Video: 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack: An Electric Muscle Car?

(pleasant music) Yes, this long, lean and well very large coop is the all new Dodge Charger Daytona, and it is all electric, but I did kind of bury the lead there in the beginning. There is going to be a gasoline motor available in the new Charger. That being the three liter Hurricane twin-turbo inline-six already available in the Jeep Wagoneer and some Ram trucks. But we're not here to talk about the gas power Chargers. You can read all about our previous news coverage of those on cars.com/news. Today we are just driving the electric Daytona, and like all Chargers and Challengers worth their street takeover cred, you can have the new Charger Daytona in a number of different power output configurations. This is the Daytona Scat Pack. That's right. The iconic name and badge makes a triumphant return. And as such, Dodge is calling this proudly a muscle car. And I'm sorry, Dodge, no V8, no muscle car. If all it takes to make something a muscle car is American DNA and a whole heck of a lot of power, then I guess we're gonna have to start calling every Tesla plaid a muscle car, every high spec Mustang Mach-E a muscle car, every, even the Lucid Air Sapphire a muscle car. Exactly. No V8, no muscle car. There's a lot of weight attached to this name, and there's a lot of brand equity involved with this name and the brand. So I get it. And you know, in their defense, they did put a whole heck of a lot of muscle car related themes and aesthetic and, well, I hate to call 'em gimmicks, but gimmicks like the fake sound, which we're gonna get to. So let's call this a muscle car themed EV. How about that? I'm certainly not throwing any water on the Scat Pack's amazing performance capabilities. Get the Scat Pack and you'll have dual electric motors fed by a 100.5 kilowatt hour battery that also feeds, well the current base trim of the all electric Daytona, which is the RT. We'll get to that later. But this one has 670 horsepower and 627 pounds-feet of torque. All that in symphony adds up to 3.3 seconds zero to 60. That's pretty quick. And an 11.5 quarter mile time, not quite Hellcat hot, but let's see your gas powered Scat Pack do that. And if that isn't enough performance for you psychos, Dodge has already confirmed hotter variants of the electric Charger Daytona, because of course they have, it's just a little amuse-bouche over here. But you know, already this is very serious stuff. We've got six piston front brakes. Well, at least on the first year cars will come standard with the track package, which has, other than the standard six piston brakes, adds four piston rear brakes, adaptive dampers staggered with tires and wheels, this slick little spoiler in the back, and it also adds donut and drift mode. (upbeat music) (tires squealing) One of the things I wasn't necessarily looking forward to into checking out the Daytona is that I know EVs can be so darn quiet, and I'm not a quiet person, so when I turn it on, I was kind of not expecting this. (Fratzonic rumbling) Wow. What the camera doesn't show or feel is how the whole car rumbled when that happened. And if I put it into track mode, it sounds even more aggressive like this. (Fratzonic roars) And from the outside, when you accelerate, it sounds like this. (Fratzonic roars) Anyways. Well, you're probably wondering what all that crazy soundtrack is all about, right? Okay. So Dodge calls that the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust, which so named for the Fratzog mascot emblem thing that they brought back, which is an emblem or design or motif most commonly associated with Dodges from the sixties and seventies. The sound itself is a digitally composed, duh, sound made up of, among other things, recordings from Dodge's own archive of cars, including, you know, old stuff like Chargers and Challengers, Darts and Coronets. It is pumped to your ears via two speakers mounted, well, in this general vicinity powered by a 600 watt amp. So yes, the electric fake sound car future that we all predicted would happen has come to pass. So how do I like it? Well, I'll put it this way. I'm happy that it has it rather than doesn't have it. And I do like this implementation better than Hyundai's simulated engine sounds and shifts available on the Hyundai IONIQ 5 N. However, I do think that the IONIQ 5 N's shift modes are a little bit more intuitive than just this simple soundtrack that's in this. Glad they put it in there. I'm not sure if I would drive around with it all day long. I don't know yet. More time is needed. Okay, now that we've calmed down a little bit, let's take stock of the styling and the design. I like it. Yeah, I especially have to say, I really do like the front hood wing pass through thingy, whatever that is. I also like the wheel design that they added to this. Pretty cool. And the braked stance, looks nice. How it drives, well that's easily the most important part of all this, isn't it? Well, it's undeniably quick, but 670 horsepower quick? I don't know. In sport mode, Dodge says 630 horsepower is available at all times, but hitting that power shot button on the steering wheel temporarily adds an extra 40 horsepower for the full 670 shebang. Honestly, outside of the off the line hole shot, acceleration drops off pretty noticeably to where your average pull at highway speeds feels more like it's got power in the 500s, not 670. I know that's kind of splitting hairs, but there's also some alarming accelerator lag on full throttle applications, with a good half second of delay before power kicks in. I'm not sure what that's all about, but you know, as these are pre-production vehicles, I'm gonna reserve full judgment for when I drive a dealer-ready example. Putting it in track mode from sport mode doesn't really help either. Surprisingly, that actually cuts base power to 536 horsepower, that Dodge says to extend on track usage. But that power shot button does free up the max power for the straights. But you know, the end result is something that feels much quicker than the old Hemi powered Scat Pack, but really far less visceral than any Hellcat. That Fratzonic exhaust also somewhat fades into a one note state in the background too, with most of the fun sound occurring at launch or low speeds. The Scat Pack's adaptive suspension is nice and on road handling is impressive for the Charger nameplate and size. I mean at over 5,800 pounds, It was never gonna handle like a 911. But those wide tires and clever chassis tuning does hide the sensation of bulk fairly well with surprising grip and agility. Steering is pretty quick and reactive, but it's also quite numb. Braking on the other hand, is strong and satisfying via the well tuned blend between regenerative braking and physical brakes. But chances are you're gonna drive like the EPA ain't watching, which means you're gonna burn through the Scat Pack's 241 miles of range or 216 miles of range if you spec yours with the summer tire package, which I suggest. If range is a concern, stick with the lower RT. It's got the same battery and it's still dual motor, but with a max of 496 horsepower and 308 miles of range if you spec it right. In RT trim, the Charger Daytona drivers can expect to see peak charging around 183 kilowatts, boosting state of charge from 20% to 80% in 24 minutes. Honestly, not the best set of figures associated with this generation of EVs, but this is likely the most interesting mainstream performance electric vehicle on the market. So get your priorities straight. Interior is a definite departure from last gen Chargers, mostly in a good way. Digital displays are the name of the game here with the Scat Pack's 16 inch driver display and model wide 12.3 inch center infotainment display handling most vehicle functions. Materials are pretty good, but not quite what you'd expect from a car that starts near $74,000. The design is recognizably that of a Charger, especially with that needle pistol grip shifter. Higher packages incorporates stuff like carbon fiber trim and different stitching options. So again, get your priorities straight and drive it for yourself before either making a decision or discounting it entirely. So has the all new Dodge Charger Daytona achieved what it has set out to achieve, that being to be the spiritual and direct replacement for the gas powered V8 Chargers and Challengers that we've known and loved for, oh gosh, almost 20 years now? I hate to give this non-answer, but I'm gonna have to say more time's needed. There is a lot that I like about this, but there's also a lot that I'm not the biggest fan of. These are pre-production. I think there's a few kinks to work out, but we also all need to filter this through the idea that this is the mid-range model, this is the mid-range performance. They've already confirmed a faster, hotter, more powerful SRT version to come in the near future, along with probably a version above that, we're gonna know more what we're working with with the Charger when the hotter versions come out, and when we do get our hands on them, you can read all about them on cars.com/news.