Dodge has never been a terribly forward-thinking company. Cars like the old Charger and Challenger were made to remind you of the glory days of the American muscle car. They had massive engines, were as big as medium-sized yachts and weren’t great at going around a corner. Now, the 110-year-old automaker is looking to change all of that with the introduction of the 2024 Charger Daytona EV.
The new Charger is being billed as the first electric muscle car (because you really shouldn’t count the Mustang Mach-E), so for the first time in a long time, Dodge is ahead of the curve. Still, while the Charger Daytona may have a thoroughly modern drivetrain that could make it feel like every other big EV out there if applied incorrectly, the engineers and designers at Dodge put in enough thoughtful, interesting and silly touches to make it feel like a real muscle car. I’m still not sure if the electric Charger actually is one or not, but this is about as close to an EV muscle car as you’re going to find.
Full Disclosure: Dodge flew me out to Phoenix, put me up in a nice hotel, fed me and let me loose at the Radford Racing School all so I could try out the 2024 Charger Daytona.
I spent a lot of time with both versions of the Charger Daytona that are currently being offered, the R/T Stage 1 and the Scat Pack Stage 2, both on track and on the road. The Daytona does a lot to make you think it’s a real, bona fide muscle car but, all of its muscle-y characteristics pale in comparison to its most muscle car attribute: the way it drives. What I mean by that is it’s damn fast in a straight line, and it all sort of falls apart in the corners. That’s what being a real muscle car is all about. The Charger Daytona is happiest in long sweepers rather than the tight stuff, and it’s very at home going in a straight line.
Dodge says the R/T’s dual-motor setup makes 456 horsepower (or 496 for 10 seconds when you hit the Power Shot button) and 404 lb-ft of torque. That’s enough to get this 5,698-pound, 206.6-inch-long liftback coupe from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.6 seconds. It’ll blast you down the quarter mile in 12.6 seconds, very solid for a “base model” car, and it’ll go on to a top speed of 135 mph. Oh, and you get a 308-mile EPA-estimated range from the 100.5-kWh battery.
The Scat Pack shares the motors as the R/T, just cranked up to 11 in this application. They pump out a combined 630 horsepower ( or 670 for 10 seconds when you hit the Power Shot button) and a whopping 627 lb-ft of torque. Range from the same-sized battery pack takes a hit to just 241 miles, but the 0-to-60 time drops to just 3.3 seconds and it can dispatch the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds, according to Dodge. Top speed stays the same at a gear-limited 135 mph. Trust me when I say it’s every bit as quick as Dodge says it is.
I was able to do a handful of drag strip runs, and even with my dogshit reaction time of 0.870 (I got distracted), I was able to get this 5,767-pound behemoth down the quarter-mile in 11.74 seconds at 118 mph. All the while the Fratzonic chambered exhaust was screaming behind me. Keep in mind that with me and my passenger included, the Scat Pack thing was probably clocking in around 6,200 pounds. It’s no slouch. I was, of course, aided by the Drag mode that loosens up from the front multi-link suspension, stiffens the rear multi-link and gives you full power, but still. My one gripe with the Charger’s speed is that you don’t feel it. I looked down at the speedometer climbing incredibly quickly, but I never felt like I was going that fast. I’m not sure what that’s all about — maybe I’m too jaded by even faster EVs.
Unfortunately, for how good it is on the drag strip and going down long sweepers on the road, the Charger Daytona starts to fall apart on a tight racetrack or really twisty back road. I didn’t drive the R/T on track, but I assume its characteristics would be similar or probably a bit worse than the Scat Pack. The Scat Pack’s steering is fine, sort of par for the course when it comes to heavy EVs, but it struggles mightily to get around turns. The front end likes to push, even in Track mode. The only way to really defeat that is by trailbraking, because giving it more power just washes it out more.
Another issue was feeling like I was struggling to hold on to the squircle steering wheel in high-G corners. The 12-way track seats are very comfy, but even with adjustable bolsters, they didn’t hold me in particularly well. I found myself clinging to the steering wheel just to stay upright. That’s not a great feeling when you’re pushing 100 mph going into a turn at Radford’s 0.70-mile handling course. Before the tires do finally give up, you’ve got a lot of grip thanks to the staggered Goodyear Eagle F1s measuring 305/35R20 up front and 325/35R20s out back. Still, on a hard launch, you can smoke the rears. It’s pretty sick if I’m being honest. To be fair, the old Charger and Challenger weren’t exactly track stars either, so you shouldn’t be too shocked to find out their successor, while vastly improved, still isn’t as nimble as a stripped-out Miata.
On the road, both cars are incredible cruisers. I’m most impressed with the Charger’s suspension. It might not translate perfectly to the track, but I found both cars to have an extremely comfortable ride over even the bumpiest roads Phoenix had to offer. It’s got quite a dual personality, as the Charger Daytona does in general. You can crank it up to Sport or Track mode and listen to that Fratzonic “exhaust” bellow, burble and vibrate, or you can click over to Auto and the whole thing quiets down to a very pleasant, near-luxury car driving experience. The fact it has a 121-inch wheelbase probably aids in its comfort. No, I don’t care if you think it’s too long. It should be even longer. While representing a new era of muscle cars, the new Charger still feels a hell of a lot like muscle cars of old.
I should take some time to talk about something I’ve already mentioned a couple of times: the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust. Love it or hate it, this is one of the centerpieces of Dodge’s new car. I’ll be honest, when I first heard it in concept form a few years ago, I wasn’t really in love. Let me tell you, it sounds much better in person. For those who are unfamiliar with this whole Fratzonic thing, I should mention it’s not just a speaker. Basically, it’s a whole system of chambers underneath the Charger Daytona joined with woofers and mid-range speakers. It’s supposed to be a mix of digital and analog noise, and it mostly gets there. As it turns out, the “Fratzog” name and logo aren’t new. They were around in the ‘60s through the early 1980s.
It might sound corny to say, but I swear it does a great job of making you forget you’re in an electric car. I’m not kidding, folks. There were a couple of times when I was driving down the road, “exhaust” screaming, and I forgot I was being driven along with electrons rather than a massive V8. That isn’t to say it just sounds like a regular ICE exhaust; it’s different. There are a lot of noises going on that sound somehow both from the past and future. And you know what? If you don’t like it there are plenty of other EVs out there that drive along silently. I think what I enjoy most about the exhaust, other than its wildly loud startup and shut-down noise, is the fact it’s a bit silly. This is a Dodge muscle car for Christ’s sake. It’s supposed to be silly. I’ll never get why people hate fun, even if it’s useless in most real-world applications. It’s a noise as loud as a Hellcat motor with a goofy name. How can you not like it?
The Charger has more serious behind-the-scenes stuff in addition to its silly bits. It’s built on Stellantis’ SLTA Large 400-volt architecture that is being shared across the company; I wish it was running an 800-volt like a lot of other modern EVs, but that won’t happen until the SRT Banshee model. Dodge says you can recharge the Charger’s 100.5-kWh battery (93.9 kWh of which is usable) at up to 183 kW on a 350-kW charger. That’s not exactly world-beating, but Dodge says it can charge from 5 to 80 percent in 32.5 minutes, which isn’t bad. With a standard Level 2 charger, that time balloons to 6.8 hours in both the R/T and Scat Pack. The R/T and Scat Pack’s 308 miles of range and 241 miles of range, respectively, aren’t world-beating, but when you’re moving this much tire and mass down the road, there’s only so much you can do. There are also a handful of regenerative braking levels to choose from, including full one-pedal driving.
Dodge’s engineers and designers spent a lot of time sculpting the new Charger Daytona to be as slippery as possible while cutting through the air to produce the best possible range numbers. What they got was a car that generated a hell of a lot of controversy. Some people dig the way this car looks, others hate it. I’m somewhere in the middle. I think its best angles are the front and rear head-on views. That’s where I see the most influence from Dodges gone by. Even the front three-quarter view isn’t too shabby. The only place where the design doesn’t really work for me is the back three-quarter area above the rear wheels. I just feel like some ratio is off, and it makes the rear wheels, which are very big, appear to be too small. Styling is always subjective, though, so your results may vary. Some of the more noticeable aero-focusing design cues can be found up front and out back. In front of the hood, Dodge put in this really neat R-Wing that channels air over the hood cleanly. Out back, the biggest thing you’ll notice is the fact it’s a liftback, and that’s so sick. Dodge did it to extend the roof and improve aerodynamics, and what it gives you is an absolutely huge trunk and opening. It makes you realize that all cars should be liftbacks.
Inside, the Charger Daytona is a far more modern-feeling car than the sedan and coupe it replaces. Of course, there are screens. Two, in fact. In the middle, there’s a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen running Stellantis’ Uconnect 5. As for the gauge cluster, all Scat Packs come with a rather massive 16-inch screen while lower-end R/Ts make do with a 10.25-inch screen, but the bigger one is optional. Regardless, all of this screeny-ness works pretty well. Layouts are clear and easy to understand, and you can put a ton of information in the gauge cluster. However, the system is a bit laggy for my liking. A few times I found myself double-clicking and ending up on the wrong menu because the flight took so long to register. Granted, these were all pre-production cars, so maybe that’ll get sorted out before launch. Who knows? Oh, there’s also a heads-up display that can give you whatever pertinent information you could want.
When it comes to other safety tech like a 360 camera, adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist, those are all pretty stellar too. I give Stellantis a lot of shit, but it quietly makes one of the best driver-assist suites in the automotive industry, which makes the Charger Daytona even more of a solid car for long-distance driving. Between the Level 2 automated driving system and comfy ass seats (whether they’re the base seats in the R/T or the tighter buckets of the Scat Pack), you can eat up miles in this thing.
The switchgear was pretty fine. I mean, it’s mostly stuff you’d find in other Stellantis products, so take that for whatever it’s worth. While almost everything is controlled through the touchscreen, some controls, like those for the climate system, are reserved for physical buttons. Well, they’re haptic, but I guess that’s better than nothing.
Overall, the rest of the interior is fairly nice. It’s not a luxury car, but it’s a huge upgrade over the previous Charger and Challenger. Materials choices are all pretty solid for a “muscle car.” The R/T I drove had a very neat 3D pattern on the door cards that gave it a nice look when the ambient lighting was turned on. It felt like hard, cheap plastic, but at least it looked cool. The Scat Packs all had a carbon-fiber-looking plastic in their place, which felt more premium but certainly not as distinctive. I also appreciate that even though this is Dodge’s most advanced vehicle ever, designers still found room for plenty of plastichrome. Don’t worry, muscle lovers, it’s still got a “Pistol Grip” shifter, even if the only thing you’re shifting is PRND.
Another thing the Charger Daytona does well is provide interior space. This thing is massive from the outside, so at least that continues inside. It’s not hyperbole when I sat this coupe has the roomiest back seat I’ve ever been in. Rear passengers in the coupe have 36.9 inches of headroom and 37.2 inches of legroom. It’s the same dimensions the four-door car will have, according to Dodge. No space is sacrificed up front, either. I had plenty of room for my 6-foot-1 frame. I did have some trouble finding a comfortable driving position, though. I would have liked it if the seats went down another half-inch or so. I am oddly shaped, so your results may vary. There’s also tons of cargo room. Dodge says the rear hatch can swallow 22.8 cubic feet of your things (37.4 cubes with the rear seats folded), and if that’s not enough, there’s a modest (and optional) frunk that can take a further 1.5 cubic feet, which is good enough for your charging cable, I guess.
You may be wondering just how much all of these electric muscle-y goodness costs. Well, folks, it ain’t cheap. The Charger Daytona R/T starts at $61,590, including destination and the mandatory Stage 1 Package, and the one I drove was $70,970 as tested. A bump up to the Scat Pack gets that price to $75,185, and if you add a few options like the mandatory $3,200 Stage 2 Package, the $4,995 Plus Group, the $2,995 Sun and Sound Package, the $3,495 Track Package and a few more odds and ends, you get an $85,965 as-tested price. That is a lot for a Dodge, but you do get a lot of performance, and you can count on the fact the cars will qualify for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit if you lease them — for now, at least. If those are prices you’re willing to pay, then good news: two-door Charger Daytonas are just starting to hit dealers as 2024 models for regulatory reasons. On January 1, they’ll switch to being 2025 models. We can expect to see the four-door Charger Daytona as well as the internal-combustion-powered Charger Sixpack sometime in the middle of 2025.
The entire time I was on this program, Dodge representatives and even its CEO talked to me about bringing the muscle car into the electric age and defeating “boring” electric cars. I think the folks who worked on this car got it most of the way there. It has all the right sounds, looks and performance of a real muscle car. My only issue is that it isn’t quite visceral enough. Sure, the Fratzonic exhaust helps a bit, but it’s still not all the way there. It doesn’t even matter if the Charger is sort of crappy on the track. Muscle cars are supposed to be like that. There’s just a lifelessness and refinement that comes with electric cars that makes it feel a bit, I don’t know, sterile. Still, for a car that shares its architecture with midsize crossovers, the Charger Daytona EV is a hell of a lot of fun. I’m just not quite sure if it’s a genuine article or a very impressive cosplay.
