Yahoo Autos 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Is an EV Muscle Car with up to 670 HP
The 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona represents the birth of the electric muscle car.
Dodge's first EV debuts with a two-door body style, standard all-wheel drive, and two trims: the R/T with up to 496 horsepower and the Scat Pack with up to 670 hp.
The Charger EV has a 400-volt architecture with a 93.9-kWh battery; Dodge is targeting 317 miles of range for the R/T and 260 miles for the Scat Pack.
Just because Ford slapped the Mustang logo on an electric vehicle doesn't mean it's the first EV muscle car. To the contrary, the Ford Mustang Mach-E is an SUV that appeals to the masses. Sure, it offers impressive performance, but the Mach-E has more in common with the Ford Explorer and F-150 Lightning than the pony car that inspired its name. Meanwhile, the Chevy Camaro is MIA, with no word on its future as an EV or otherwise.
That leaves the garage door open for Dodge, which has retired its famous Hemi V-8s for good and now looks to reinvent the muscle car. It's doing that with a new electric Charger that sets the brand on a different trajectory while still maintaining an atypical approach. What does that mean? Well, as Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis describes it, EVs are meant to be green and politically correct, but the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona is not.
The company's first electric vehicle was designed around the muscle-car ethos, putting performance and horsepower ratings ahead of efficiency and range estimates. That will be obvious when the first examples go on sale this fall. As Kuniskis put it during a media backgrounder before the reveal, "This is still the quickest and most powerful muscle car you can buy at launch."
Electric Chargers
For the 2024 model year, the Charger will only be available with an electric powertrain, which going forward applies to models with Daytona in their name. Every Charger uses the modular STLA Large platform, but the Daytona features a 400-volt electrical architecture. Next year, Dodge will introduce a max-performance SRT Banshee model with an 800-volt system and a two-speed transmission as well as Chargers with an internal-combustion engine. The latter "Sixpack" variants will use Stellantis's Hurricane twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, but here we're focusing on the EV Chargers.
The '24 Charger Daytona lineup will only be offered with a two-door body style; a four-door version is coming next year (more on that later). The familiar R/T and Scat Pack trim levels carry over from the outgoing generation. Both will have dual electric motors that provide standard all-wheel drive. The R/T will debut with up to 496 horsepower and 404 pound-feet of torque, and the Scat Pack will arrive with up to 670 horses and 627 pound-feet. However, those standard power peaks only apply to 2024 models, as every R/T comes with Dodge's Direct Connection Stage 1 package worth 40 horses; the Scat Pack has a Stage 2 kit worth 80 ponies. Next year, those will be optional and cost extra, so each car's base-level output will be lower.
To unlock the Daytona model's peak power, there's an overboost function called "Power Shot" that enables a 40-hp spurt for up to 15 seconds. Dodge says that while there's a 30-second delay between Power Shot activity, it can be used unlimited times until the battery runs dry. With a 93.9-kWh usable capacity, Dodge estimates the battery will deliver EPA-rated ranges of 317 miles for the R/T and 260 miles for the Scat Pack.
Along with an 11.0-kW onboard charger, the Daytona models offer a peak charge rate of 183 kilowatts when plugged into a 350-kW DC fast-charger. That connection is claimed to take the battery from 20 to 80 percent state of charge in about 28 minutes.
Performance Chargers
The biggest hurdle ahead of Dodge is convincing its loyal fans and others that an electric Charger is a better Charger. Giving it a big horsepower boost is a good start. The last V-8-powered Charger R/T had a 370-hp Hemi 5.7-liter, and the Scat Pack had a Hemi 6.4-liter with 485 ponies. Even without the Power Shot, their electric replacements still exceed those power figures.
The electric Chargers will be notably quicker than their predecessors too. Dodge claims the Daytona R/T will hit 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, and the Scat Pack model will do it in 3.3 seconds. At the drag strip, Dodge claims the duo will complete the quarter-mile in 13.1 seconds and 11.5 seconds, respectively. A 2019 Dodge Charger Scat Pack we tested hit 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and finished the quarter-mile in 12.2 ticks at 115 mph. The EVs' top speed is the only letdown, as the R/T is limited to 137 mph and the Scat Pack is capped at 134 mph.
