FIRST DRIVE: 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona! 670hp Muscle Car Driven

This is a seismic moment for the American muscle car, as this new 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona is electric…

Yes, combustion versions are coming – in the guise of twin-turbo 3.0-litre six-cylinder models – but the headline act for the new Charger is no longer a gas-fed V8.

Not that the new electric Charger will be short on power. The EV side of the offering kick offs with 496hp in the Dodge Charger Daytona R/T, rises to 670hp in the Daytona Scat Pack driven here, and will climb higher still when next year’s Banshee model appears. 0-60mph and quarter-mile times will trounce their petrol equivalents.

But is that better? This is now a four-wheel drive Charger, one sitting on the new Stellantis STLA Large platform, with a 100.5kWh battery pack to lug around. The headline power figures and acceleration times might be impressive, but what about the usual EV bugbears of excessive weight and the absence of noise? Can a silent muscle car succeed?

Over to Top Gear Magazine’s Associate Editor, Tom Ford, to find out…

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00:00 Intro
02:41 Walkaround
04:26 Interior
07:50 Drive
13:08 Track Mode
13:59 Drag Mode
14:22 Donut & Drift Mode

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[Jyy-sh]

Finally a charger nobody will want to steal

[rbarbetta]

Should have named it the Dodge Pretender.

[trevordavies]

When I was a kid, we used to peg playing cards to the rear forks of our bicycles to make an engine noise. I've grown out of stuff like that now!

[spk.rockets]

The car looks decent, I'll give them that. A 426 Hemi with rear wheel drive only along with a 2000lb diet and you would have a great car.

[eldiablort]

An electric car with a fake V8 sound, is like having a Model T with horse sounds.

[the.getaway.drifter]

Sad to see Chargers now need chargers.

[BrendanEvan]

Few EV buyers want a "muscle car" and fewer muscle car buyers want an EV. Not confident there's a large market for this.

[JohnnyDrizzle]

I like the way it looks. It took them 20 years to make the charger look like a charger and then they throw batteries in it

[sveeny]

It's 5800 lb's or 2650 Kg. That's actually significantly heavier than a Rolls Royce Wraith V12 😂

[VOLDGAMER]

kinda funny how this dodge charger is going to be at the charging station 99% of the time. atleast the name is correct lol

[CyrusTheRed]

$70, 000 for an EV good lord how does anyone afford anything these days.

[gpaje]

The big elephant in the room is this car is slower than its main competitors by a lot while being substantially more expensive, specifically the Model 3 Performance.

[johnpar]

Jeremy Clarkson: "It weighs approximately 7 trillion tonnes and makes a bunch of waffling noise out the back despite it being a laptop."

[stevesmith]

No thanks, I'll gladly keep my 2023 Charger RT Daytona with that fantastic sounding V8!

[yuvraj_choraria_]

4wd electric muscle car with a speaker resonator. I'll pass

[jamesconnally]

A muscle car review should not be this boring.

[iamricardomarques]

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

[pmc]

You can really feel the lack of excitement for the car in this video.

[powerswearingfluids]

I saw the design and instantly wanted more. It was good that Tom said it is an electric car because I managed to stop watching this video in first 5 seconds. Thank you Tom Ford for not wasting my morning

[robboy]

A current Charger R/T with a proper V8 is $45k, which makes this R/T $14k more expensive. Wow.