Last week, I was invited by Dodge to travel Radford Racing School in Chandler, Arizona, to test the all-new 2024 Charger Daytona – the brand’s first ever battery electric vehicle (BEV) – on both the road and the track. If you are reading this with the expectation of a poor review, you might as well close this browser window and go on with your day. The new Charger Daytona handled the Radford road course beautifully for a car of its size, it repeatedly (and effortlessly) covered an 8th mile drag strip run in the low 7-second range and the interior is comfortable, roomy and packed full of impressive technology. With those qualifications, it seems like the kind of performance car that most people who like to go fast would enjoy, but but as we all know, this is an electric vehicle and many people hate it simply based on the drivetrain.
That being said, much to the dismay of some of my regular readers, I bring you a review of the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona based on my real world experiences with the car – not a review based on my feelings on the drivetrain type or the regulations that brought about this change. I have a ton of experience on the Radford track and this new Charger performed as well as any car I have tested there shy of the Viper TA, and for that, it gets the glowing review that it deserves.
While the shift in political leadership may lead to reduced regulations, thus leading to a return of high-powered V8 vehicles, the current regulations all-but-guarantee an electric-heavy future. This Dodge Charger Daytona provides a change from the rest of the BEV segment, which is flooded with crossovers and SUVs that all have a very similar general design. The alternative to the many crossovers and SUVs is the Tesla brand sedans – the Model 3 and Model S – but not everyone loves the Tesla brand, their styling or their owner. For those EV buyers who want a roomy coupe or something fun to drive that isn’t shaped like an SUV or a Tesla, the new Dodge Charger Daytona is the perfect option, serving as the most unique EV on today’s market.
Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack Power Delivery
My time testing the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona lineup began in a White Knuckle Scat Pack Stage 2 model with the Track Package, packing 670 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque from a pair of electric motors; each of which drives one of the axles. A key advantage of all electric vehicles compared to a combustion engine is that the power delivery is dramatically quicker, as the electric motor doesn’t need any time to build the RPM that combustion engines require for peak power. For example, when making a dyno pull with my Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, it did not reach peak power until the top end of 4th gear, so until I got to that point, the engine was making less than full power. On the other hand, the electric drivetrain in the new Charger Daytona Scat Pack delivers full power the second that you push the throttle to the floor.
When coupled with the advanced all-wheel-drive system, this instant-on power makes the new Dodge Charger Daytona really quick. The drag strip at Radford Racing School was unavailable due to repairs being made on the track, so we tested the acceleration capabilities in a parking lot with a little more than an 8th mile of straight space. I made a handful of runs in drag mode and every one of them was 7.3 seconds or quicker, with my best being a 7.1. On a properly prepared track, I expect that it could get into the high-6-second range in the 8th mile, but in being able to run a 7.1 in the 8th on a dusty parking lot surface, the Charger Daytona Scat Pack Stage 2 is quicker than just about any factory gas-powered vehicle on the street. Also, even though traction is usually pretty firm, there were a few times where I launched on the street where it was too slippery to get traction and that resulted in the new Charger creating a ton of smoke from the rear tires.
In addition to being very quick from a dig, the new Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack offers really strong mid-range acceleration. When cruising along at highway speeds, if you put the throttle to the floor, the response is comparable to the pull of a Hellcat at peak power in 5th gear, quickly climbing to triple digits in a big hurry.
Finally, while I will talk about this more later in this piece, the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack’s power delivery contribute to its strengths on the road course, with the instant-on power allowing me to put power to the ground exactly when I wanted to, and the advanced all-wheel-drive system made that power useful in areas where the previous Dodge muscle cars would have struggled with grip. Again, that allowed me to use all of the available power when coming out of the turns, where trying to use that level of power from a rear-drive Challenger would have lead to a drifting situation rather than a hard pull out of the corner.
One of the most unique features of the new Dodge Charger Daytona is the PowerShot system, which allows the driver to use all 670 horsepower on demand. The different drive modes of the Charger Daytona Scat Pack – Auto, Sport, Track and Drag – each have slightly different power output levels along with different throttle mapping, different steering feel, varying suspension settings and more. For instance, the engineering team found that for road racing purposes, around 535 horsepower was ideal for the best combination of performance and battery life. However, when using the PowerShot system, you can access 40 extra horsepower by pushing a button on the steering wheel, so when coming out of a turn on the throttle, you have 535 horsepower, but when you hit the straightaway, you can push the button and use 575 horsepower for up to 15 seconds. After a 15 second cooldown period, you can use the system again, so you can use it over and over during the course of a lap around a road course.
The Sound
One of the most talked-about features of the new Dodge Charger Daytona BEV since it was introduced as a concept in SRT Banshee form is the Fratzonic “exhaust system”. Dodge has gone through many versions of this sound since the debut and having put some hard miles on the new Charger Daytona, I like the fact that it makes noise. While I currently own three V8-powered cars with loud exhaust, I have previously owned several 4- and 6-cylinder cars with loud exhaust. I like sound – all kinds of sound, not just V8 sound – so I prefer that an EV makes some noise as well.
When sitting still, “revving the engine”, it might seem a bit odd, but when driving on the road or the track, the way that the sound changes with the throttle input or vehicle speed is very similar to how a combustion engine sound changes. It seems much more natural to hear that unique Fratzonic sound when you are accelerating and decelerating hard around the road course in track mode, and after a while, it becomes as natural-feeling as a combustion engine exhaust note.
For those who like how the car drives, but still don’t like the sound, it can be turned off altogether, but in the Auto drive mode at highway speeds, you can barely hear the Fratzonic sound at all. In sport mode, it is evident and in either track or drag mode, it is very loud – similarly loud to a Hellcat with an aftermarket exhaust system.
Ride Quality and Handling
The first portion of our road drive route with the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack took place on the local roads and highways around Chandler, where we got to experience the normal road manners of the new coupe. Thanks to the adaptive dampers, the Charger Daytona Scat Pack rides like a dream, isolating pretty much all road roughness from the cockpit in the least aggressive setting. However, even with the dampers in the track setting, the ride quality is still very good, so like my Hellcat Challenger, I found that the track mode in the 2024 Charger Daytona Scat Pack is more than comfortable enough for daily driving.
In addition to absorbing most of the noise or vibration that might come through the tires from the road surface, the body structure does a great job of keeping sound out as well. There is very little wind noise at highway speeds and noise from other vehicles, construction sites and other sounds from the environment are kept out of the cabin very well.
The last portion of our road drive took us up a tight, winding road leading to the peak of Dobbins Point. That tight, twisty road allowed me to test the handling capabilities far more than any average public road. The adaptive dampers did a great job of keeping the 6,000-pound car stable through hard turns and in transitions, and when we got to the sharpest turns, the massive four-wheel Brembo braking system got the big coupe down to hairpin-safe speeds in an instant. That mountain road provided a great feel for how the Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack handles on a twisty public road during some spirited driving with all-season tires, but we reserved the hardest driving for the safe confines of the Radford Racing School road course.
Once I returned from the road drive with the white 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack shown above, we headed over to the road course to really push the handling capabilities to their limits. The cars on the road course were similar to the road test cars with one key exception – the track testing cars were outfitted with the optional Goodyear Eagle F1 performance tires rather than the all-season rubber on the road testing cars. The F1 is a much better tire from a handling standpoint, allowing us to further push the new Charger Daytona to the limit on the tight turns of the Radford road course.
Once again, the adaptive dampers and the gigantic Brembo brakes did a great job of helping me get around the road course with confidence. There were a few times where I could feel the weight of the new Charger – particularly during harder, higher speed transitions and on the long, sweeping turn that leads into the front straightaway – but the high tech suspension did a perfect job of keeping that weight under control and providing great grip on the exit of the sweeping corner under full throttle acceleration.
Prior to testing the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack Stage 2, I have previously driven the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye and the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and the Dodge Viper TA on the Radford course. Of course, the Viper had a clear advantage in handling, but I found that after a few laps, I was more confident in being aggressive with the new Charger than I was any of the past Challenger and Charger models that I have tested.
Interior Comfort and Technology
My 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack Stage 2 road test car was also equipped with the Plus Package, which adds the suede-and-leather highback one-piece seats. These race-inspired buckets look great and they keep you firmly in place during periods of spirited cornering, but more importantly, they were very comfortable for our hour-long road drive around Arizona. There is a ton of leg room for the driver and front passenger, even with the seats positioned to provide proper leg room for a 6-foot-tall passenger in the rear seats, due in part to the thin structural design of the one-piece bucket seats in my Scat Pack test car. Even though it only has two doors, it offers more passenger space to the 2023 Charger sedan and the 2023 Challenger coupe.
As for technology, I only had a time to play with some of the features due to the fact that I was so busy getting in every second of drive time possible with the new Charger, but this new Dodge has a ton of very cool gadgets for the road and the track.
When testing the 8th mile times, the head-up display in drag mode displays the key metrics of the run, so you don’t have to look at the infotainment system to see the results of your run – 60 foot, 330 foot, 8th mile and quarter mile times are all displayed on the screen, right in your field of vision. If you go into the infotainment system, there is a ton more information on timing metrics for the drag strip along with basic acceleration and braking times (0-60, 60-0), along with g meters and other useful performance data.
When on the road course, we had a chance to play with the on-board data recording system of the new Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack. This system uses the front-facing camera to record the run while timing each run, and as you cross the start/finish line of each lap, the screen lights up bright green if your time improved or bright red if your lap time got worse that lap. This allows you to know if you have gotten better or worse with each lap, but without really looking at the times to compare one to the next. Once your session is complete and you are back in the pits, you can look at all of your lap times for that sessions along with a full video of the session all on the large, central infotainment screen. That same screen also handles all of the climate control, navigation, sound system and vehicle controls with the ease of the award winning UConnect5 interface.
In addition to the large central screen, every 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack comes with a massive driver information screen that offers customizable readouts in multiple different layouts – with just about every bit of information a driver could need on the road or track being available in the extensive menu of gauges.
I enjoyed every second I spent driving the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack. It offers great ride quality on the road while also offering incredible handling characteristics, it is among the quickest cars on the road in terms of straight-line acceleration and it has a large, comfortable cabin packed with performance-minded technology. If you aren’t hung up on having a combustion engine, the new Charger is a great go-fast daily driver that will shine on multiple different tracks as a weekend toy.
I wouldn’t trade my Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat for one, but if we really do end up with an automotive future filled with electric vehicles, the new Dodge Charger Daytona is the electric vehicle that I want to be driving. The Scat Pack’s range of 241 miles isn’t as high as some of the competitors, but the new Dodge Charger Daytona offers driving excitement that is well out of the reach of most vehicles in the BEV segment – serving as the most engaging car in the electric vehicle world today.
Patrick Rall is a professional writer and photographer with a passion for all things automotive. Having grown up in his father’s performance shop, he spent extensive time at the oval track and drag strip – both driving and wrenching on various types of vehicles. In addition to working as a writer, Patrick previously worked as an automotive technician before moving on to a business office position with a chain of dealerships, and this broad spectrum of experience in the industry allows him to offer a unique look on the automotive world. Follow Patrick on Twitter, Facebook and on Youtube.
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