About 18 months ago, Dodge showed a deer Charger Daytona SRT concept is intended to ease the muscle car brand’s transition from its V-8 past to its electric future. Big promises have been made about continuing the spirit of the internal combustion engine in an electric package, from a faux exhaust note to a multi-speed gearbox and other oddities for an electric vehicle, including a stylish but strange front wing.
It turns out that this wasn’t just concept chatter from a performance brand in transition. The concept was largely similar to the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona that debuted Tuesday, except there will also be a gasoline version called the Charger Sixpack.
2024 Dodge Charger Daytona
“This was the production car hiding in plain sight,” Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis told media gathered at a preview last week. “We had to tell this brotherhood before anyone else what we were doing — they needed that soaking time — how we were going to approach electrified performance.”
The result on paper and in person is just as impressive as the concept.
The most important feature carried over from the concept is what Dodge calls the “R-Wing” that bridges the nose. It is an “air neutral” function over a nose that drops so low that the drag coefficient drops. The wing forms a box-shaped frame, accentuated by thin daytime running lights running the length of the face before rolling up toward the wing. Without it, the nose would mimic the massive trunk of its inspiration, the 1968 Dodge Charger Daytona with the enormous nose cone and 23-inch-tall rear wing.
2024 Dodge Charger Daytona
The visual width of the front and rear with the characteristic rectangular racetrack lighting is no illusion. At 79.8 inches (excluding mirrors), it’s nearly five inches wider than the 2023 Dodge Charger. “It’s one of the widest vehicles on the road, aside from dual trucks that cover those huge tires,” said Scott Krugger, chief designer at Dodge. The base R/T’s standard wheels are 18 inches in diameter, but the Track Package’s staggered tires, exclusive to the Scat Pack, are Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 305/35ZR20 front on 11-inch wide wheels and 325s on 11.5 inch wide wheels – inch wide wheels at the rear.
This package also includes the largest brake setup ever offered on a production Dodge, with 6-piston front Brembo calipers and 4-piston rear calipers clamping to 16.0-inch front and rear brake discs . It seems necessary for a car that weighs 5,838 pounds and accelerates to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds.
2024 Dodge Charger Daytona
2024 Dodge Daytona Performance and Specifications
“We will be phasing out superchargers and replacing them with kilowatt and power shots,” Kuniskis said. “The ultimate performer will be the Banshee (late 2025), but in the meantime we will have ICE’s bridge there.”
That’s right, an internal combustion engine Charger will return, but it won’t be a V-8. A twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with a choice of 420 hp or 550 hp will arrive in the first quarter of 2025, when the Charger six-pack takes over Hurricane engine Used in Jeep and Ram products.
The battery-electric versions labeled “Charger Daytona” will hit the market first this summer and are expected to lead sales.
Daytona models use a 100.5 kWh lithium-ion battery (93.5 kWh usable) and power two drive units with 250 kW permanent magnet synchronous motors, one for each axle for standard four-wheel drive.
For the introductory year, Dodge is offering its Power Shot upgrade, which delivers an additional 40 horsepower in 15-second intervals. It’s a hot button on the steering wheel that you can use when you don’t want to fiddle with the drive mode button on the opposite side of the steering wheel. 30-second breathing pauses are required between thrusts.
Next year the Power Shot will cost extra, and to be clear, Dodge is calling it a Direct Connection Stage 1 (R/T) or Stage 2 (Scat Pack) upgrade kit. This brings the total output of the Charger Daytona R/T kit to 496 horsepower and 404 lb-ft of torque. Dodge estimates a 0-60 mph time of 4.7 seconds, a quarter-mile time of 13.1 seconds, and a top speed of 137 mph.
The Daytona Scat Pack increases output to 670 hp and 627 lb-ft. Acceleration time from 0 to 60 mph is 3.3 seconds, quarter mile is 11.5 seconds, and a top speed is 134 mph.
The previous R/T and Scat Pack models had a 0-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds.
2024 Dodge Charger Daytona
What about range and efficiency?
“I don’t care,” Kuniskis said. “It’s not designed to have a range of 500 miles. Of course, this should be the ultimate performance car until we release the Banshee.”
Nevertheless, the Charger Daytona is no problem when it comes to range. The EPA estimates the R/T’s range at 317 miles with 20-inch wheels. The Scat Pack has a range of 260 miles as long as you leave out the Power Shot.
Only the Daytona Banshee, expected in late 2025, will have the 2-speed transmission. Dodge is teasing the concept.
The Charger Daytona R/T and Scat Pack have three levels of regenerative braking via paddle shifters, but no one-pedal drive mode. Of course there is a launch control function.
The front drive unit features a disconnect to cut power to the wheels, improving range and efficiency, while the rear unit features a mechanical limited-slip differential for better traction out of corners. Driving modes include the usual suspects, while Scat Packs feature Drag, Drift and Donut modes that throttle or limit front axle power and neutralize the traction control system. The Scat Pack Track Pack adds adaptive dampers to the multi-link front and rear suspensions, and in Drift mode the front dampers soften and the rear dampers lock to the stiffest setting to create oversteer.
It also has some sort of exhaust system. The chambered Fratzonic exhaust uses speakers under the body that are amplified by resonators, such as a muffler resonator, and then routed out the exhaust. It’s complemented by the electronics inside, producing what Dodge calls “Hellcat noise levels.” It could the car vibrates like a V-8or silenced in stealth mode.
For the first round of Charger Daytonas, the 400-volt architecture supports a maximum DC fast charging rate of 183 kW, enabling a 20-80% state of charge in approximately 28 minutes. At home on a 240-volt Level 2 connection, the Daytona’s 11 kW onboard charger charges the battery from 5 to 80 percent in about seven hours. In 2025, Dodge owners will have access to Tesla’s Supercharger network.
2024 Dodge Charger Daytona
How big is the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona?
The Dodge Charger Daytona uses Stellantis’ STLA Large Multi-Energy platform and requires a larger footprint than the old Charger. From 2025, the three-door hatchback will be joined by a five-door option, which looked particularly striking at the exhibition in Peel Out orange, although the prototype had no rear seats.
The 2024 Charger Daytona is half a foot longer than the previous gasoline Charger at 206.6 inches and has a 121-inch wheelbase (1.0 inch longer than its predecessor). That doesn’t mean much more space for passengers, although the hatch instead of a trunk does increase cargo space significantly, by 133%, according to Dodge. There’s a flat but long 23.0 cubic feet of space in the hidden floor hatch, and buyers can fold down the 60:40-split rear seats to create a crossover-like, spacious 38.5 cubic feet of space. to mount a set of four-track tires, Dodge suggested.
At least for taller people, it might be best to fold down the rear seats. Headroom is adequate up front, even with the available fixed glass roof, but in the back it might restrict the flow of 6-foot seats. Rear legroom is in line with most compact crossovers at 37.2 inches, so it makes sense to fit four passengers in the three-door model. Since only the B-pillars of the five-door model are moved upwards, we assume that it will also be comfortable for taller people in the rear.
At 59.0 inches, the Charger Daytona is an inch taller than its predecessor and ground clearance increases from 5.2 to 5.6 inches, but that’s to accommodate the large battery pack in the floor.
2024 Dodge Charger Daytona
How much does the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona cost?
We won’t know until the summer, but we expect the Daytona R/T to cost around $55,000 and the Scat Pack around $70,000. Battery production is expected to move from Korea to Kokomo, Indiana in 2025, so the electric muscle car manufactured in Windsor, Ontario, Canada should then be eligible for the federal electric vehicle tax credit.
