The Dodge we know is gone. After a nearly two-decade renaissance sparked by the popularity of Charger and Challenger models and their increasingly potent V-8s, Dodge has given up on two banks of four cylinders. What stands in its place not only looks familiar but sounds familiar; a new retro-inspired muscle car with electric and internal combustion options available with either two or four doors. This is the next Dodge Charger, the flagship of the future of muscle cars.
Dodge may be done with V-8s for the foreseeable future, but every element of the new Charger can be traced back to the brand's history of eight-cylinder performance. You see it in the design, in the names of individual packages, and even in the sounds that the electric models make. This is a car meant to move muscle cars forward into their next age, but not one that is going to give up on what got Dodge here in the first place.
EV Muscle: The Charger Daytona
In 2024, your only Charger option is a two-door EV called the Charger Daytona. That comes in two variants built on a 400-volt architecture, a 340-kW R/T, and a 440-kW Scat Pack. Both come with standard power upgrades that Dodge calls Direct Connection Stage Kits in the first year, although less powerful versions of both variants will be available later. Look beyond the names and numbers of the past and you'll find that you can pick either a 496-hp model or a 670-hp model. Both come with standard all-wheel drive, as do all ICE-powered Chargers going forward.
The more powerful Scat Pack reaches 60 mph from a standstill in 3.3 seconds. It completes a quarter mile in 11.5 seconds, making it what Dodge calls the quickest and most powerful muscle car on the market. That claim might require a creative understanding of what is and is not a muscle car, but the performance is undeniably impressive for a nearly 6000-lb coupe. All those performance numbers, including the peak hp outputs, take into account the extra 40 hp delivered temporarily by the "PowerShot" button that debuted on the Charger Daytona EV concept.
Charger Daytona Electric Range
Range is another question. It's one that Dodge has chosen not to focus on with the Charger Daytona design. Tires come in at a massive 305 on the front and 325 on the rear, a clear sign that the brand has little to no interest in reducing rolling resistance. It is a muscle car, and muscle cars have never been about efficiency. Unfortunately, that means a Scat Pack gets an expected range of just 260 miles from its 100.5 kWh battery. The R/T comes in at 317 miles. Both can get from 20 percent to 80 percent of their expected range in just over 27 minutes on a properly functioning 350-kW fast charger, but growing crowds at still-unreliable charging stations make those super-fast public chargers more scarce than they may appear on a map.
That focus on visual impact over range is why the Charger Daytona EV looks like a Charger, not an EV. This is very important to Dodge, a company focused from the top down on the idea that its EVs are muscle cars in the same way its ICE-powered equivalents have always been known to be. That means the look is nothing like the rounded shape seen on EVs reducing drag at all costs, what Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis calls a "melted jelly bean."
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Charger Daytona Design and Styling
Through the "R-Wing" nose design that debuted on the Charger Daytona SRT EV concept two years ago, Dodge has effectively put a rounded nose behind a square one. It is basically a visual illusion, one that looks from most angles more like a hood scoop underneath a typical muscle car fascia than it does like a slippery shape.
Kuniskis says that the Daytona name on EV models comes from the rounded-nose design that reflects the original Charger Daytona, an "aero car" with a pointed nose and a massive wing that took NASCAR by storm. This is also an aero car of sorts, but a small wing built into what looks like a faux grille creates a distinctly different appearance. The final product looks more like the typical late-Sixties Charger coupes that also inspired the last generation of Charger four-doors, not the radical original Daytona.
Charger Daytona EV Sounds
Then, of course, there is the noise. Dodge has not yet shared a finalized version of the sound, but we know that all Charger Daytona EVs will feature a synthesized exhaust note called Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust. A version of that sound demoed in public back in February 2023 sounds a lot like a V-8. Dodge says that this provides driver feedback and "[enhances] the immersive in-car feel."
An Internal-Combustion Charger Daytona Is Coming, Too
While Dodge has no V-8s in its plans any time soon, the Charger is not done with internal combustion. As rumors suggested last year, Chargers will also be available with Hurricane inline-6 power. The six-cylinder Charger is available in 550 hp and 420 hp variants, called Sixpack H.O. and Sixpack S.O. respectively.
Unlike previous V-8 Chargers, the I-6 models come standard with all-wheel drive. Final performance figures and specifications for these models have not been released.
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Four-Door Body Options
Over its nearly two-decade-long previous generation, the Charger badge served as a more modern-looking sedan sold alongside a retro-styled coupe with a Challenger nameplate. The Challenger badge has been once again retired for 2024, leaving the Charger as the retro coupe. Dodge is not done making muscle cars with four doors, though; from 2025 on, you can also get the newest Charger as a sedan.
The four-door has a unique shape, more like an elongated coupe than a modern sedan. That allows Dodge to integrate more of the late-Sixties look into the sedan than in previous models, a decision that could be divisive among fans of the outgoing Charger sedan.
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Dodge Charger Banshee SRT
You may notice space at the top of the Charger lineup for something a little bit more extreme. A still-unrevealed Banshee SRT model is expected in 2025, but that car has not been unveiled just yet.
So far, we only know that the Banshee SRT will be an EV that features a unique 800-volt architecture. Kuniskis mentioned a Taycan-like gearbox is coming too, potentially something like the eRupt transmission seen on the Charger Daytona SRT concept. Everything else will have to wait until that car is revealed, but the Dodge brand's recent history suggests that those two things will come alongside overwhelming power and absurd straight-line performance.
Sedans, gas-powered models, lower-output EVs, and potentially even an ultimate SRT variant are coming in Q1 of 2025. Expect R/T and Scat Pack variants of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV to begin production in the middle of 2024.
