Not everything has to be an electric vehicle. I know it’s a crazy thing for the Deputy Editor of InsideEVs to say that, but me and Editor-in-Chief Patrick George talk about this often. The obsession with replacing gas sports cars and high-horsepower desert runners has led to a backlash, where people panic over folks “coming for their gas car.”
That’s not how we’re going to get people excited about this transition. And, frankly, neither is the Dodge Charger Daytona EV, as this review from MKBHD shows.
I don’t always agree with Marques’ car reviews—he’s made plenty of questionable statements and judgments on cars, generally over-focusing on his Tesla frame of reference, in my opinion—but he’s right about something here. He notes that the core selling proposition of this is as an electric muscle car. Yet it doesn’t really give muscle car fans what they want.
Muscle cars are supposed to be attainable, fast and fun. The Dodge Charger Daytona is expensive, with an as-tested price of $85,965. It’s quick, but in the age of EVs, a 0-60 sprint of 3.3 seconds isn’t anything special. A Tesla Model 3 Performance will blow its doors off, and a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N will out-sprint it, out-handle it and outlast it on the track for around $20,000 less.
That car also has a sophisticated approach to matching gas car noise and excitement. It simulates a Hyundai Elantra N’s 2.0-liter turbo from the speakers but uses a hilariously fun N Grin Shift system to allow you to truly shift it, with all the bucking, rev cutoffs and power-band changes you’d get in an actual dual-clutch gas car.
Dodge, meanwhile, solves the problem with brute force. The company uses a “Fratzonic” chambered exhaust system to amplify its digital sound, blasting it out of the back so it’s as loud outside as a real gasoline Charger. It’s questionable whether that’s a good thing to begin with. But Marques notes the real issue: Because the Charger doesn’t have a simulated gearbox, the noise just kinda drones on. It got annoying, so he shut it off.
Even if you keep it on, the core concept that muscle car fans will suddenly accept this vehicle based on it blasting out fake noise feels flawed. And if you really want a gas muscle car sound, in a package that looks like a gas muscle car, why not just buy one?
You can pick up a 5.0-liter Mustang or a gently used Challenger for a helluva lot less, or buy the inline-six Charger when it’s on sale. That one will also be able to do a burnout, while the Daytona seemingly can’t. For now, the EV version seems too heavy, too expensive and too dull to win over skeptics.
It’d be great if we could get those Charger-owning EV-haters into more efficient rides. But they’re small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. Let’s electrify the RAV4s and work truck F-150s of the world. We’ll worry about the Mustangs and Raptors later.
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