Dodge Charger EV shuns silence to build battery-powered muscle

DETROIT — The Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack roared as if loaded with a powerful gasoline engine when brand CEO Matt McAlear hit the accelerator a few times, debuting an "exhaust note" that brings a different flavor to the electric vehicle segment.

The Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust system, as Dodge calls it, shuns the near-silence of a typical EV to help capture the visceral sound and feel of its performance-driven persona.

As the brand begins its foray into eco-friendly muscle, Dodge is looking to retain its speed-monger image to convince fans of its Hellcats, Scat Packs and Demons of yesteryear to give its EVs a shot.

Dodge revealed the sounds of the chambered exhaust system Aug. 9 during the press preview of MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge, a yearly muscle car spectacle in suburban Detroit known for legal drag racing and thrill rides that let attendees drift in Charger and Challenger Hellcats with professional drivers.

The event demonstrated how Dodge is trying to step into an electrified future without losing its attitude, even as parent Stellantis sunsets the Hemi V-8 engines that were its bread and butter.

McAlear showed off the battle cry of the Charger EV, a critical element in the brand's mission to ensure the car not only looks like a Dodge but sounds like one, too. Meanwhile, Dodge deployed its Hornet R/T plug-in hybrid on an off-road rally course to assert that the compact crossover is more about speed and performance than practicality.

McAlear, who became CEO of Dodge in June, said he knows the electric Charger and its sound have skeptics. His request to those naysayers is to drive it first, believing the experience will change their minds.

"It's no secret to anyone ... the EV industry has changed a lot over the last year — consumer sentiment — and we're figuring out the right way to take this vehicle to market," McAlear told Automotive News. "But one of the things I'm superexcited about is we're not taking an EV to market, we're taking a muscle car to market; we're taking a better muscle car to market. We're taking a car that outperforms yesterday's Hellcat for less money."

The 2024 Charger Daytona Scat Pack has a 260-mile range, 670 hp and a 0-60 mph time of 3.3 seconds. It starts at $75,185 with shipping, compared with more than $87,000 for the 2023 Charger SRT Hellcat widebody with 717 hp.

The Charger Daytona lineup starts with the $61,590 R/T that offers 496 hp and a 317-mile range. Coupe versions will enter production this summer, followed in the first half of next year by four-door models, for which pricing hasn't been disclosed.

Those not ready for an EV can get the gasoline-powered two-door Sixpack H.O. and four-door Sixpack S.O. Those models are scheduled for the second half of 2025, a delay from the first-quarter timing announced earlier.

McAlear contends that the Charger Daytona variants will shatter perceptions of what an EV can be. He acknowledged, though, that this process will take time.

"It's easy to be negative, it's easy to push back and say I don't want to be an adopter," McAlear said. "But the first time somebody pulls up and the first time you see it, it's hard not to enjoy it. I think we're going to open up to a whole new group of consumers that are willing to give us a chance now, but I think as we move through the adoption, we bring out the four-door and we bring out the Sixpacks, it will happen over time."

He added: "Nothing happens overnight, but you slowly reach that tipping point and you slowly start making inroads and you start changing perception."

Because artificial EV sounds can be polarizing, the Charger Daytona's had to be authentic, McAlear said. Dodge didn't want to simply mimic a V-8, and it tried to avoid a "techno-electronic" noise that went too far.

The target was "underlying notes that people were familiar with, the beat of the firing of the traditional V-8, but in a way that was just unique, that doesn't sound sound synthesized or fake," McAlear said. "When you get behind the wheel for the first time, you hear it [and] you say: 'I don't know what it is, but I like it.' "