About 18 months in the past, Dodge confirmed off a wild Charger Daytona SRT Idea meant to ease the muscle automobile model’s shift from its V-8 previous to its electrical future. Huge guarantees have been made to hold on the spirit of combustion in an electrical bundle, from a synthetic exhaust observe to a multi-speed transmission and different oddities for an EV, together with a trendy however curious entrance wing.

It seems that wasn’t simply idea bluster from a efficiency model in transition. The idea was just about the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona that debuted on Tuesday, besides there can even be a gasoline model referred to as the Charger Sixpack.

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona

“That was the manufacturing automobile hiding in plain sight,” Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis instructed media assembled at a preview final week. “We needed to inform that brotherhood what we have been doing—they wanted that soak time—how we have been going to strategy electrified efficiency earlier than anybody else.”

The outcome, on paper and in particular person, is as spectacular because the idea. 

The important thing attribute carrying over from the idea is what Dodge calls the R-Wing bridging the nostril. It’s an “air impartial” characteristic over a nostril that dips down so low as to decrease the coefficient of drag. The wing creates a boxy body underscored by skinny daytime operating gentle throughout the size of the face earlier than curling up towards the wing. With out it, the nostril would mimic the prodigious proboscis of its inspiration, the 1968 Dodge Charger Daytona with the large nosecone and the 23-inch tall rear wing. 

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona

The visible width of the entrance and rear, with its signature racetrack rectangular lighting, shouldn’t be an phantasm. At 79.8 inches (with out mirrors), it’s practically 5 inches wider than the 2023 Dodge Charger. “It’s one of many widest automobiles on the highway wanting duallie vans to cowl these huge tires,” head of Dodge design Scott Krugger stated. The usual wheels on the bottom R/T are 18 inches in diameter, however the staggered tires on the Monitor Package deal unique to the Scat Pack include Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 305/35ZR20s up entrance on 11-inch vast wheels and 325s on 11.5-inch vast wheels in again.

That bundle additionally contains the biggest brake setup ever supplied on a manufacturing facility Dodge with 6-piston Brembo calipers up entrance and 4-piston calipers in again clamping down on 16.0-inch rotors entrance and rear. It appears needed for a automobile weighing 5,838 kilos and rocketing to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds.

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona

2024 Dodge Daytona energy and specs

“We’re gonna displace superchargers and substitute them with kilowatts and Energy Pictures,” Kuniskis stated. “The last word performer goes to be the Banshee (late in 2025) however we’re gonna have the bridge of ICE in there within the meantime.” 

That’s proper, a Charger powered by an inner combustion engine will return, nevertheless it gained’t be a V-8. A twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-6 with a selection of 420 hp or 550 hp will arrive within the first quarter of 2025 because the Charger Sixpack adopting the Hurricane engine utilized in Jeep and Ram merchandise.  

The battery electrical variations—badged Charger Daytona—arrive first, this summer time, and are anticipated to guide the cost in gross sales. 

Daytona fashions use a 100.5-kwh (93.5-kwh usable) lithium-ion battery pack serving two drive items with 250-kw everlasting magnet synchronous motors, one for every axle for traditional all-wheel drive. 

For the launch yr, Dodge contains its Energy Shot improve that gives an additional 40 hp of burst for 15-second intervals. It’s a sizzling button on the steering wheel to make use of once you don’t wish to fiddle with the drive mode button on the alternative facet of the wheel. It requires 30-second breathers between bursts. 

Subsequent yr, the Energy Shot will value further, and to be clear, Dodge manufacturers it the Direct Connection Stage 1 (R/T) or Stage 2 (Scat Pack) improve equipment. That brings the full output of the Charger Daytona R/T equipment to 496 hp and 404 lb-ft of torque. Dodge estimates a 0-60 mph time of 4.7 seconds, a quarter-mile of 13.1 seconds, and a prime velocity of 137 mph. 

The Daytona Scat Pack boosts output to 670 hp and 627 lb-ft. It specs out to a 0-60 mph time of three.3 seconds, a quarter-mile of 11.5 seconds, and a prime velocity of 134 mph.

The predecessor’s R/T and Scat Pack fashions had a 0-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds. 

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona

What about vary and effectivity?

“I don’t care,” Kuniskis stated. “It’s not designed to get you 500 miles of vary. That is designed to be the final word efficiency automobile till we come out with the Banshee, after all.”

But, the Charger Daytona is not any slouch relating to vary. The R/T is EPA-estimated at 317 miles of vary with 20-inch wheels. The Scat Pack charges at 260 miles, so long as you lay off the Energy Shot. 

Solely the Daytona Banshee anticipated in late 2025 could have the 2-speed transmission Dodge teased with the idea. 

The Charger Daytona R/T and Scat Pack have three ranges of regenerative braking through paddle shifters, however no one-pedal drive mode. There’s a launch management operate, after all. 

The entrance drive unit has a disconnect to chop energy to the wheels and enhance vary and effectivity, whereas the rear unit has a mechanical limited-slip differential for higher traction out of corners. Drive modes embody the same old suspects, whereas Scat Packs get Drag, Drift, and Donut modes that reduce or restrict energy to the entrance axle and neuter the traction management system. The Scat Pack Monitor Pack provides adaptive dampers to the multi-link entrance and rear suspensions, and in Drift mode the entrance dampers go comfortable and the rear dampers ratchet as much as the stiffest setting to induce oversteer. 

It additionally has an exhaust system, kind of. The chambered Fratzonic exhaust makes use of audio system beneath the physique which might be amplified by resonators, like a muffler resonator, then piped out of the exhaust. It’s augmented by electronics inside, and makes what Dodge calls “Hellcat ranges of sound.” It might vibrate the automobile like a V-8, or be silenced in stealth mode.

For the primary spherical of Charger Daytonas, the 400-volt structure helps a peak DC fast-charge price of 183 kw, enabling a 20-80% state of cost in about 28 minutes. At house on a Stage 2 240-volt connection, the Daytona’s 11-kw onboard charger replenishes the battery from 5-80% in about seven hours. In 2025, Dodge homeowners could have entry to Tesla’s Supercharger community. 

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona

How massive is the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona?

Using Stellantis’ STLA Massive multi-energy platform, the Dodge Charger Daytona occupies a bigger footprint than the outdated Charger, and starting in 2025, the three-door hatchback will probably be complemented by a five-door choice that regarded particularly putting on show in Peel Out orange, although the prototype lacked rear seats.  

The 2024 Charger Daytona extends half-a-foot longer than the outgoing gasoline Charger to 206.6 inches, and it has a 121-inch wheelbase (1.0 inch longer than its predecessor). It doesn’t translate to that rather more room for passengers, although cargo room will increase significantly because of the hatch as a substitute of a trunk, 133% extra, in response to Dodge. There’s a shallow however lengthy 23.0 cubic ft of house within the hatch, which has a hidden flooring, and patrons will have the ability to fold down the 60:40-split rear seats to open up a crossover-like 38.5 cubic ft of house, roomy sufficient to suit a set of 4 observe tires, Dodge recommended.

The rear seats is perhaps finest folded down, no less than for taller folks. Up entrance, headroom is ample, even with the accessible fixed-glass roof, however in again, it might crimp the stream of 6-footers. Rear legroom of 37.2 inches matches most compact crossovers, so it’s cheap to suit 4 passengers within the three-door mannequin. Because the five-door mannequin simply strikes the B-pillars up, we count on will probably be cosy in again for bigger folks.  

The Charger Daytona is an inch taller than its predecessor at 59.0 inches, and the bottom clearance will increase from 5.2 to five.6 inches, however that’s to accommodate the big battery pack within the flooring. 

2024 Dodge Charger Daytona

How a lot is the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona?

We gained’t know till nearer its summer time launch date, however we count on the Daytona R/T to value about $55,000 and the Scat Pack to come back in round $70,000. Battery manufacturing is anticipated to maneuver from Korea to Kokomo, Ind., in 2025, so the electrical muscle automobile made in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, then ought to qualify for the federal EV tax credit score.