Video: 2024 Dodge Charger Up Close: Is This the Coolest American EV Yet?

There's gas options. There's a lot of options, and a lot to get through. Let's get started. First thing to know is that, yeah, the Challenger is dead. The Charger is going to be the new two-door coupe, so you can get a Charger two-door or a Charger four-door. Now, obviously there is a lot of homage in the styling to the 1968 Dodge Charger. You can see it in everything, from the overall shape, this body sideline, the front end, which has these hidden headlights, the rear end, which has the racetrack taillights. But there's a couple of styling elements on this vehicle that came from the 2022 Charger Daytona concept car, which we later found out really wasn't much of a concept car at all. It pretty much was 95% production already. The front end here, this is called the R Wing. It actually passes air through the grill and over the hood. You can do this because this is the electric version, so there isn't an engine up front and it really does enable you to have a lot more flexible packaging. Down the side, you've got the largest wheels and tires fitted to a Dodge Charger. These are 20" wheels and they're running 305 Series tires up front and 325 Series in the back. Those are super wide, but it allows this vehicle, in particular, the Scat Pack trim, to have a 16" brake rotor and a six-piston Brembo front brake and four-piston rear caliper. Those are absolutely enormous brakes, but then they kind of have to be, because the electric versions of the Chargers are actually kind of heavy, 5,800 pounds or so. That's because the batteries in these things are enormous. So what are they actually running under the hood? Well, let's have a look. So what is under the hood of the new Charger Daytona? (chuckling) Well, nothing! This is a 1.5 cubic foot frunk. You see, the Charger Daytona is the electric version. It's going to have two possible versions. This one is the R/T. It's gonna make up to 496 horsepower when it launches, with a Stage 1 kit, or you can get the Scat Pack, which goes up to 670 horsepower, which is going to come at launch with the Stage 2 modification kit as well. Eventually, those power numbers are gonna come down as these stage kits aren't going to be included when you buy the car from the factory, you gotta pay extra for those. But anyway, those are the electric versions. The Charger Sixpack is what is going to be the ice version. The twin-turbo charged 3-liter Hurricane Inline-six is going under the hood of the 2024 charger, and it is coming early in 2025. It's going to make up to 550 horsepower in a much lighter vehicle, so that could be a very interesting one to drive as well. It will also have an eight-speed automatic transmission and also all-wheel drive, but it will be able to be disconnected, so if you're just running along and you want to disconnect the front wheels from the all-wheel drive for better fuel economy, you'll be able to do that too. There's two things we need to talk about at the back end of the '24 Charger Daytona. First is down below. That is the Fratzonic chambered exhaust. It basically uses speakers attached to some air resonance chambers to create different noises associated with things like different drive modes or acceleration, or even sitting at a stoplight and revving the accelerator pedal. And one of the things I miss most about driving in a high-performance electric vehicle is the noise of a high-performance gas vehicle, quite frankly, so we'll see how this goes. Y'know, the jury's out. We have to drive it first. The second thing we need to talk about is this. All Chargers are now hatchbacks, the two-door and the four-door. And I ain't mad about it because this thing has 133% more cargo room than the outgoing Charger, 38.5 cubic feet of storage when both of these back seats are down. That's practically SUV utility in a really swoopy coupe. The interior of the new '24 Charger Daytona to me feels a little bit smaller, but Dodge says that dimensionally, it's actually pretty much about the same as the outgoing model, with the exception of three inches of less leg room for the backseat passengers. But the things to really notice about this interior are the new screens. Behind the steering wheel, you've got a 16" optional display cluster, and to the right of it, you've got a new 12.3" touchscreen running the latest Uconnect 5 on an Android operating system. Now, also check out that steering wheel. It's not round anymore. It's a squircle, as we call it. It's got a flat top and a bottom, but you kind of need that shape in order to see all of the information on the big rectangular 16" screen behind it. So it might take some getting used to, but it is there for a reason. You've got a bunch of different new upholsteries in here. You've got high back seats in this Scat Pack model. There are low back seats in the R/T, the base model, instead, and it is actually really quite comfortable. It doesn't feel quite as big as the old Challenger and Charger, but it's a little bit more intimate, a little bit more sporty, and I really quite like it. Take note of this ambient lighting. This is the new Attitude Adjustment Lighting, they're calling it. 64 colors, which really isn't all that new or novel, but the thing is it can do different things depending on what drive mode you're in, like changes color when you accelerate or when you open a door to warn vehicles coming up behind you that a door is open. It's pretty neat and it really does add to the wickedness of this interior design. The first Chargers to arrive late this summer are going to be the two coupes, the Scat Pack and the R/T, the electric versions. If you're looking for a four-door or you're looking for a gas model, those are gonna be coming early in 2025. We also don't know pricing just yet. That's still coming closer to the on-sale date later this summer, but when we learn that and when we go for a drive in this bad boy, you're gonna see all of that at cars.com. (no audio)