Change is inevitable. It comes simpler to some than others, and for Dodge, change has been robust. It has been 19 months because the Charger Daytona SRT EV Idea debuted, pointing the best way towards the corporate’s electrified future. And now that future is right here with the 2024 Charger Daytona, billed because the world’s first electrical muscle automotive.
Whether or not patrons settle for prompt electrical torque over a raucous V-Eight stays to be seen. However on the Charger Daytona debut occasion, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis acknowledged the tough path dealing with the corporate. After 18 years of strolling tall on a spread of Hemi engines, he likened the EV transition at Dodge to racing in the direction of a wall the corporate could not keep away from.
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“We knew we had been heading in the direction of a wall,” he advised reporters on the occasion, utilizing drag racing as a metaphor for the state of affairs. “So we went full throttle, and pulled the chute simply earlier than the tip.”
This can be a reference to Dodge’s run of Final Name Chargers and Challengers, culminating with the Challenger Demon 170 and its factory-equipped parachute. Introduced concurrently the Daytona SRT Idea, the plan was to offer Dodge’s “brotherhood” an opportunity to just accept the electrical future whereas having fun with the Hemi’s final stand.
“They wanted that soak time,” mentioned Kuniskis, sticking with the drag racing analogy. “And [the Charger Daytona SRT Concept] was the manufacturing automotive, hiding in plain sight.”
To Dodge’s credit score, its first EV is not a compliance automotive. In range-topping Scat Pack trim, the 2024 Charger Daytona ought to attain 60 mph in 3.Three seconds and canopy a quarter-mile in 11.5 seconds. The automaker stakes a declare of getting the quickest and strongest muscle automotive on sale now, offered your definition of muscle automotive would not require a V-Eight engine to qualify.
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Judging by early responses on social media, it appears no quantity of “soak time” can be ample to transform some people. However as we have seen with BMW, criticism on the web would not essentially translate to poor gross sales. And for these not pleased with the electrical Charger Daytona, a 2025 Dodge Charger Sixpack comes subsequent yr with as much as 550 horsepower from a twin-turbo Hurricane straight-six engine.
So the Charger’s future is not totally electrical. However it’s absent a V-Eight engine for the primary time in almost twenty years. For a model that is thrived on Hemi energy, is that this an excessive amount of change for the Charger to outlive? Leap into the feedback, and tell us your take.