Where Are Chrysler 5.7 Hemi Engines Made & How Much Horsepower Do They Produce?

Chrysler's HEMI engine design dates back to the first-generation Hemi produced in the early 1950s. The Trenton Engine Plant, located in Trenton, Michigan, built U.S. production hemispherical combustion chamber engines (from which the HEMI brand name derives) from 1952 through the 1970s, including the famed 426 HEMI. While the 426 HEMI engine's short eight-year production run represents a small blip on the automotive history timeline, it cemented the HEMI name in the minds of performance cars for generations.

In June 2002, under the DaimlerChrysler banner, Chrysler's Saltillo Engine Plant, the same plant that now makes the Hurricane engine used in newer Ram, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles, began production of 5.7-liter HEMI V8. The Saltillo Engine Plant, located in Coahuila, Mexico, still produces 5.7-liter HEMI engines for Chrysler under the Stellantis banner for now, although the HEMI's days appear to be coming to an end.

The Saltillo Engine Plant opened in 1981 and now sits on 73.9 acres with 1.2 million square feet of floor space and employs 2,382 people as of April 2024, according to a press release from Stellantis. While the famed 426 HEMI isn't part of the Saltillo plant's legacy, the factory is responsible for bringing us the 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI Hellcat engine with 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque.

Early iterations of the 5.7-liter HEMI available in Ram 1500, 2500, and 3500 pickup trucks produced around 345 horsepower with 375 lb ft of torque. Other Chrysler products received a 335-horsepower version, but by 2008 the Chrysler 300C, Dodge Magnum R/T, and Charger R/T 5.7-liter HEMI powered vehicles received a power bump to 340 or 350 horsepower depending on the model.

By 2010, the 5.7-liter HEMI output increased to 390 horsepower and 407 lb ft of torque. In 2019, Ram introduced the eTorque 48-volt mild hybrid 5.7-liter HEMI. While power from either the standard 5.7 HEMI or the eTorque version was rated at 395 horsepower and 410 lb ft of torque, the combined fuel economy of the eTorque version jumped to 23 mpg, a 4-mpg increase over the standard 5.7-liter HEMI.

If you need more horsepower but don't want to do an engine swap, you could add a supercharger to your 5.7-liter HEMI. Hemispherical engines are notorious for responding to boost. It's one of the reasons the Hellcat HEMI is so powerful. A bolt-on supercharger from a company like ProCharger can add up to 160 horsepower to your 5.7-liter HEMI using premium pump gasoline with only 7 psi of boost.

Of course, increased horsepower usually has a negative impact on fuel economy, especially in a full-size pickup truck. So, whether or not you add a supercharger, you could benefit from these simple tricks to increase the fuel efficiency of your HEMI.