Dodge Charger 2024

Back in August as part of Dodge Speed Week and the Woodward Dream Cruise, which is an ode to muscle cars, the automaker showed the completely new Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept that teases an all-electric muscle car coming in 2024. The reaction was, er, electric. There were the haters who abhor the pending death of the V-8-powered muscle car, the critics and skeptics who jumped all over the idea of an exhaust note and a multispeed transmission in an EV, and then there were those who admired the design and the guts behind the concept.

So we caught up with Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis at the recent North American International Detroit Auto Show for an update on the aftermath and what his next moves are. "Reaction was off the charts," he told MotorTrend in an interview on the auto show floor. Media coverage quickly garnered more than 20 million views—the equivalent of about $47 million in marketing costs, he says. "It started off super negative," he added.

News that the Chargers and Challengers of today are going away "generated massive anger." The next batch of stories, about the new 2023 Dodge Hornet compact SUV, piqued enough interest for about 30,000 orders. Then came the unveil of the Charger Daytona SRT electric muscle car concept and its controversial "exhaust" note. The verdict? Many loved the idea, but not how it sounded, Kuniskis says.

Droning On

The team had already been working on the sound for a year. "We were super confident with the idle because the idle was to us non-negotiable. It literally has the cadence of the Hemi [V-8] firing order so we knew that it was right. We also knew that we did not want this to sound like a fake V-8, we wanted it to sound modern, fresh, and new; and have this sort of screaming sound which is very identifiable with electric motors," he said.

It was also a tricky thing to present outdoors and to online livestream audiences, says Kuniskis. The car is designed so air flows through an actual piped exhaust system generating a sound that goes through an amplifier and tuning chamber for the resulting 126-decibel roar. The plan for the live event was to put a microphone on the tailpipe and pump the sound through the speakers in the building. But the speakers in the building were tuned for the voices of the presenters, which would have made the exhaust too loud and sound fake.

"So, we decided no speakers, it's going to be the sound of the car and we drove a handmade car outside," Kuniskis explains. "I wanted people to hear the sound as it drove by. It was important to make sound with the movement of air, not with some speakers." He says it needs to be heard with the spatial difference of a car going in the opposite direction—a nuance that cannot be picked up on a computer speaker for those watching the event remotely.

A new steering wheel design for the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept offers a thinner feel, with a flat top and bottom, and an illuminated red SRT logo lights up the steering wheel center.

Nor is it done. "Did we crack the code on wide-open motors? Not yet. But we've got two years," Kuniskis says, before the car goes on sale. "We have changed the sound of that car 1,000 times and we will continue to."

Better Sound for SEMA Goers

"We're still working on it and we have a plan to do something with it at SEMA that will help. By the time we get to launch we will be comfortable with the sound and where we are," Kuniskis promised from the show floor.

While the original Charger Daytona concept was on display at the Detroit show, Kuniskis said plans are to show a different side of the electric muscle car at SEMA in November. It will be a chance to show how Direct Connection authorized dealers are equipped to help buyers who want to modify their car. "We'll show a different version of that car. It will look totally different, to show the multiple personalities." In addition to a new version of the Charger Daytona with drag radials, custom two-piece carbon and aluminum centerlock wheels, and more, SEMA Show goers will be able to participate in selecting the sound of the all-electric Dodge. At the Dodge booth, which is much larger for 2022, Stellantis will hold a "SEMA Research Clinic" where the public can choose the sound of the polarizing Fratzonic Exhaust on the EV.

Entering the Lion's Den

Dodge could have taken the safe path and initially revealed the Daytona EV at CES for the tech crowd, but instead chose the Dream Cruise: a lion's den with its muscle car clubs and fans. "I didn't expect everybody to come up and hug me afterwards," says the brand chief.

"We still have work to do but we got a good start. This can have some legs. Now we still have two years of our business plan to keep trickling it out," Kuniskis says. And Dodge is a niche brand that seems unlikely to ever exceed 5 percent of total market share in the U.S. "Most people can not like what we do. That's OK. They weren't going to buy a Hellcat either. The brand is not for everybody."