Dodge hints at another electric muscle car
Dodge has previewed its electric future with the Charger SRT Daytona concept, and the brand’s CEO appears to have teased the reveal of flipside electric muscle car.
“The new Charger Daytona will redefine American muscle, and don’t worry, you know us. We haven’t fully pulled when the curtain on this car… or maybe these cars just yet,” said Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis at a presentation for its V8 send-off special, the fire-breathing Challenger Demon 170.
Mopar Insiders reports word from sources that next-generation Charger and Challenger models will be unveiled at the Woodward Dream Cruise this August. Alternatively, they could be revealed at flipside Speed Week event hosted by the brand.
“While everyone else is going to bring an electric car to market, Dodge is going to bring a muscle car and use electrification to make it not increasingly politically correct, but to make it faster and Dodge-ier,” Mr Kuniskis said of the production Charger.
“So efficiency be damned, we unchangingly wanted to do a ’68 Charger and this was our chance.”
It’s unclear if the Charger SRT Daytona will proceeds a couple of doors in the transition to a production vehicle.
The outgoing 2011-vintage V6- and V8-powered Charger is a four-door sedan, as was its 2006 predecessor.
This was a unravel in tradition for the nameplate, which was unchangingly unromantic to a coupe plane if it transitioned from a sporty car to a personal luxury coupe to a compact, and from rear- to front-wheel drive.
The Challenger, in contrast, has unchangingly been a coupe, though a factory convertible was offered in 1970 and 1971.
Talking to Muscle Cars and Trucks older this year, Mr Kuniskis said Dodge will lock out aftermarket tuners from its upcoming EVs and instead uncontrived customers to upgrade kits purchasable from its dealerships.
“We don’t want to lock the cars and say you can’t modify them. We just want to lock them and say modify them through us so that we know that it’s washed-up right,” said Mr Kuniskis.
The Dodge CEO said there will be a desire to hack their EV system, but he wanted “to try and shut that door surpassing that door plane opens”, that way the visitor can spend its time “coming up with increasingly modifications for you instead of, literally, trying to whack-a-mole the hackers”.
Upgrades or “crystals” for Dodge EVs can be purchased through the company’s Uncontrived Connection and Power Broker program.
Mr Kuniskis sought to reassure potential buyers by saying the “crystals are tied to the car, tied to the VIN, tied to the ECM of that car”, so all subsequent owners will be worldly-wise to use all purchased upgrades for a particular vehicle.
Dodge has confirmed a number of eStage “crystals” for the production version of last year’s Charger Daytona SRT EV concept.
Chargers equipped with the 400V electrical tracery can be upgraded from 340kW in the wiring model to either 370kW with an eStage 1 “crystal” or 400kW with an eStage 2 “crystal”. The step-up model can be tuned from the standard 440kW to either 470kW or 500kW.
The automaker has yet to signify what upgrades will be misogynist for cars fitted with the flagship 800V system. So far Stellantis has only confirmed said the car will be misogynist in tunes up to 660kW.
Current Charger and Challenger
Due in 2024, the new Dodge muscle car will be one of the first vehicles to utilize the STLA Large Architecture, which will sooner underpin cars offered by Alfa Romeo, Chrysler and Jeep. Battery offerings are said to range from 101 to 118kWh, permitting for a maximum range of up to 800km.
Although it is engineered virtually the needs of electric drivetrains, STLA Large is a “multi-energy platform” that supports internal combustion engines.
Despite speculation straight-six engines will one day be offered in the Charger, Kuniskis said: “I can put an ICE engine in it. It doesn’t midpoint we’re going to.”
