Why the All-Electric Dodge Charger Matters

Seeing and Hearing the New Dodge Charger Daytona EV in Person

The annual State Fair of Texas offers more than deep-fried Twinkies and carnival rides. It’s also home to the Texas Auto Show. This year, I tackled Interstate 35, currently suffering from a case of traffic barrel infestation that seems to be spreading throughout central Texas. Nevertheless, I pressed through the traffic and construction zone debris to attend the Texas Auto Show media day. Among the exciting and anticipated 2025 model year vehicles on display, one in particular has been gnawing at my curiosity since 2023.

Dodge’s all-new generation Charger Daytona, the dubbed electric muscle car.

Those who have read my work or known me longer than 5 minutes have noticed that I’m a diehard fan of fuel chugging V8 engines. I love the way they sound and can boil the blood into an adrenaline frenzy moments after you start one up and hear it idle.

I even love saying “V8” as it slips through the lips like silk on buttery smooth skin. So, when Dodge announced the end of its famed Hemi V8 and announced an all-electric powertrain under the Charger nameplate, I, like many, was skeptical and angry.

A few years back, I wrote an article denouncing the concept of an all-electric muscle car with the righteousness of a Southern Baptist preacher who had just read Nicki Minaj’s song lyrics.

However, 2024 has given me ample reasons to be constantly irritated by the state of the world. As a result, I’ve been trying to adopt a more Zen-like mindset, making efforts to gradually train and remind myself not to be outraged by things I have no control over.

The exhaustion witnessed in people who are hell-bent on a one-way opinionative mindset serves as an abundance of cautionary tales to avoid. One can be open-minded without being labeled, which is ironic considering many social debates revolve around new labels created to replace existing labels and calling it progress. But I digress.

I decided to keep an open mind and wait until I saw this electric muscle car in person before passing judgment.

The Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack

The example on display at this year’s Texas Auto Show is a white 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack. This all-electric variant features a Direct Connection Stage 2 upgrade distinguishable by a remastered Scat Pack Rumble Bee emblem on its front fender, symbolizing an increase from the standard Daytona R/T’s 496 horsepower to 670 hp and 627 pound-feet of torque.

Other performance options included the Track Pack, which allows the Daytona Scat Pack to sprint from zero to 60 in 3.3 seconds and sprint down a quarter mile in 11.5 seconds.

Putting the power down to the wheels is a 400-volt dual-motor configuration with a mechanical limited-slip differential sending instant torque to the car’s standard all-wheel-drive system. One of its many signature features is the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, which provides users an adjustable soundtrack to Daytona’s performance. 

Dodge is releasing the all-electric models of the Charger first before the twin-turbocharged Hurricane 3.0L inline-six variants dubbed the “Six Pack” in 2025. These gasoline engines will offer a high-output tune of 550 horsepower. The new-gen Dodge Charger will also be available in two and four-door configurations.

Familiar Outrage

There hasn’t been this many all-caps written opinions about the Dodge Charger since the mid-2000s, when Dodge announced that the Charger would be returning as a four-door sedan. Back then, my preteen self partook in the outrage while doodling flying General Lees on my notebooks in 6th grade.

Yes, saying the words electric muscle car produces a sour taste like a mouth full of vegan barbeque. But how much of that is based only on nostalgia and tradition? The “muscle car” genre is merely a marketing tool invented to promote high-performance vehicles. Technically, any vehicle with enough torque to smoke its tires could qualify as a “muscle” car. In the same way, any vehicle with a slightly raised ride height and more than two seat belts suddenly qualifies as a crossover SUV.

All-Electric Dodge Charger Makes a Good First Impression

I walked around the Charger Daytona EV, studying the design and mentally disagreeing with online comments describing the car as ugly and unbalanced. People need to realize that the Daytona is not meant to be a retro retelling of the late 1960s. Yes, the design takes inspiration from the first, second and third generation Dodge Charger, but it isn’t meant to be reboot – it’s an evolution.

I like the long fastback roofline and rear LED light bar inspired by the first-gen 1966-67 Chargers. The hatchback trunk opening offers a new level of practicality, giving this performance car some family values. I like its full-size dimensions that command respect with a broad-shouldered wide-body stance and flared arches to house a series of available wheel/tire combinations. But my favorite angle of the car’s design is its front fascia with its nod to the second-gen 68-70 Chargers with a blackout “grille” and new R-Wing meant to channel airflow at the front.

I like that it looks like a muscle car.

Inside, the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona features an all-new interior with mood-enhanced ambient lighting and contemporary digital screens. These touchscreens providing easy access to the car’s selection of torque settings calibrated to scratch specific itches like Track Mode, Drift Mode, Drag Mode, Donut Mode, and Sport Mode. One interior design aspect I hope to see in the near future is an option to select a “classic” instrument gauge layout like the ’87-’93 Fox Body setting on the 2024 Ford Mustang. I’d love to drive while looking at a digital rendering of a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 140 mph speedometer.

It also features a modern interpretation of Mopar’s iconic pistol-grip shifter that looks like the handle of a sci-fi plasma pistol over the Dirty Harry-era magnum revolver wood grain finish.

Whether you love or hate it, you can appreciate Dodge’s effort in making an electric vehicle that appeals to muscle car enthusiasts.

Hearing the Sound of Silence

Listening to the Charger Daytona’s Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust soundtrack was an experience in itself. Even though videos showcasing the car’s electronic rumbles have debuted on social media, it’s hard to get an accurate representation when funneled through an iPhone speaker.

After listening to it in person, I can confidently say it sounds terrific. It starts up and idles in the same spirit of a V8 and revs like a synthesized tiger trying to scare off an intruder. 

Granted, the one missing piece of the puzzle is the vibration from feeling eight cylinders rocking and rolling in sync, but perhaps Mopar engineers will figure out a way to mimic the sensation using an air ride suspension and call it the “Shaker mode.”

Dodge, if you’re reading this, I have plenty of ideas. If you’d like, let me know, and I’ll send my resume.

Why This Car Matters

It’s easy to dismiss the car by mixing it with the toxic political sludge tainting every aspect of modern life. But I’m here to remind you that not everything is meant to be a statement or declaration of a proposed agenda. Sometimes it’s just a movie, just a car, just a product looking for an audience.

Whether you dismiss or champion this car because you think its electric powertrain symbolizes a mobile soapbox, you are wrong. This is not a politically charged (no pun intended) muscle car meant to challenge and change our emotional attachment to V8s. 

Who’s to say Dodge isn’t secretly working on a hybrid V8 concept? Or a Hemi-branded generator that can fuel an electric vehicle’s batteries to an 800-mile range and give people an authentic V8 sound with EV performance? Scrollable politics has infested and twisted our psyche into seeing everything through a with-me-or-against-me filter, and I’m sick of it.

I want to like the new Dodge Charger Daytona because it tries to be different. It’s not a rolling jelly bean with a non-existent dashboard, ridiculous yoke steering wheel, and lackluster driving dynamics promoting a generation of ignorant drivers like a certain EV automaker.

No, Dodge is trying to give you a cake and let you eat it too—even if it’s sugar-free. I don’t see it as the end of muscle cars, but it is a new chapter filled with hot rodding potential. After all, isn’t speed the underlying goal here?

If you disagree, it’s your free will, just as it’s mine, to ignore your comments.

Looking Forward to the Road Test

My honest first impression of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV is positive. I like the way it sounds and looks. However, the final hurdle will be the road test, where I’ll find out if it can channel the feel of the road into the driver’s seat and see if it sparks that little devil to sit on my shoulder and whisper naughty thoughts of encouragement to go faster in the name of fun. We’ll see.