Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept car
Dodge
DETROIT – Dodge on Wednesday unveiled a new concept car, the Charger Daytona SRT, as a preview of its first all-electric muscle car, expected in 2024.
The two-door coupe is the first look at the car that will replace Dodge’s current gas-powered vehicle. Challenger and Charger muscle cars, is expected to look like. The car also features several new technologies designed to make it feel and drive like a traditional muscle car.
“We believe this vehicle will redefine American muscle,” said Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis. Over 700 horsepower Hellcat models– he said at the press conference.
The concept car looks like a futuristic but retro version the current Dodge Challenger more aerodynamic, muscular, but with a design. Most importantly, the front has a large opening for air, which the company calls the “R-Wing”.
The Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept car features the Fratzog logo in the middle of the “R-Wing”.
Dodge
According to the company, the car’s front wing, as well as the “Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust” and “eRupt” multi-speed transmission – names suitable for the films “Back to the Future” – are patent pending.
The multi-speed transmission and exhaust are particularly unique because electric cars only move in one “cog” and are relatively silent apart from the required safety sounds.
“Not a science project”
Automakers regularly use concept vehicles to gauge customer interest or show the future direction of a car or brand. Cars are not intended for sale to consumers.
However, Kuniskis says many of the Charger Daytona SRT’s technologies and design elements are expected to make it into the production vehicle.
“This is not a science project,” I said. “It looks like a Dodge, sounds like a Dodge and drives like a Dodge.”
Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept car
Dodge
Kuniskis said the 2024 electric muscle car will be available with three different performance levels, but will eventually expand to nine. The concept car has an 800-volt “Banshee” propulsion system.
Dodge declined to reveal expected performance figures for the concept car or the as-yet-unnamed production muscle car.
Coming in 2024, the EV will replace Dodge’s gas-powered Charger and Challenger muscle cars. Discontinued at the end of 2023.
New technology
The car’s patent-pending technologies are designed to maintain the sound and ride characteristics of Dodge’s current gas-powered Charger and Challenger, according to Kuniskis.
Although it can be fast with “linear acceleration” producing EVs amazing 0-60 mph times, they often lack the driving dynamics that many performance car owners enjoy. It’s a problem auto executives are privately trying to address as the industry shifts to EVs.
Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept car
Dodge
“We said, ‘OK, if it’s going to happen, let’s do it like Dodge,'” Kuniskis said. “We’re not going to go out there and do the same thing. If we try to do the same thing with everybody else, Dodge will be lost.”
The exhaust system on the Charger concept, which is as loud as a Hellcat engine, channels the sound through an amplifier and tuning chamber in the back of the car, Kuniskis said. I compared it to a wind organ with chambers and pipes.
The eRupt technology, he said, is a multi-speed transmission “with electro-mechanical shifting” that “offers different shift points” like today’s muscle and performance cars.
According to Stephanie Brinley, senior analyst at S&P Global, the updates could help Dodge retain its performance credentials as well as its buyers, who have bought millions of Challengers and Chargers over the years.
“It’s what you’d expect from a Dodge EV two-door,” he said. “It looks the part, it sounds the part, and it’s pretty exciting.”
Heritage signs
Most of the concept car is inspired Stellantis– History of Dodge according to authorities. The name itself – Charger Daytona SRT – is a nomenclature often used by Dodge.
The “R-Wing” was inspired by the “nose cone” front end of the 1969-1970 Charger Daytona. And while today’s Charger is a four-door car, the original generations starting in the 1960s were two-door concepts.
Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept car
Dodge
The “Fratzonic” exhaust is a reference to the Dodge logo used from 1962 to 1976 called “Fratzog” – a word coined by the designer. It has a cleft deltoid made of three arrowhead shapes forming a three-pointed star.
Kuniskis said some design elements and technologies will affect the cars’ electric range, but that’s not necessarily something Dodge is concerned about.
“Don’t worry; it’s a badass…it’s a muscle car,” Kuniskis said.
