By Edward A. Sanchez — March 5, 2024
If there was one car that could wear the term “Anti-Tesla” with rebellious pride, it would probably be one of the many loud and proud variants of the Dodge Charger or Challenger. With thundering Hemi V8s, wide fenders, and retina-searing paintjobs, there was nothing discreet or low-key about these models.
Well, the days of the modern-day Hemi are officially over, with the last light-duty variant having been built, and the last Hemi-equipped car rolled off the line in Brampton. Still unknown is if the 6.4 will live on in the Ram HD or not. That’s a post for another time.
Stellantis first showed its vision for post-Hemi muscle in August 2022, lifting the sheet on the undeniably eye-catching Charger Daytona SRT concept. The concept promised performance matching or surpassing that of its Hemi-powered counterparts, and true to Dodge form, a noisemaking “Fratzonic exhaust” system making as much as 126 dB of noise. Naturally, the concept made an encore appearance at the 2022 SEMA show.
Today, we finally get a look at the production-intent version of the Charger. For the most part, it carries over all of the attitude shown in the concept, including the Fratzonic exhaust, Hellcat-beating (but not class-leading) 0-60 mph performance, and plenty of enthusiast-oriented bells and whistles to play with.
Among the many toys offered include a Donut Mode, Drift Mode, “Line Lock” disabling the front motor to allow burnouts, the requisite Performance Pages displaying auxiliary gauges, g-force, timers, and other readouts, as well as a “Power Shot” function.
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Getting down to the numbers, the Charger will launch in two trims, R/T and Scat Pack. All Chargers will be all-wheel drive, presumably including the ICE models (more on that in a moment). The R/T will feature a combined standard output of 456 hp and 404 lb-ft of torque, with a 40-hp boost in Power Shot mode. The Scat Pack features 590 hp and 627 lb-ft, with an 80-hp boost in Power Shot mode. Stellantis is claiming a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds on the R/T and 3.3 seconds on the Scat Pack model. The battery is 100.5 kWh total capacity (93.9 kWh useable). Range on the R/T is a claimed 317 miles, and 260 miles on the Scat Pack.
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The EV variants of the Charger will hit the market first in mid-2024. Four-door and internal-combustion models powered by the 3.0L Hurricane twin-turbo I-6, which will be offered initially in 420-hp and 550-hp variants, will go on-sale in early 2025.
Let’s be clear – at least in its initial announced variants, the Charger will not dethrone the Model S Plaid, nor the Lucid Air Sapphire, for that matter. We also don’t have pricing yet. Currently, the Plaid retails for $91,630, including $1,390 destination charge. Pricing has not been announced for these variants of the Charger, but if I had to guess, high $40,000s to low $50,000s for the R/T, and mid-$60,000s to low $70,000s for the Scat Pack. If that’s the case, the Charger and the Plaid are likely not even in the same class.
I’m not going to say a Model S and Charger will never be cross-shopped, since they’re both large liftbacks. But in terms of positioning, marketing, and personality, they’re certainly designed to appeal to different demographics and psychographics, particularly if you’re looking at the Charger’s traditional customer base.
The big question for me is whether the Charger’s boisterous attitude and enthusiasts-oriented styling and features are enough to win over EV skeptics and turn them into EV converts, or if the EV models are going to gather dust on dealer lots until the Hurricane models start shipping. More than any other model in recent memory, the new Charger will test enthusiasts’ receptiveness to mainstream performance EVs.
(Images courtesy Stellantis)