Last week we brought you the news of Dodge “teasing” the next generation Charger in a series of images on social media. We put teasing in quotes because the company didn’t tease the new model so much as give us a pretty clear look at the new Charger from the front, side and rear. It was more of an exterior design reveal of the car that we expect to see in dealerships later this year, with the only teasing aspect being the shadowy images sparsely hiding some of the fine detail of the new Dodge Charger body.
We believe that the Dodge Charger shown here is an electric vehicle, which inspires its own kind of negativity, but many people in the various social media channels are complaining that the pre-production car shown last week by the automaker is very different from the concept that we have been seeing at various automotive events over the past year. However, when we put the Dodge teaser images side by side with Dodge images of the SRT Daytona Banshee concept car, they are pretty similar.
From the front, the pre-production teaser car appears to have a slightly flatter grille area than the Dodge Charger SRT Daytona Concept, but that could be caused by the slight differences in camera angle. Both cars have the LED trim around the grille opening, a lighted Fratzog logo in the middle of the grille and it appears as though the pre-production model has the R-Wing, allowing air to flow smoothly from the front fascia, up over the hood. Both cars have similar vents across the front fascia, but the pre-production model does not have as aggressive of a lower fascia spoiler. We suspect that this pre-production car is not a Banshee or high end performance model, so the aero bits all of the way around the body are not as aggressive as the concept car, which was based on a high end performance model.
When you look at the two side by side, the Charger concept appears to have more pronounced body lines, particularly in the sculpting on the hood and around the wheel openings, and it looks like the flared aspect of the fender and quarter panel might extend out further, but again, these differences are all subtle enough that they could be caused by differences in lighting and camera angle. The pre-production car does appear to have a slightly more upright angle to the windshield and there is some clear difference on the roof, with the concept lacking the roof ditch moldings.
Along the sides, the Dodge Charger SRT Daytona Banshee concept car appears to have a more rounded form while the pre-production model appears to have doors and a mid-line of the body that is flatter. The side mirrors are also very different, but that change was easy to predict.
The rear end image of the pre-production model is where we see the biggest changes from the Dodge Charger SRT Daytona Banshee concept car. The top line that runs across the rear of the car appears to be rounded a bit and possibly slightly shorter than the concept and, while they are not lit up, the taillight element design appears to be very different from the concept. Below the taillight panel, the sculpting between these two Dodge Chargers is clearly very different all of the way to the ground, with the Daytona logo incorporated into the pre-production model rear fascia.
The rear angle shot of the two Dodge Chargers provides a better look at the side as well, which provides a better look at how the door design and overall shape vary between the two. Of course, the appearance of a gas door/charging door is unique from the concept as well. Based on this rear comparison, it looks as though the sloping fastback-style rear glass extends further towards the rear end, but as is the case with much of this comparison, that could be caused by the variations in the two images.
While there are some obvious changes from the Dodge Charger SRT Daytona Banshee concept car to the pre-production model teased last week on social media, the side by side comparison shows that the two cars are pretty similar. Once we see the high performance version of the new Charger, we may see even more similarities between the concept car and the cars that comes to market later this year.
