Dodge, maybe alone amongst modern automakers, has seen immense success in translating the archaic Twentieth-century Muscle Automobile system into the twenty first. It has carried out this by stuffing more and more outrageous iterations of its fashionable Hemi V8 into practically each automobile in its product line. Its fervent Hellcat-ing has been sufficient, surprisingly, to keep up steadily vigorous gross sales of its Challenger coupe and Charger sedan, 20-year-old automobiles aping 55-year-old designs and driving on platforms developed greater than 30 years in the past.
However these automobiles are lastly going away. They are going to be changed by flexible-powertrain two- and four-door fashions, each referred to as Charger, that shall be motivated, at launch in early 2025, solely by a 100.5 kWh battery pack and a pair of electrical motors. (And in the event you’re a Mopar nut however are dedicated to inside combustion, your muscle-car future means an inline-six engine, as in the event you had been a kind of guys whose whole wardrobe consists of ///M attire. Are you able to think about?) So how does Mopar’s methylized muscle-maker plan to persuade potential customers to purchase into such a blasphemous switcheroo?
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
To get lovers’ “butts-in-seats” and help with this electron baptism, Dodge is planning an entire sequence of occasions within the upcoming yr, mentioned Matt McAlear, the model’s CEO. It’s going to take its new EV muscle automobiles on tour within the first quarter of 2025 to coach its gross sales and dealership workers and reveal the automobiles’ capabilities. It’s launching a courtesy transportation program whereby it’s going to ship EVs to sellers to make use of for short-term client take a look at drives, or as 96-hour loaners when clients are available to have their automobile serviced. It’s going to host consumer-facing “Thrill Experience” drive occasions at upcoming Mecum and Barrett-Jackson basic automotive auctions, and at its drifting/drag racing “Roadkill Nights” stay occasions in the summertime–—prime websites for the gathering of Hemis of all vintages.
“Dodge is at all times greatest as a model when it does one thing totally different,” McAlear mentioned, referencing the automaker’s advertising slogan from the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Dodge Completely different. And he’s actually proper about convincing individuals with precise seat time and never simply adverts. Research after examine signifies that after individuals expertise EVs for themselves, or hear from family and friends who do, they’re much more more likely to pull the set off themselves.
Plus, he mentioned, this EV has the bona fides. “This automobile, it is a muscle automotive first. For those who take a look at the specs, the design, the aptitude, and take powertrain out of it, it’s a greater muscle automotive on paper than the automobiles it replaces,” he famous. “So whereas there’s a polarizing, controversial side to this—that it occurs to have an EV powertrain as one of many powertrains that’s going to energy it—nobody can argue the battery electrical expertise permits terrific efficiency, and that is what we’re bringing to market with this.”
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
To enunciate this level, McAlear identified that even after Dodge introduces ICE-powered iterations of the Charger within the second half of 2025, gasoline energy will characterize “the entry-level automobiles from a efficiency standpoint.” So if a possible client wishes a automotive with the quickest acceleration (0-60 in 3.3 seconds) they’ll be taught that that functionality is a battery-only choice.
This powertrain rollout and hierarchy is a acknowledged a part of Dodge’s technique for muscling the muscle automotive devoted towards EVs, in keeping with McAlear. One other prong on this program is to concentrate on added utility and day by day drivability, to create what Stellantis design chief Ralph Gilles referred to as “emotional alibis” to guide customers towards acceptance of this new product.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
McAlear listed a collection of capabilities that may present such cowl for what quantities to a extremely irrational and emotional buy. “All-wheel-drive, as an illustration, helps us compete extra within the North as a day by day driver,” he mentioned, referencing its all-weather functionality. “A hidden hatchback functionality provides you wonderful cargo area that you just didn’t have in your outdated automobile. The brand new Charger two-door now has extra rear-seat legroom than the outgoing four-door,” he mentioned. “So this turns into rather more of a day by day driver than any of the muscle automobiles that we have had prior.”
Will this litany of added performance persuade Dodge die-hards, who will obtain a defeatable artificial exhaust notice that’s as boisterous as that of the outgoing automotive, however no scent of unburned gasoline or capability to smoke the rear tires from a standstill?
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
“In all probability not instantly out of the gate,” McAlear mentioned. “It will take a while. It will take them seeing one on the road. It will take them getting in for service and testing one whereas they’re getting an oil change. However I’ve seen these individuals get behind the wheel and are available out with modified opinions.”
Nonetheless, convincing the devoted will not be the perfect tactic for furthering this automotive’s market penetration. “Although a muscle automotive and an electrical automobile appear diametrically opposed, there is a chance for electrification to amplify the thought, advantages, and aspirational nature of the muscle automotive,” mentioned Alexander Edwards, president of Strategic Imaginative and prescient, a Southern California automotive analysis and consulting agency. “Nonetheless, the conversion of these from the previous, I don’t consider is the perfect technique. As an alternative, a brand new era of muscle automobiles can discover success with youthful of us who assume they like muscle automobiles.”
Because it seems, Dodge has simply such customers in its targets. “For those who take a look at our present demographic right now, now we have the youngest demographic within the mainstream auto trade,” mentioned McAlear. “We have now the best proportion of Gen Z and Millennials. And people clients have the best propensity to be prepared to undertake electrification. In order that units us up.”
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
Dodge is perhaps onto one thing right here. Although muscle automotive looks like an anachronistic class to anybody who isn’t a Boomer, analysis exhibits that these automobiles have and keep broader attraction. “The fascinating factor with these automobiles, I feel, is that they’re much more long-lived than automobiles like tri-five [1955-57] Chevys, or different American automobiles of the period,” mentioned Brian Rabold, vp of valuation for Hagerty, the world’s largest insurer of collectible automobiles. “There are much more entry factors for youthful generations to grow to be taken with them—by way of driving video video games, by way of films just like the Quick and Livid franchise.” As Rabold notes, pop cultural publicity conjures curiosity and want, and interprets into purchases, whether or not these be outdated Polaras and Street Runners, or more moderen Fox Physique Mustangs and fourth-gen Firebirds.
Nonetheless, rumors have endured that curiosity in Dodge’s new muscular EV is much less sturdy than the model initially suspected and that it’s thus dashing the inline-six-powered iterations to complement this engagement. McAlear denies this categorically.
“That is what you name an city legend,” he mentioned. “Somebody put one factor on the Web. And if it is on the Web, it is true, proper?” He laughed, underlining his sarcasm. “We’re at all times making an attempt to carry each new automobile to market as rapidly as attainable,” he continued. “It would not do us any good from an R&D and a capital expenditure standpoint to carry gross sales any longer than now we have to. So nothing has modified with our timing.”
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
Total, as soon as each powertrains are available on the market, McAlear expects the combination of Charger consumers to section about evenly: half electrical, half gasoline. This aligns with Dodge’s present mixture of high-test Hemi- versus lesser-powered Challengers and Chargers. “If we glance traditionally at our V6 versus our efficiency V8, it was roughly 50/50,” McAlear mentioned. “So I nonetheless assume there’s a chance, over time—as adoption continues to occur, and as infrastructure is available in throughout the U.S. by way of charging functionality—I feel there’s the flexibility for this [EV] to beat a 50/50 combine.” (Dodge officers declined to deal with questions on demand or pre-orders, however mentioned they plan to stay versatile by way of manufacturing primarily based on client demand.)
If any marque is positioned to succeed with an electrical muscle automotive, it appears to be Mopar’s efficiency model. “Shoppers who personal the Charger and Challenger normally love their automobiles,” mentioned Edwards, whose agency conducts a whole lot of hundreds of in-depth psychographic surveys with new automotive consumers yearly. “Even those that by no means purchase a Dodge can typically agree that Dodge is an thrilling model that has loads to supply. If Dodge takes the place that they’re innovating pleasure, then this subsequent step could possibly be a doorway for Dodge’s electrical future.” He added one additional provision. “They simply should get the messaging proper.”
Photograph by: InsideEVs
2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV
McAlear and his groups appear to be fascinated about this fastidiously, calibrating their messaging to entice purchasers who could also be concurrently powertrain-aware and -agnostic. “Folks purchase a muscle automotive for a lot extra than simply what powers it. They purchase it due to the way it makes them really feel. It is an extension of their persona. It places a smile on their face. They’ve enjoyable being in it. They’ve enjoyable being seen it,” he mentioned. “So I feel that is what this automobile does. And it opens this as much as a a lot bigger demographic and viewers.”
After spending a while within the Daytona Charger EV, just lately, I felt prefer it succeeded in charting a freshly charged path into the moribund world of muscle automobiles. So Dodge seemingly has the product proper. And it has a historical past of making memorable messaging.
We’ll see if it could discover a magic recipe that yields outcomes from a youthful viewers open to this surprisingly compelling and venerable class.
Brett Berk is a contract automotive author primarily based in New York. He has pushed and reviewed hundreds of automobiles for Automobile and Driver and Street & Observe, the place he’s a contributing editor. He has additionally written for Architectural Digest, Billboard, ELLE Decor, Esquire, GQ, Journey + Leisure and Self-importance Truthful.
