Standing behind the new Dodge Charger is a strange experience. There's no getting away from the rumbling sound—it's just too loud to miss—but the noise doesn't come from exhaust pipes. It doesn't need any, since it has no engine.
Instead, the lower portion of the Dodge Charger Daytona's rear bumper is essentially an array of sound equipment. Put your hand on it and you can feel the vibrations. Hell, you can even feel it through the leg of your pants if you stand close enough. It's a bit like being next to a speaker at a concert. But what comes out of it isn't music; instead, it's the simulated roars, thrums and pops of a Hemi V8.
Absolutely none of this is necessary on an electric vehicle. But this system, the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, perfectly epitomizes this new Charger: a car that attempts to go electric without losing any of what legions of Mopar fans loved.
In many ways, Dodge pulled this off. The Charger Daytona is as viscerally fast and fun as its gas-powered predecessors. But in trying so hard to follow that fuel-chugging muscle-car template, Dodge didn't exactly deliver a great EV.
(Full Disclosure: Dodge sent us a Charger Daytona EV for a week for testing.)
Dodge Charger Daytona: What Is It?
The new Charger is one answer to a difficult challenge facing many so-called "legacy" automakers: How do they take products that've been successful for decades and translate them for the electrified era?
And the gas-powered Charger and Challenger have been successful. They redefined the entire Dodge brand.
Today, when you think of Dodge, you probably think of old-school American V8 muscle and not the boring, business-dad Stratus and Intrepid sedans that were in every other driveway of my neighborhood growing up. With more than 3 million Chargers and Challengers sold, 20 years of starring roles in scores of movies and TV shows and dedicated fans all over the world, Dodge's modern muscle car nameplates have become too big to walk away from.
But the world is changing. The future is electric and hybrid, even if it's not happening as quickly as expected. That puts a lineup of cars defined by their gas engines in a tricky position. The Hemi V8 engine is what made the Charger and Challenger what they are—the noise, the speed, the tuning potential, all of it. Where is that supposed to go in a world powered by batteries?
Dodge's answer is to stick to that proven formula as closely as possible, even if the Hemi has been swapped for a 100.5 kilowatt-hour battery pack and some electric motors. The lineup has been reborn as the newly christened Charger Daytona. For now, it's only offered as a two-door coupe, but a sedan version is forthcoming. (They're all Chargers now; the Challenger name has been retired, again.)
At launch, they could be had in base R/T form with 496 horsepower or as a 670-hp Scat Pack model, like my tester. The less-powerful version hasn't been much of a hit, so Dodge will drop the R/T for 2026. For now, both come with dual-motor all-wheel drive standard.
Electric range goes as high as 308 miles for the R/T, and up to 241 miles for the Scat Pack. Add the Track Package and summer tires and that drops to 216 miles. A powerful inline-six variant is coming soon for those unwilling to go fully electric, but I can't say I find that terribly appealing on any level. If I wanted a BMW engine, I'd buy a BMW, not a fat Dodge.
The numbers for the Charger are as solid as ever. Capable of doing zero to 60 mph in just 3.3 seconds and the quarter mile in 11.5 seconds, the Charger Daytona Scat Pack immediately trounces nearly all of the old gas-powered Mopar models. Not bad at all for a first electric outing, and we know more powerful versions are coming, hopefully to dethrone the Demon.
Yet the performance of EVs is beyond dispute in 2025. Dodge had to do more than just make a fast car to convince the so-called "Brotherhood of Muscle" to get onboard with electric power. And that's where things get tricky.
Dodge Charger Daytona: Driving Experience
First and foremost, I have to say it was refreshing to drive an electric coupe. I'm not sure I'd ever driven one before this. The American EV landscape is so dominated by crossovers that it was a delight to be in something with just two doors that's so long and low to the ground.
But the Charger Daytona is no lightweight sports car. The Scat Pack's 5,916-pound curb weight makes it properly beefy—for context, that's about 1,500 pounds more than a Challenger SRT Hellcat, and heavier than EV crossovers like the Tesla Model Y or Chevy Blazer EV. But I can't say it handled dissimilarly to the many gas-powered Chargers and Challengers I tested over the years. It's squishy in the corners, it looms large in traffic and it's no fun to wheel into tight parking spaces.
Like the old Hemi V8 cars, none of that matters when you hit the throttle. Forget everything else about this car, every bit of criticism and controversy about it, and know this: the thing is fast. Stupid fast. Not scary fast, like the first time I drove a Challenger Hellcat in the rain; thank the AWD for that. But fast enough to get you into real trouble. Fast enough to have you doing stupid stuff in no time. Even by modern EV standards, the acceleration here is crushing and violent. Also: who cares if it can't do a burnout? It's all-wheel-drive. My old Subaru WRX couldn't do that, either, and it was plenty of fun. Deal with it.
The Power Shot button on the steering wheel gives you 15 seconds of the full 670 horsepower, complete with these dramatic countdown graphics flashing across the driver's display screen. It's all very theatrical and over-the-top; maybe you can get your traffic cop to warm up to it too, in exchange for not writing you that speeding ticket.
Then again, speed alone isn't a selling point for EVs. It just isn't. A Chevy Blazer EV SS will do the 0-60 dash in about the same time. So will the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. The Tesla Model 3 Performance has this thing beat by almost a half-second. Speed is cheap in the electric world. Fun as the Charger Daytona is, fast ain't that special.
EV fans may scoff at the idea of simulating engine sounds, and the hardcore V8 crowd may feel the exact same way. As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust experience and noises throughout the cabin. It adds a level of intensity and fun to the driving experience here, escalating in tone and volume as you cycle through driving modes like Track, Drag and Drift. A Stealth mode setting in the infotainment screen switches it off entirely, if you want. But I loved getting that soundtrack with none of the emissions guilt.
But the experience falls down in other ways. The suspension can't handle all that weight, especially when the straights give way to a more winding road. And it feels genuinely under-braked for the power it has. Hey, Dodge: call the guys at Brembo and order a size up next time.
Then there's the EV stuff. The Charger Daytona offers no simulated gear shifts to go with the engine sounds like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N does—it's a less complete-feeling experience overall compared to that vehicle. And without gears to shift, that Fratzonic sound can stay fairly constant, which feels weird.
Also, don't expect any true, smooth one-pedal driving here; you can dial up regenerative braking levels using paddles on the steering wheel, but the strongest setting isn't enough to bring the car to a stop on its own. It feels tuned to drive more like a gas car than an EV, like Dodge knew its fans didn't want that experience and didn't bother.
There were a few times I had to stop and wonder: Does this car exist because the people at Dodge wanted to do it, or because they felt they had to do it?
Dodge Charger Daytona: Exterior And Interior
At least the design team wasn't playing around here. Real talk, the Charger Daytona looks great, from pretty much every angle. It's a handsome evolution from the old Challenger, almost 1970s in vibe to that car's 1960s' feel.
The centerpiece is that hood-mounted "R-wing" aero treatment that combines heritage, style and extra EV range. The coupe body's midsection does look a bit elongated since it was clearly made to be a sedan as well. Just don't expect much in the way of a frunk here; that front end was still designed to carry some kind of engine.
The interior is much more of a mixed bag. On the Scat Pack, it's a hodgepodge of Alcantara, soft-touch materials and objectively cheap-feeling hard plastics. I remember the upper trims of the old Challenger feeling a bit more premium than this does, especially for the price. On the plus side, the back seat is pretty voluminous for a coupe, owing again to its sedan intentions.
In fact, it's so roomy that we easily fit four tires and wheels for video chief Mike Roselli's Chevrolet SS sedan in the back by folding the seats down—better, even, than the Audi SQ6 E-tron crossover he carried them in earlier. Who says you need an SUV?
Dodge Charger Daytona: EV Range, Charging And Tech
My Scat Pack Track Package tester (technically a 2024 model year car) was EPA-rated at 241 miles of range. When I picked it up in New York City on a late March evening, it read 222 miles at a 98% charge; not terrible, considering the temperatures were in the low 40s and dropped more as I drove upstate.
Range in the mid-200s isn't exactly mind-blowing, but this is a high-performance vehicle. It's not like the gas cars this thing replaces had amazing fuel economy. Still, the Charger Daytona mostly delivered what it promised. Efficiency was in the low 2-miles-per-kWh range, far lower than an average electric SUV but not surprising given the weather and the fact that I was driving the hell out of it every chance I got. Some owners have reported seeing well over three miles per kWh in warmer temperatures.
Charging was much more of a mixed bag. The max DC fast-charging rate here is an unusual 183 kW when hooked up to a 350 kW fast-charger. Supposedly, that's good for going from 20% to 80% in 27 minutes.
When Mike tried it, his first session at an Electrify America 350 kW station failed after going from 20% to 36%. His speeds were all over the place; it's unclear if the charger or the Charger was at fault. A second attempt fared better, hitting 183 kW speeds right away. But things slowed down considerably after that, dropping to 40 kW by just 55%. That experience dragged on longer than expected.
I've seen several charging tests from other outlets and YouTube channels with mixed results, to put it politely. The Charger Daytona has a 400-volt electrical system, a big battery to fill up and it's one of the first EVs on a new platform—I think this stuff could use some work. Dodge says a faster "Banshee" version with an 800-volt architecture is coming to claim the muscle car crown, but we'll have to see if that plan is still on track.
I also can't say I was dazzled by the tech experience. The menus and graphics look fantastically hi-res, but the car's software was often laggy and buggy. And good luck if you try to make sense of its power consumption graphs, for example.
Much like the first-generation Toyota bZ4X, the EV parts of this car can feel like an afterthought, or something created by people who are just new to this ballgame. We'll see if over-the-air updates can smooth any of this out.
Dodge Charger Daytona: Pricing And Verdict
One point of contention with the Dodge fans so far is how much these cars jumped in price when they went electric. A basic Charger Dayton R/T started at a little under $60,000. My fully-loaded Scat Pack Track Package tester came in at a whopping $85,965, including destination fees.
Did I enjoy driving the Charger Daytona? You bet your ass I did. Do I have a hard time recommending you spend $86,000 of your own money on this vehicle? Unfortunately, that's also a yes.
In the end, we're kind of left with an odd animal here. And Dodge seems to know it. The marketing around this car openly and aggressively scoffs at the idea of EVs in general. Dodge's own website for the new Charger Daytona seems to go out of its way to not mention it's electric. Sales haven't been great. The R/T is already DOA.
And given changes in the upper ranks at parent company Stellantis, gleefully, the Hemi V8 is coming back; Dodge hasn't confirmed it for this car but I'd put money on it.
I certainly get why. Most everyone in the auto industry agrees that the future is electric, but the details of when and how we get there are murkier than ever. Everyone who builds cars is still figuring out what works and what doesn't. Maybe old-school American muscle does have a place in that future; maybe it needs to take a different form.
I hope Dodge doesn't give up here, because it's probably doomed as a brand if it does. Maybe there's a newer, better way to create a future for American EV performance than being so married to the old Charger and Challenger model of things. Maybe Dodge needs to think outside the box a bit more. We've seen flashes of that before. It can be done.
Even if Dodge has seen tremendous success in modern times by drawing on its past, that past doesn't need to define its future. And the Charger Daytona can feel a little too beholden to that past sometimes to work.
Gallery: 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona EV Scat Pack Track Package
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
