As I walked through Detroit Auto Show security into Huntington Place, a grey glimmer caught my eye. Sitting on the turntable at the Stellantis stand was the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT EV concept, largely free of people gathering around it. It was time for a close-up.
The first thing I noticed about Dodge’s electric muscle car is just how big this thing is. It genuinely has its own gravitational pull. Between sheer dimensions and styling proportions, the Charger Daytona SRT EV is so much more imposing than a Challenger in a way that really needs to be seen to believe.
Of equal importance, there’s a lot of stuff on this concept that seems near-production. For instance, most concept cars don’t have mirrors. The Charger Daytona SRT EV has exterior mirrors and a frit band for an interior rearview mirror. While the mirrors on the car don’t look feasible, the fact that an opening in each door exists where production spec-mirrors could mount to is incredible.
Look even closer, and more intriguing details emerge. There are aero curtain outlets in the front wheel well liners, a fairly common trend in new cars that’s surprising to see on a concept. The fender liner has to be punched out, then a duct needs to be crafted, then space needs to be made in the front bumper for an inlet. It’s a lot of effort for something not really needed on a show car.
Also not needed on show cars? Front and rear bumpers with actual shutlines. Even in the custom car community, it’s tradition to blend panels to be seamless using filler, welding, or brazing. More intriguingly, the shutlines seem to follow established Dodge design language. The Challenger has a massive nosecone, while the current Charger features similar rear bumper shutlines. It’s an interesting case of manufacturing necessities becoming brand DNA.
It’s also worth noting what the electric age has done to show cars. In the past, many concepts were pushers, essentially undriveable sculptures that only needed to look pretty. It’s incredibly expensive and time-consuming to fabricate a driveshaft, axle shafts, differential mounts, engine mounts, steering systems, and all the stuff needed to make a car drive. With EV platforms, much of the mechanicals are essentially pre-fabricated. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see more and more functional EV concepts in the future.
All in all, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dodge unveils a production EV that looks really similar to the Charger Daytona SRT EV concept. The fundamentals are largely there, with tweaks to lighting, mirrors, the interior, and anything necessary for homologation needed for such a beast to theoretically enter production. However, we could also see something entirely different. Look at all the tweaks the Volkswagen ID.Concept underwent to become the ID.3. Either way, it’ll be fun to look back on the Dodge Charger Daytona EV concept in 2024 and see what cues made it onto the showroom floor.
There seems to be a new EV trend of having the headlight go the full width of the grill, especially on bigger vehicles (F-150 Lightning, Rivan, Hummer, Lyriq, etc.). Maybe I’m nitpicking, but it seems like some sort of unwritten rule to include in the design, and ends up distracting from the rest of the design more often than not. Otherwise, a great looking car.
Those wheels gesture towards old A-body polycast wheels. I like them.
It better be if it is going to cold turkey replace the 55,000 or so Challengers they sell annually and they really need to figure out what will replace the 80,000 Chargers they sell annually. I can tell you the little Euro rebadged Crossover is not going to cut it.
I wonder what the drag coefficient is? The original Dodge Charger Daytona/Plymouth Superbird of more than half a century ago had a drag coefficient of 0.28, which for its time, was among the best you could get in a production car. I’d like to see this musclecar do the same by beating out the competition. The Tesla Model S PLAID has a Cd of 0.20, and that should be the figure to beat.
I’m doubtful that will happen. But it could.
If Dodge were to eventually eschew retrograde designs and start with a clean slate, they could target a Cd around 0.15. With drag like that, even if the car weighed 4,500 lbs, they could be looking at under 200 Wh/mile energy consumption in real-world highway driving. A lot less if they dropped the weight. This could also open the door to gasoline-powered V8 variants well exceeding 40 MPG highway. It wouldn’t look the same, but who cares? People buy fast cars to go fast, and making them go faster for a given amount of horsepower is more in-line with the purpose of such a vehicle. It also improves efficiency.
You know other than the pillarless windows, lack of B pillar, and that its a 2-door.
This thing would never pass crash.
I think it looks great, just lose that fake engine sound, or at least have a way to turn it off.
“The fake engine roar stays.” – Carlos Tavare
Given EVs’ focus on aero, I’d love to see a Superbird nosecone on this thing.
I’m confused. Is it possible that all of the lovely virtual ladies are offering me a way to obtain a Charger Daytona SRV EV by working from home on my laptop?
Stellantis, is that you? Are you telling us that MSRP on a Charger D. SRV EV is $88,000 and a pair of panties?
I also thought this bad boy had a very production ready feel. As someone else mentioned, all the fascia and trim look like real deal production pieces, as do the wheels and lighting, etc.
And for sure, the interior has some embellishments that are more whimsical than would make the cut for production which is to be expected in a show car.
But still, the body shape is spot on perfect in my view. Not having to accommodate the hard points of the LX platform allowed the design team to take some cues from the ’99 Charger concept car and bring it to a higher level befitting Dodge’s first BEV.
Also, that front wing that apes the 68-70 Charger grill is brilliant.
I also make well over $8,000 per month doing absolutely nothing.
All I had to do was get an MBA, work in corporate America for 35 years, lived below my means, saved at least 15% of my income starting at age 25, invested prudently, and maxed out my HSA contributions.
Easy peasy, although not nearly as fun as selling dirty panties on eBay.
Thanks for the great attention to detail! I’m really liking the looks of this thing. The magic number for me to actually purchase one would be $30K (hello EV Equinox) before the tax credit. I have a feeling this will come nowhere close.
If only there was some way I could make $88/hour working part time on a laptop, $7,000 a month working part time, or $88,000 so far this year… anyone around here have any ideas?
It’s bigger than anything I’d want to drive, and the visibility looks suboptimal, but I dig the styling
Off topic, sorry.
Please do something about the spam comments. Let us at least report them.
Sorry about that, we’re working on it.
Don’t you find it nice of them to take take time off their $88 an hour work from home to inform us that we could make $84k from the comfort of your couch in your underpants?!
This must be the ultimate trash dream!
Bloody hell! Any thing offering big bucks for low sweat is so nice. Can’t understand why they want to share their hard earned pie!
/s, obviously ????
Don’t you find it nice of them to take take time off their $88 an hour work from home to inform us that we could make $84k from the comfort of your couch in your underpants?!
This must be the ultimate trash dream!
Bloody hell! Any thing offering big bucks for low sweat is so nice. Can’t understand why they want to share their hard earned pie!
/s, obviously ????
Actually, those very well could be production mirrors. One of the cheats to get fuel mileage/range up is increasingly tiny mirrors and those stupid camera mirrors.
That mirror VERY clearly has an integrated camera. That entire black plastic section at the bottom. The C shaped cutout near the edge is not signal, it’s camera. Same with the lack of the interior rear view; more likely it will have an always-on ‘backup’ camera wired to a shitty LCD. (Gods I fucking hate that trend. Almost as much as I hate that there is no rear visibility at all on anything any more.)
The catch with side view mirrors having cameras is that camera alone is illegal in the US. (Note: side view mirrors. Not rear view. Camera-based interior rear view is approved.) Which really, really tells us something. That something is: “concept my ass, this is the production car.” If it was just a show car or concept, they would have stapled on camera-only or traditional rear view. If it was early prototyping, they absolutely would NOT have gone to the trouble of a complex multi-part injection molded lower trim piece below the glass. And that is a pretty damn complex shape with an integrated protective lens.
And no, they do NOT have any vehicle from any marque with substantially similar trim or mirrors. I checked. Twice. These might be for another car about to go into production, but honestly, which? Seriously. They literally do not have a single vehicle launching that has mirror shapes even remotely like those.
So yeah. This is not ‘concept’ or ‘show’ car. This has to be very late prototype.
Whatever it is, and no matter how it’s powered, no one would complain if it were called a Charger. Also, remind me what the emblem is? All I see is the Flash yelling.
Banshee
Flash yelling at a Banshee?
On another note this car looks rad…
Sounds like a plan there Julia…But the REAL money is in selling your dirty panties. I know a girl who has made 184,000 dollars doing that, and she has only been doing it for 2 weeks….See Clara’s post above for details…
It’s based off the W211 😉
Nice to see other people paying attention to those sorts of production level details – Honda regularly takes pre-production cars, gussies them up a bit and calls them “concepts”. Inner door panels are another good place to look – you don’t spend many thousands of dollars to stamp inner door panel sheetmetal for a concept car.
❤️Hi Julia, I went to your website and sent the Amazon gift cards that you requested along with some photos of my own. When will I be able to see your pictures? Please write back.
I was actually thinking the same thing when I saw it. My guesses were either that this thing is closer to production than anyone thought, or they really leaned heavily on a current generation challenger/charger chassis to build the concept.