The most controversial automobile 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 automobile is so suffering from anti-woke tradition bullshit that it needed to be saddled with a fuel engine possibility 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 fuel one is like. The prospect of an electrical muscle automobile is thrilling to me, and I believe suppose the Charger’s design is a house run. Extra importantly, it’s actually the rebirth of the American “private luxurious coupe” that fans have lamented the dying of for many years now, with a ton of house and practicality.
Dodge is changing each the two-door Challenger and four-door Charger with the brand new Charger, which is offered with two or 4 doorways. Not like 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 enormous — the coupe is 206.6 inches lengthy, which is six inches longer than the previous Charger and 9 inches longer than the Challenger. It’s huge as hell too, nearly two inches wider than the widebody variations of the previous automobiles.
In particular person underneath auto present lighting, I believe the Charger seems nice and has a ton of presence. Certain, it might do with even larger wheels and a greater offset, and I wager on a smaller wheel and tire bundle it would look kinda dinky, however the base variations of the previous 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 previous automobiles on the subject of design, supplies and know-how, however by how roomy and ethereal it felt. The Challenger was a really difficult automobile to see out of, with a huge lengthy nostril, tiny aspect home windows and a tall physique; the Charger wasn’t a lot better. Ahead visibility appears a lot improved from the previous automobiles, particularly due to the EV’s R-Wing hood design, and because of taller home windows and an even 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 quite a bit nicer. Dodge hasn’t launched dimensions but, however at 5-foot-9 I’ve vastly extra headroom and legroom than within the previous 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 wager the elective panoramic roof would add to the airiness (and I doubt it would cut 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 believe one of the best a part of the brand new Charger is the cargo space. It’s merely large and very usable. The liftback’s opening is huge and squared-off with a reasonably low sill, and even with the rear seats up the cargo space is basically lengthy and fairly tall regardless of the sloping roof. There’s 22.8 cubic toes of house with the seats up, 6.3 greater than the previous Charger and 6.6 greater than the Challenger, and the rear seats fold down nearly fully flat to extend the cargo space to 37.4 cubic toes. 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 could be had with a frunk, however at 1.5 cubic toes it’s pretty small, and it’s important to go for one of many costly possibility packages to get it.
Everybody is continually unhappy about how coupes and different area of interest physique types are dying within the U.S., and the way there are not any huge coupes that may be actually used as a day by day pushed household automobile like the large private luxurious coupes of yore (yore being, like, the ‘70s and ‘80s), however right here Dodge comes bringing them again with drive. 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 a giant canine, or a job that commonly requires them to haul stuff, and even somebody single who hits the classic furnishings markets too typically and has mates to drive round. In a world of crossovers the place even sedans have gotten more and more unusual, the existence of a giant coupe just like the 2024 Charger ought to be celebrated.