Muscle cars are supposed to be going dodo again soon, right? At least, that's what every crusty muscle car gatekeeper on your online forum of choice on the matter tries to tell you every time he posts. There's no replacement for displacement, they tell you.
On the face of it, they might have a point. But what if the engine doing all the displacing is electric motors jetting a torrent of noise out the rear exhaust (an industry-first for an EV, they tell us)? This is the electric Dodge Charger Daytona SRT. From a certain point of view, it's the most important muscle car since the end of the first great renaisance in the early 1970s.The first all-electric Mopar muscle car concept may not be the freshest face at the 2023 New York International Auto Show, but still is a sight to behold.
The concept first made its global debut back in the summer of 2022 to a reaction of either utter elation or general indifference, depending on what side of the muscle car-purist fence one sat on. Some found the sound the Charger Daytona-line's chambered exhaust pipe produced to be like a Dyson vacuum with a CPU overclock. These people certainly made their opinions clear when it came to expressing how they felt about the first electric Mopar muscle car.
But if you're one of the people who subscribe to that line of thinking, we think you'll be well served to visit the Stellantis booths here in New York. Why? Because this car starts to make a lot of sense when you see it in person. It's not hard to get the wrong idea about a concept car if it's just a mockup or even just a CGI-generated rendering.
But to see the way a car holds its presence in the flesh among literally hundreds of other vehicles at the Jacob K Javits Center in Manhattan that day is a whole other story. At least with our two cents, we'll tell you the Charger Daytona SRT made a huge impression on us the moment we locked eyes with its funky center logo. This infinitely recognizable front fascia is nothing unintentional, as the DNA of the classic 1969 Charger R/T is baked into every square inch of the Daytona SRT's exterior construction. Needless to say, good god, this thing's pretty.
Photo: Benny Kirk/autoevolution
But it's not all classic retro-styling, ham-fistedly onto a modern EV platform. Novel aerodynamic accompaniments are dotted across the exterior of this groundbreaking concept. The biggest one of the many has to be the remarkable front aero-package called the R-Wing. Essentially a series of two front spoilers mounted in an almost cantilever fashion integrated into the Daytona SRT's front grille.
In the same way that an airplane wing creates low pressure over the wing and high pressure underneath it to create lift, the R-wing will do the same thing in reverse, directing high-pressure air downwards onto the tires as they grip the surface of the road. This feature isn't the only one to be seemingly derived from jet fighters and aviation.
Underneath the skin, the Charger Daytona SRT uses a power plant as bold as it is powerful. With 800 volts to work with over the usual 400-volt systems we're used to; it's a bit like the difference between an inline-four pot engine and a thumping great V8. At the low end, this 800-volt setup will jet at least 455 horsepower in the base-spec 340 package. The mid-range 440 edition ups the ante with 590 horsepower, while the penultimate SRT edition reaches at least 670 hp, all via four bespoke motors for each of the four axles.
But it's almost not fair to compare the range-topping, 800-volt Charger Daytona slated to enter production in 2024 to something like a Tesla Model S. They might as well be two different species. While the Model S isn't an ugly car by most measures, it simply has a fraction of the charisma and the pantomime, the almost palpable "soul" that exudes from the Charger Daytona SRT.
Photo: Benny Kirk/autoevolution
Meanwhile, the interior of this novel Charger is said to have been inspired by a fighter plane cockpit. A start/stop button hidden under a metal flip-cap is certainly a cool take on a cue supercars like the Lamborghini Aventador have utilized in the past. Meanwhile, a shift knob linked to a transmission described as having an "electro-mechanical experience" flanks the stylized and angled steering wheel.
The specifics of this gearbox are still somewhat unclear at this juncture. But a two or three-speed transmission to help the Charger Daytona reach higher top speeds than most EV sports cars would be very welcome indeed. Especially if CVTs or direct-drive is boring to you.
Tesla famously failed to do the same with the original Tesla Roadster. But when you add all the positives together and slap on a bellowing exhaust note that doesn't sound like a smoothie blender, you have the recipe for something that'll stop muscle car purists from resisting the EV revolution.
It's for this reason that the Charger Daytona EV is one of the most important electric vehicles of the 21st century, on top of being its most important muscle car. If for no other reason, it's that it ensures muscle cars as a paradigm won't vanish from the earth the moment ICE vehicles become inconvenient to operate for much longer. For that reason, the Charger Daytona SRT stands at the top of the crop for the most influential vehicles in New York this year. That's despite being among a crowd of heavyweights.
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