Automotive

Some info from a Motor Trend test

On startup and shutdown, you can hear echoes of the Chrysler Turbine Car winding up. “Revving” in Park sounds like a sound effect from an ’80s arcade game. Idling and under load, the Daytona mimics a combustion car with a deep thrum as the original Hemi engine, which is them amped up to match the Hellcat Redeye when you set the Track and Drag modes. If this sounds like something a 16-year-old would do, isn’t that the point? 

You can switch it off if you hate it.

The two-motor, all-wheel-drive powertrain splits power and torque 50/50 between the front and rear axles. Weighed down by 5900 lbs of battery and body, the Charger Daytona won’t do a burnout even though it's quick. Software denies you the pleasure -- if you want to destroy the tires you can do it drifting around the parking lot instead.

 Bottom Line

The Charger Daytona is proof that Dodge remains completely unhinged. Stellantis, paid a record-high $236 million fine for failing to meet America’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations. The obvious fix for getting in the government’s good graces would be to build an EV (and hybrids, and four-cylinders, and smaller vehicles) for the crossover-loving masses. Something like a Ford Mustang Mach-E. 

Yet Dodge’s answer is a tail-wagging, eardrum-thumping, three-ton, two-door car that starts at $61,590. Uncle Sam might have twisted Dodge’s arm into building an EV, but it wasn’t a government stooge that dreamed up an electric tribute to America’s thirstiest performance cars with 670 horsepower and a Donut mode. That Dodge continues to do whatever the hell it wants, logic be damned, is exactly what we need from EVs right now.

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