Folks, it's a strange feeling to get up in the morning, make your coffee, look out your kitchen window and see a Dodge muscle car parked in your driveway—with a plug running into your home Level 2 electric vehicle charger.
I can't say that's a sight I ever expected to see.
Yet it's my reality for the next few days as I test the Dodge Charger Daytona EV Scat Pack, Dodge's answer to this country's pervasive sleep pod problem. With 630 horsepower (and up to 670 hp in boost mode), dual-motor all-wheel-drive and a 3.3-second zero to 60 mph run, it's a serious performance machine—and a legitimately cushy, imposing American muscle car.
But is it a great EV? And can it really cross barriers with the Hemi-loving folks who may be a hard sell on going electric? That, I'm not so sure of. I'm going to try and find out. In the meantime, what do you want to know about it?
This thing's full name is, hilariously, the Charger Daytona Scat Pack Track Package. Its power comes from a 93.9 kWh battery pack, rated here at 241 miles of range (which isn't great these days, but is understandable for a high-performance car.) The Scat Pack is the current top trim of Charger you can buy; the lower-trim R/T is cheaper starting at $59,995 before destination fees, but you have to live with "only" 496 hp instead.
As press testers tend to be, this one is fairly maxed out in terms of options. The Scat Pack Stage 2, Plus Group and Track Package add-ons give you goodies like an adaptive suspension, Brembo brakes with red calipers, second-row heated seats, a wireless charging pad and more. All-in, this Charger stickers in at $85,965.
That's certainly steep, but it's undeniably quick. I drove the Charger Daytona EV home late last night after a work trip and it certainly kept me awake with the speaker-driven Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, which mimics the sound of a V8 rumble inside and outside the car. It's much more subtle inside, and even as someone who likes the quiet of driving electric, I didn't mind it at all. So far, I like what it adds to the experience.
As you'd imagine, it's extremely quick. Like, lose your license quick. Some EVs make you feel good about saving the planet; other EVs have you scanning for cops everywhere you drive. This is the latter. It's also very refreshing to drive an EV coupe—have I ever done that? I'd have to think about it—and one that's low to the ground, unlike the endless sea of electric crossovers out there.
So far, however, I'm not a huge fan of the hard-feeling sport seats, the often laggy software interface, the haptic touch buttons around it or the unusual way it treats key EV features. The regenerative braking is grabby and awkward, for example, and its one-pedal driving is often far from smooth. It may be electric, but it's trying very, very hard to emulate the traditional Hemi V8 Dodge experience—perhaps to a fault.
Efficiency isn't so great, either. Between the late March upstate New York cold weather and the fact that I'm not exactly behaving behind the wheel, I finished my drive home at about 1.8 miles per kWh. I may or may not try to get that figure up a little higher.
I know this thing has proven controversial with the Mopar crowd, and I get why. Even Dodge will admit that battery power isn't really the jam for the Hemi folks—and it's worth asking whether Dodge built this thing because it wanted to, or because it felt like it had to. But I actually really enjoy driving it so far. Will that be the case after a few days? We're about to find out.
In the meantime, what do you want to know about the new electric Charger? Drop me a note in the comments or shoot me an email.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
