As every automaker doing business in the United States shifts their lineup to battery-electric power, the majority of brands are introducing boring crossovers that all look the same, but Dodge is doing things differently. Earlier this week, Dodge introduced their first battery-electric vehicle (BEV) and it is totally unlike any other EV on the market – introducing the world to the first electric muscle car and proving that a BEV doesn’t have to be a boring people mover.

When Dodge first introduced the new Charger Daytona SRT^® Banshee Concept back in 2022, many people questioned whether a production version would actually look like that stunning concept car. While the SRT Banshee has not yet been introduced in production form, we can tell by looking at the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona in R/T and Scat Pack trim that the exterior designers of the production car stayed true to the form of the original concept. From the overall silhouette to the finer details, such as the signature front and rear LED lighting, the unique R-Wing and the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, the production version brings the original concept vision to life in grand fashion. The result is a stunning modern muscle car with very obvious design cues that hearken back to the 1970 Charger.

The 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona looks great and, more importantly, it doesn’t look like any other EV on the market today. Literally every other mass-produced electric vehicle on sale today is either a sedan or a crossover and they all share the same profile, one which the Dodge team refers to as a melting jelly bean. The new Charger looks like a muscle car, but that is just the tip of the iceberg, as the newest Dodge doesn’t just look like a proper muscle car – it performs like one and even roars like one.

Next Generation of Dodge Muscle

When the new Dodge Charger Daytona coupe comes to market later this year for the 2024 model year, it will be offered in two trim levels – R/T and Scat Pack. In base form, the R/T offers 340 kW of power (456 horsepower) while the base Scat Pack delivers 440 kW (590 horsepower), but for the first model year of the new Dodge electric muscle car, the brand has opted to include Direct Connection stage kits as standard equipment. The 2024 Charger Daytona R/T comes standard with the Direct Connection stage 1 kit, leading to 496 horsepower and 404 lb-ft of torque, while the new Charger Daytona Scat Pack comes standard with the Direct Connection stage 2 kit, yielding 500 kW – or 670 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque. These cars both utilize a 400V system with a 100.5 kW battery pack and an electronic drive module (EDM) at each axle, leading to the superior traction abilities of all-wheel-drive.

For the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T, the Direct Connection-aided power output leads to a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds and a standard quarter-mile time of 13.1 seconds. As for the Scat Pack with the Direct Connection stage 2 upgrade, it sprints from a stop to 60 miles per hour in just 3.3 seconds while covering the quarter-mile in 11.5 seconds. Best of all, thanks to the instant torque hit coupled with the advanced all-wheel-drive system and the PowerShot system, the performance numbers of the 2024 Charger Daytona coupe will be easily repeatable on less-than-ideal surfaces.

After being launched with the Direct Connection stage kits as standard equipment for 2024, the Dodge Charger Daytona coupe lineup will expand in 2025 to include the full range of power levels for the
R/T and Scat Pack models, with a base package, Direct Connection stage 1 and Direct Connection stage 2. As mentioned above, the Charger Daytona R/T will come standard with 340 kW/456 horsepower, stage 1 delivers the same 370 kW/496 horsepower as the 2024 models and the stage 2 package leads to 400 kW/56 horsepower. The Charger Daytona Scat Pack will come with 440 kW/590 horsepower in base form, stage 1 delivers 470 kW/630 horsepower and stage 2 is the same as the 2024 models, with 500 kW/670 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque.

So the new Dodge Charger Daytona looks like a muscle car, sounds like a muscle car and accelerates like a muscle car, but the team didn’t want this to be a pure straight-line monster. The R/T and Scat Pack both come with uniquely tuned monotube dampers, with the Scat Pack featuring slightly stiffer settings for improved handling and a sportier feel. The Scat Pack can also be upgraded with the Track Pack, which adds dual-valve, semi-active suspension setup with adaptive damping that varies based on the drive mode chosen.

Speaking of drive modes, the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T comes with Auto, Eco, Sport, Wet/Snow and Track modes, while the Scat Pack also offers Drag, Donut and Drift. Most of those modes have been featured in past Dodge models, so it is pretty self-explanatory what Auto, Eco, Sport, Wet/Snow, Track and Drag modes do, but Donut and Drift are obviously new to the lineup. Donut mode is basically a burnout mode, allowing the rear tires to spin while the front tires remain stationary, allowing the driver to do slow, rotating burnouts – or donuts. Drift mode offers several different slip angle settings, allowing the driver to force oversteer make the car slide while spinning all four tires.

Next, the team added braking systems that offer regenerative charging along with excellent stopping force on both models. The Charger Daytona R/T comes with 354mm front and 350mm rear rotors under standard 18×8-inch wheels. The Charger Daytona Scat Pack comes standard with 380mm front and 360mm rear rotors under 20×11-inch wheels, but the optional Track Pack adds 410mm rotors to the front and rear. For those who aren’t familiar with the metric system, 410mm converts to 16.1 inches, making these brakes the biggest that have ever come from the factory on any Dodge Charger. For the 2024 model year Charger Daytona Scat Pack, those big 16.1-inch brakes come standard.

The Track Pack also adds staggered wheels, measuring 20×11 up front and 20×11.5 out back, with 305mm-wide tires in the front and 325mm-wide tires in the rear. That is the largest wheel-and-tire package ever offered on any Dodge Charger, and those huge rollers help the 670-horsepower electric muscle car grip the surface on a hard launch on the drag strip or when cutting through the corners of a road course. Furthering the on-track capabilities of the new Charger Daytona Scat Pack are the Line Lock, Launch Control and Race Prep systems, with Race Prep providing optimal battery conditions for either drag racing or road course racing:

“With energy demand shorter in drag racing, the Race Prep system supports optimum energy output through a warmer battery. Track-racing needs require a longer energy drain which heats the battery, prompting the Race Prep system to achieve a colder start temperature, allowing more time for the battery to heat up and allowing for more track time. Race Prep pages include information on the battery level, thermal level and the time remaining for the battery to achieve race readiness.”

Range and Charging Times

Another big question by many is “how far will they go and how long does it take to charge?” The Dodge Charger Daytona R/T has a range of 317 miles and the Scat Pack has a range of 260 miles. As for charging times, that is a bit more detailed. EV specifications list charging time by how long it takes to go from 5% battery power to 80% and how long it takes to go from 20% to 80%. Charging either of the 400V Dodge Charger Daytona models with the on-board, level 2 system will take about 7 hours to get from 5% to 80%, while 20% to 80% will take about 5.5 hours. For the Scat Pack, 80% of 260 miles is 208 miles, so if the battery is very low – around 5% – charging the car for 7 hours with the standard system will get you up over 200 miles of range. For the R/T, that same charging scenario will lead to about 254 miles of range (provided that you stop at 80%), but in short, if you plug the car in at 11pm, by the time you are ready to leave for work the next morning, the level 2 (AC) charging system will have your car fully charged.

For those who need more juice in a hurry, level 3 (DC) stations are dramatically quicker. A 175 kW DC charger will get the new Charger Daytona R/T and Scat Pack from 5% to 80% in about 52 minutes (or 42 minutes to go from 20% to 80%) and with a 350 kW charging station, going from 5% to 80% takes just over a half-hour (or just under a half-hour to get from 20% to 80%). To put it in the most basic terms possible, when using the 350 kW fast-charging station, the Charger Daytona R/T will gain about 9.9 miles per minute of charging, while the Scat Pack will gain about 8.1 miles per minute.

A High-Tech, High-Performance Cabin

Finally, the design team created a cockpit-like cabin layout for the new Dodge Charger Daytona that is fitting of a futuristic muscle car, once again followed the path set forth by the SRT Banshee Concept. This starts with a new steering wheel design that has a flat top and bottom, with an array of buttons to control vehicle performance and interior functions. Beyond that unique steering wheel is a configurable digital gauge cluster, measuring 10.25 inches in the R/T and 16 inches in the Scat Pack, with information from the cluster being broadcast in the driver’s line of sight by the new head-up display.

To the right of the steering wheel is a 12.3-inch infotainment screen that runs on the newest version of the award-winning Uconnect^® 5 software, so new Charger Daytona owners will have the latest and greatest interior gadgetry on the market. An Alpine 9-speaker system with 506 watts is standard in both the R/T and Scat Pack, but there is also a 914-watt, 18-speaker premium Alpine system offered as an option. Finally, the last piece of unique interior technology is what Dodge calls “Attitude Adjustment interior lighting”, which uses a stream of LEDs that flow 270 degrees around the cabin to create the ultimate custom feel, allowing the driver to choose between 64 different colors with varying brightness.

Aside from the technology, the interior of the new Dodge Charger Daytona has a very sporty feel, starting with the overall shape of the cabin. The dashboard has a linear design that flows seamlessly around into the door panels and this line is accentuated by the Attitude Adjustment lighting. This form wraps around the driver and passenger, but the design of the center console and the angle of the infotainment screen really bolster the driver-centric cockpit feel.

The standard front bucket seats have a sporty look to them, but the Scat Pack is available with racing-inspired seats that feature a fixed headrest and pass-through areas for a racing harness. When you opt for the Demonic Red leather on those racing-inspired seats, the overall feel of the cabin almost has a supercar feel to it, serving as a beautiful evolutionary change from the previous generation of Dodge muscle.

Daytona Sedan and the Six Pack

After the 2024 model year Dodge Charger Daytona is offered strictly in coupe form, the lineup will expand to include a sedan in early 2025. The sedan will share all of the same mechanical features as the coupe, so performance numbers and range should be relatively similar whether you buy your 2025 Charger Daytona with two or four doors.

The Charger Daytona coupe and sedan will also be joined by the Charger Six Pack in early 2025, which will feature the Hurricane twin-turbocharged inline-six engine with options of 420 or 550 horsepower. We will get full details on the Charger Daytona sedan and Six Pack models once we get closer to 2025, but for now, we only have the most basic preliminary information mentioned above.