Earlier this week, Dodge announced the "Last Call" for its Charger and Challenger muscle cars. Today, we learn what's going to replace them, with the reveal of the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept. This concept car gives huge insight into what Dodge might look like when it turns to electric vehicles.
The styling leans hard on classic Mopar muscle, especially the 1968-1970 model Charger. The square nose is very much influenced by the 1970 model, and the LED lights surrounding the grille strengthen the effect. More vintage Charger is visible in the crease running through the front doors and into the rear quarter, with another LED light surround at the rear.
The roofline is a bit odd, but it does have a panoramic glass panel for a big view outside. This concept is also a hatchback, a very unusual move for the brand.
Dodge has hidden one big detail in that nose, called the R-Wing. Dodge likens it to the nose of the winged Daytona of the 1970s, but it's definitely not as bold. The R-Wing is an open grille that vents air through the nose and into hood vents where it moves over the cabin. Dodge uses the styling to keep its brand image, but the aero vents are functional to help enhance downforce.
The 800V electric powertrain called Banshee remains a mystery. It will have all-wheel drive, and it will accelerate harder than a V8 Hellcat, but that's about all we know.
To keep its V8 buyers happy, Dodge says the Charger concept will have "an electro-mechanical shifting experience that’s pure Dodge." The experience comes from a multi-speed transmission called eRupt that's programmed to make the car feel like it has old-school hard shifts between gears. Another feature for those V8 die-hards is called the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust. Dodge is extremely vague as to how it works but says that it is an exhaust system that gives the car a special new EV sound. That sound hits at 126 dB, as loud as a gas Hellcat.
The cabin has a wrap-around design with LED lights following that horseshoe. A texture higher up in the cabin is inspired by a 1968 Charger's grille detail, while the trim further down is carbon fibre with a circuit-board-inspired design.
A 12.3-inch centre screen is the largest Dodge has put in a vehicle yet, and at 16 inches, the driver's digital dash is nothing to laugh at either.
Transitioning from gas to electric isn't easy, but that rings more true for Dodge than for other automakers, which is the result of focusing entirely on extremely aggressive V8 power over the past decade. If the production car follows the path of this concept, Dodge should prove to be up to the task. The company's first EV is expected in 2024.
