The most controversial automotive of 2024 isn’t the Tesla Cybertruck or no matter cool new BMW you suppose is ugly, it’s the Dodge Charger Daytona EV. This electrical muscle automotive is so stricken by anti-woke tradition bullshit that it needed to be saddled with a gasoline engine choice whereas the EV appears a bit doomed to fail. Nonetheless, after seeing it on the Los Angeles Auto Present I’m stoked to drive the electrical Charger, and couldn’t actually care much less about what the gasoline one is like. The prospect of an electrical muscle automotive is thrilling to me, and I feel suppose the Charger’s design is a house run. Extra importantly, it’s actually the rebirth of the American “private luxurious coupe” that lovers have lamented the dying of for many years now, with a ton of area and practicality.
Dodge is changing each the two-door Challenger and four-door Charger with the brand new Charger, which is accessible with two or 4 doorways. In contrast to both of the outgoing fashions, the Charger has a liftback as an alternative of a trunk for each the coupe and sedan. The 2 fashions have the identical 121.0-inch wheelbase, and so they’re large — the coupe is 206.6 inches lengthy, which is six inches longer than the outdated Charger and 9 inches longer than the Challenger. It’s vast as hell too, nearly two inches wider than the widebody variations of the outdated automobiles.
In individual below auto present lighting, I feel the Charger seems nice and has a ton of presence. Positive, it may do with even larger wheels and a greater offset, and I guess on a smaller wheel and tire package deal it should look kinda dinky, however the base variations of the outdated automobiles did too. The coke bottle form of the physique and fenders is very nice, and the greenhouse doesn’t look too tall and boxy. You may by no means guess it had a hatch.
It’s inside the brand new Charger the place I used to be really stunned. Not by the design itself, although it’s actually leagues nicer than the outdated automobiles in terms of design, supplies and expertise, however by how roomy and ethereal it felt. The Challenger was a very difficult automotive to see out of, with a huge lengthy nostril, tiny aspect home windows and a tall physique; the Charger wasn’t significantly better. Ahead visibility appears a lot improved from the outdated automobiles, particularly due to the EV’s R-Wing hood design, and due to taller home windows and a much bigger quarter window behind the doorways it has much less of a blind spot.
That bigger aspect quarter window can also be of big profit to passengers within the rear seat, which is immensely spacious. It’s straightforward to fold and slide the entrance bucket seats ahead, and ingress and egress for the again seat is so much nicer. Dodge hasn’t launched dimensions but, however at 5-foot-9 I’ve vastly extra headroom and legroom than within the outdated Challenger, and it truthfully appeared nicer than the Charger’s again seat. It didn’t really feel too darkish or claustrophobic within the again, and I guess the optionally available panoramic roof would add to the airiness (and I doubt it should scale back headroom by a significant quantity). The largest shock? Our personal 6-foot-8-inch workers author Logan Carter match within the again seat.
I feel the very best a part of the brand new Charger is the cargo space. It’s merely huge and very usable. The liftback’s opening is vast and squared-off with a reasonably low sill, and even with the rear seats up the cargo space is de facto lengthy and fairly tall regardless of the sloping roof. There’s 22.8 cubic ft of area with the seats up, 6.3 greater than the outdated Charger and 6.6 greater than the Challenger, and the rear seats fold down nearly utterly flat to extend the cargo space to 37.4 cubic ft. Ren Stone, supervisor of Superior Design at Stellantis, made an Instagram submit of a Charger EV simply hauling a 40-by-64-inch field with a Viper windshield in it. The Charger EV might be had with a frunk, however at 1.5 cubic ft it’s pretty small, and you must go for one of many costly choice packages to get it.
Everybody is continually unhappy about how coupes and different area of interest physique kinds are dying within the U.S., and the way there aren’t any huge coupes that may be actually used as a day by day pushed household automotive like the big private luxurious coupes of yore (yore being, like, the ‘70s and ‘80s), however right here Dodge comes bringing them again with pressure. The Challenger was too compromised by its design to essentially be sensible, however I can simply see the brand new Charger being owned by somebody with a child or two, or an enormous canine, or a job that recurrently requires them to haul stuff, and even somebody single who hits the classic furnishings markets too usually and has pals to drive round. In a world of crossovers the place even sedans have gotten more and more unusual, the existence of an enormous coupe just like the 2024 Charger must be celebrated.
