- Edmunds is midway through a one-year review of owning a Dodge Charger Daytona EV.
- Software gremlins have led to a lot of problems that ruin the experience.
- The reviewers say that they're sick of Dodge's electric muscle car.
The Dodge Charger Daytona EV has had a rough launch. Not in the cool kind of way that ends up in a burnout (it can't do one of those yet), but in the nobody wants to buy one and the ones who did are having problems way.
Edmunds recently published an update on its ownership experience with a few of its long-term road test cars. It used that opportunity to gave a rather scathing look at the reliability of Mopar's flagship EV muscle car. In fact, Edmunds went as far as to say that its "sick of" the Dodge Charger Daytona EV. Here's why.
The first sign of trouble was one that we've all heard far and wide by now: the curious case of "intentional" unintended acceleration.
Edmunds experienced Dodge's so-called drive-by-brake feature that caused the car to continue to accelerate when nobody was touching the pedal. Dodge's official response was that the feature was meant to prevent the car from becoming stuck should the accelerator pedal fail and to use the brake to stop the car. Edmunds' reviewers, as they should, continue to bring this up like the absolutely insane problem that it is.
Here's an excerpt from Edmund's original report on the acceleration issue that highlights even more bugs:
I was pulling out onto a thoroughfare street from a strip mall parking lot when warning lights appeared on the Charger's instrument panel for the stability control, frontal collision warning system, regenerative braking and more. There was also a short-lived message—it might have been something about the forward collision warning system—and that the car would be in low power mode
There's also latency in the powertrain. In a gar car, that might not seem too unheard of—and the Charger EV is trying to mimic the experience you get in a petrol-powered muscle car. But in an EV, one of the simple joys is the instant torque you get when smashing the accelerator pedal. It's just a small blip, but enough to feel clumsy.
But above all, software bugs are plaguing the driving experience.
Edmunds says at one point, it couldn't power down the car. The Charger EV eventually shut off in the hot sun and needed to be towed to a dealership. The service department replaced the car's 12-volt battery and couldn't replicate the problem.
The car even bricked itself mid-video with an error "service the electric vehicle system" displaying on the gauge cluster. But after putting the car in park and power cycling it, the car started up without an issue.
"These are problems we could maybe forgive if we actually liked the thing," said Edmunds' Clint Simone.
Edmunds isn't the only one with complaints about the Charger Daytona EV. Owners have reported numerous issues with software,e driving experience, and service. There's also a surprisingly high failure rate reported of 12-volt batteries (just like Edmunds experienced), resulting in lockouts or the so-called "red wrench of doom."
It's unfortunate for both Stellantis and the entire EV community. This was Dodge's chance to introduce a muscle car to enthusiasts willing to take a chance on the car. Instead of leaving owners and reviewers thrilled, it left many speechless for feelings of it being unreliable or just plain unremarkable.
Hopefully Dodge doesn't give up on the Charger EV because of the feedback its received on the car. The halo-trimmed Banshee is already reportedly gone, hopefully not due to a vote of no-confidence in the platform. If it uses this as a learning opportunity, the next-generation could be so much more—but only if its engineers can figure out the electrical gremlins.
