Newly Electric, But Not Quite Electrifying: 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona Review

Dodge knew all along that converting the Charger to an EV might tick off muscle car fans. After all, the concept of a muscle car with electric motors seems counterintuitive, especially with a fake exhaust soundtrack added into the mix. But early design previews looked solid, and Dodge’s typically hilarious marketing played up the controversy well.

In a surprising decision, though, the new Charger will come in both fully electric and internal-combustion form. Two- and four-door variants also represent something of a hedged bet, and clearly forced compromises during the R&D process.

But a recent media launch at Radford Racing School in Arizona provided an excellent opportunity to test the Charger Daytona’s R/T and Scat Pack trims on public roads and the racetrack. I even got a rip on a skid pad for testing out the full rear-wheel-drive drift mode.

In short: The idea of Dodge, the company that gave us Hellcats, Redeyes, and Demons, transitioning to the EV era can certainly sound like a tough pill to swallow. But the newly electric Charger Daytona looks good and takes advantage of EV technology. Overall, the R/T and Scat Pack trims exceed expectations, even if both struggle to cope with serious weight gains. Muscleheads will undoubtedly complain about the fake exhaust, and despite the electric soundtrack, the world’s first electric muscle car proves slightly less than electrifying.

2025 Dodge Charger Daytona Review

The new Charger generation looked good in early photos, but even better in person lined up baking beneath the crisp Arizona sun. A solid blend of futuristic cues and old-school bulk delivers exactly the presence that Dodge undoubtedly hoped to achieve. And in a short media intro, Dodge reps repeatedly hammered the point home that this is a muscle car first, and an EV second.

Like really, guys, it’s really a muscle car. Really. But actually, I found the presentation interesting. This was mostly because Dodge shared some of the engineering that went into building a shared chassis for the Charger Daytona’s two electric trims, as well as forthcoming four-door versions. And, these will eventually be followed by the non-Daytona internal-combustion Chargers, featuring a Hurricane turbocharged inline-six engine.

Testing

But my time at Radford was more about learning how these EVs drive in the real world, rather than focusing on stats and specs. So as soon as the presentation ended, I hustled over to Radford’s small handling circuit to get in line for some track testing. I figured the rest of the journalists would, too, and wanted to maximize my seat time.

Instead, after I put on a helmet and head scarf, a Radford instructor gave me a series of back-to-back lead-follow stints in Scat Pack-equipped cars. Nobody else jumped in line, so I just kept spinning laps solo.

But we settled into a rhythm of three laps out, then coming in to change cars. Because even after the first stint, the brakes smelled hotter than hot, and the tires started to look a little piqued.

The first few times out required an adjustment period, simply to get used to the size and weight of the Charger Daytona. But I also started to think maybe I had pushed a button wrong in the many settings programmable via the 12.3-inch center touchscreen.

The tires’ grip almost felt okay, thanks to 305mm front and 325mm rear Goodyear Eagle F1 tires. But the power delivery seemed downright strange in Track mode, as if the “throttle” was an on-off switch and then output died after the first second or two of acceleration. Yet I had switched between cars …

Confused, I ambled over to a line of R/T packages to head out on a road drive. Sure enough, despite being rated at 496 horsepower versus the Scat Pack’s 670 horsepower, this car felt way quicker. In reality, the R/T and Scat Pack both use two of the same two motors, Samsung units that put out 250 kW. The power difference comes down strictly to calibration.

The spec sheets, therefore, seem purposefully tailored to compare and contrast with Dodge’s existing gas engines.

Electronic Noise

I love supercharger whine, though, so now we need to talk about the “Fratzonic” exhaust, essentially speakers within a resonator box. The fake noises do provide a booming soundtrack when the motors “fire up.” Then, the rumble settles into something of an idle, revving when under load and even providing some feedback during regenerative braking.

Will muscle car enthusiasts enjoy the Fratzonic system? No. But I found it less annoying than expected, especially from the driver’s seat. Until, that is, I went up a long, steady grade in the R/T, and the noise just dissolved into a bit of a headache.

Unlike the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N’s faux exhaust, for example, using the Charger Daytona’s paddle shifters doesn’t provide fake gearshifts. So the sound can start to suck in a steady-state drone. I fiddled through a few menu options and turned the Fratzonic system off for the rest of the drive.

Driver Inputs

The Charger Daytona’s small paddle shifters control how much the regen system brakes the car. But unfortunately, regen failed for about half of my test drive, prompting a warning on the gauge cluster that read “Battery Regeneration Levels Unavailable.”

My battery wasn’t full enough to prevent regen, strangely, and if I power cycled, the car regen then turned back on. It was peculiar, to say the least, but then again, Dodge reps repeatedly explained that we were driving pre-production cars. So hopefully, this doesn’t happen for customers.

Otherwise, the R/T actually impressed me throughout the road drive. In contrast to the Scat Pack on track, throttle response provided some instantaneous torque, but then continued to build as the car sped up.

The steering toed a fine line between being heavy and providing feedback, and the suspension smoothed out all but the worst road surfaces. Meanwhile, the sound insulation blew my mind for a Dodge, in a great way.

EV Performance

Range performance also seemed legit. Tracking my mileage on one loop of the route, I used 44 miles of range to drive 40 miles. Not bad, especially considering that I kept flooring it to try and do burnouts. The 100.5kWh battery should live up fairly well to the R/T’s official 308-mile range, I believe.

That range drops precipitously to just 241 miles for the Scat Pack, though, despite the two trims using all the same components. Turns out pumping 670 horsepower to all four wheels in a heavy EV eats up electrons quite quickly.

And the weight surprised me, too, when I looked up the specs after the road drive. I would have guessed the R/T weighed around 5,000 or 5,200 pounds, but both models actually weigh 5,838 pounds — or just above 6,000 pounds with me in the driver’s seat.

Performance Unlocked

Now I understood at least a little more why the track performance let me down. But I still returned to Radford hoping for some more time on the circuit. Sure enough, the line once again looked short so I hopped in and asked for some assistance to find the right settings.

Mentally, I figured that in Track mode, the Scat Pack puts out all the available power as soon as possible, creating the sensation of jerk that then makes normal acceleration somewhat disappointing.

After one more stint, I decided to turn both traction and stability control completely off by holding the TC button on the dash. All of a sudden, the Scat Pack woke up noticeably. And not just in the seat of my pants, but also the times that I started logging in the onboard data recorder.

The modulation of power, no longer constrained by traction control programming, allowed me to feed back in before apex, when the front wheels were straight to helped pull through corners.

Cracking into the low-41s, the tires and brakes started dying even quicker despite still swapping out cars every three laps. So much mass simply eats through consumables when pushing hard, but I eventually managed to run two back-to-back laps in the high-41s and called it a day.

Slide Time

I still needed to try another of the Scat Pack’s modes out on Radford’s skid pad, where lead instructor Danny Bullock showed me how to do some drifting. In this setting, the front electric motor switches off entirely, and traction control allows the rear to wind up easily. Too easily, in fact, as I learned after spinning out immediately three times in a row and blowing out my left rear tire.

I never even got anywhere close to nailing a long drift arc, and even Bullock spun out giving a demo ride. The skid pad reminded me of drifting the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato on a frozen lake last winter and on a dirt track before that. Maybe borrowing a bit of knowledge from Ducati motorcycles, Lambo’s traction and stability control create confidence by hiding in the background.

Dodge could probably allow the front motor to help a little to control slides better, or further refine the software to prevent the rear tires from spooling up so quickly. Then again, the muscle crowd needs burnouts — and this is really, definitely a muscle car, you guys.

Physics Can’t Be Overcome

The end of the day rapidly approached, and I wound up skipping the drag racing experience. I figured at 6,000 pounds or so, and 670 horsepower with all-wheel drive, the Scat Pack on a strip simply lacked the requisite shove to feel anywhere near fast.

And that’s a bit of a bummer, since the dual motors able to hammer out full wattage from one rev should be wild. And yet the weight comes about because of the large battery pack supporting the motors, as well as Dodge’s decision to base an EV and ICE vehicles on the same chassis, plus four doors on the way, too.

Some little details do bear mentioning, though, as I played around with a Scat Pack on the way back to the hotel. The pistol grip shifter helps impart a decidedly retro vibe, but therefore clashes with the push-button stop-start.

And, the piano black plastic for the rear fascia where exhaust tips used to live makes no sense, especially while spraying up dirt and shredding tires. At least the seriously dark tint for the optional glass roof blocked out most of the Arizona sunshine, though.

2025 Charger Daytona Review: Conclusions

The 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona takes top marks as the best EV from Stellantis that I’ve driven yet. Despite some forced muscle car gimmicks, much more heritage spirit shines through than in the Mustang Mach-E.

Still, obvious limitations due to the multiple powertrain options and eventual four-door variants created challenges that Dodge struggles to overcome. Maybe a track drive program wasn’t the ideal way to launch this EV, because on public roads, both the 2025 Charger Daytona R/T and Scat Pack drive surprisingly well.