From the May 2023 issue of Car and Driver.
WHAT IT IS
Does an electric muscle car still sound shocking? Well, Dodge appears to be making one. The next Charger is a muscular two-door with styling cues from its second-generation ’60s namesake and a powertrain from the future—or at least, the leading edge of the present.
WHY IT MATTERS
We would have bet that Dodge would be the last gas-burning holdout, striping 11s on internal-combustion island as the automotive market quietly whirred and recharged around it. Instead, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis declared the “brotherhood of muscle,” going forward, will be battery-powered.
PLATFORM
Beneath the Charger’s bulked-up body is Stellantis’s STLA Large platform.
POWERTRAIN
The entry-level Charger 340 gets a 400-volt propulsion system and 455 horsepower, while the midrange 440 (the electric Scat Pack, if you will) boasts 590 horsepower. Both models can receive over-the-air horsepower bumps through Dodge Direct Connection, and a multi-speed transmission is promised.
The top Banshee model will have an 800-volt architecture, and we predict that if the lesser models don’t have two motors, the Banshee will. The horsepower rating is a secret, but Dodge promises the Banshee will eclipse the gas-powered Hellcat in all performance metrics. That includes sound, with the Charger EV’s amplifying chamber “exhaust” tuned to 126 decibels.
COMPETITION
Nothing on the market hits the same pressure points as the Charger EV. The Mustang Mach-E is quick, domestic, and wears a muscle-car name, but its SUV body puts it in a different category.
WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG
The Mopar faithful might come carrying pitchforks and torches and burn the Stellantis castle to the ground before they accept an electric muscle car.
ESTIMATED ARRIVAL AND PRICE
If the stars align, we could see the Charger EV in 2024 with a starting price somewhere around that of a current 392 Hemi model; expect to pay at least $50K.
Senior Editor, Features
Like a sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Scherr didn’t know her calling at a young age. Like many girls, she planned to be a vet-astronaut-artist, and came closest to that last one by attending UCLA art school. She painted images of cars, but did not own one. Elana reluctantly got a driver’s license at age 21 and discovered that she not only loved cars and wanted to drive them, but that other people loved cars and wanted to read about them, which meant somebody had to write about them. Since receiving activation codes, Elana has written for numerous car magazines and websites, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsports, and new-car reviews.
