Dodge Charger Chief Engineer Discusses New Electric Daytona
The all-new, all-electric 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona coupe is almost here. Being the first battery-electric vehicle (BEV) from the Dodge brand, the Charger Daytona has a lot on riding it. Not only does it push the Charger nameplate into the future, but it also does so with a HEMI® V8 engine. The modern-day Charger has continued to have V8 power as a key part of its performance muscle car formula since 2005. However, this new one will launch exclusively with an electrified powertrain. This move has caused a lot of pushback from loyal Dodge fans.
The Detroit Free Press sat down with Audrey Moore, the Chief Engineer for the Dodge Charger (LB) program, the woman leading the charge into the future for the Charger nameplate, to talk about Dodge’s newest muscle car. Moore, who has been with Chrysler for 25 years, has worked on different Jeep® projects like the Cherokee (KL) launch at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, the popular compact Jeep Renegade, and was the Global Validation lead on the Jeep Compass. Now, she leads the ‘charge’ to market the newest Dodge muscle car.
“I got this wonderful job to work on the next-generation Charger and Challenger, so that brought me into a whole different world of muscle cars and people who love horsepower and drifts and doughnuts and all sorts of things that Jeep people do not do,” she told the Detroit Free Press. “I’ve done the Moab Trail with my Jeeps, and now I’m going to Roadkill Nights and doing drifting and to tracks and stuff, so it’s quite a unique experience between the programs that I’ve been on.”
Dodge’s move to an all-electric muscle car has been several years in the making. With stricter emissions government regulations being pushed, Dodge needed to move in a different direction. Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis mandated that the car meet the high expectations of Dodge consumers. “This needed to be more than an electric vehicle,” Moore said. “It needed to be a muscle car.”
“It’s got to do all those things that Tim has drilled into my head for the last three years. It’s got to sound like a Dodge, drive like a Dodge, feel like a Dodge, look like a Dodge,” Moore said of Kuniskis’ expectations. “I might be a little biased, but the car is fantastic.”
A tough order, considering that we polled our followers on social media and found out that 86% of them would rather opt for the internal combustion engine (ICE) powered 2025 Dodge Charger SIX PACK with the twin-turbocharged HURRICANE inline-six-cylinder engine rather than an electrified Charger Daytona model.
We weren’t the only ones surveying muscle car fans about the next-generation ‘e-muscle’ cars. AmericanMuscle.com recently surveyed 1,000 Americans to see their opinions on electric muscle cars.
The survey found some interesting results. According to American Muscle, 47% of muscle car owners would consider buying an electric vehicle (EV) muscle car, with Ford, Tesla, and Dodge being the top brands that muscle car owners would choose for future e-muscle cars.
American Muscle also found that 52% of people believe that an EV can’t truly be a muscle car, and 56% of current car owners think that the new Dodge Charger Daytona isn’t a real muscle car.
On top of delivering an electric vehicle that can fill the requirements of a modern-day muscle car, Moore saw that EVs hold additional changes prepping for the launch of the vehicle. Unlike ICE vehicles, EV development has to account for charging times and other things that aren’t needed for ICE vehicle development.
Keeping positive with what she and her team have created, Moore explained that the responsibility is all on her. “I’m 100% fully responsible for the vehicle. I’m responsible for design, cost, quality, execution, and timing. The buck kind of stops here with me,” she told the Free Press.
You can read the complete interview on freep.com.
