosis 20 years earlier.^[3] Horace died in December of the same year, perhaps weakened by the Spanish flu, but the cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver. Their company was sold by their families to Dillon, Read & Co. in 1925 before being sold to Chrysler in 1928.

Dodge's mainstay vehicles were trucks, full-sized passenger cars through the 1970s, and it also built compact cars such as the 1963 through 1976 Dart and midsize as well as such as the "B-Body" Coronet and Charger from 1965 until 1978.

The 1973 oil embargo caused American "gas guzzler" sales to slump, prompting Chrysler to develop the Dodge Aries K platform compact and midsize cars for the 1981 model year. The K platform and its derivatives are credited with reviving Chrysler's business in the 1980s. One example was the Dodge Caravan. During the 1990s the Dodge Stratus found many buyers along with the larger Dodge Intrepid.

The Dodge brand continued through multiple ownership changes of Chrysler Corporation from 1998 until 2009. These included its merger with Daimler-Benz AG between 1998 and 2007.^[4] Chrysler was subsequently sold by Daimler-Benz to Cerberus Capital Management. It went through the effects of the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis on the United States resulting in the Chrysler Chapter 11 reorganization and ultimately being acquired by Fiat.

In 2011, Dodge and its sub-brands, Dodge Ram and Dodge Viper, were separated. Dodge announced that the Viper was to be an SRT product, and Ram a standalone marque. In 2014, SRT was merged back into Dodge. Later that year, the Chrysler Group was renamed FCA US LLC, coinciding with the merger of Fiat S.p.A.. The Chrysler Group was integrated into the corporate structure of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Subsequently, another merger occurred on January 16, 2021, between FCA and the PSA Group to form Stellantis, making the Dutch-domiciled automaker the second largest in Europe, after Volkswagen.