Official Dodge today unveiled the redesigned Charger, and we have to say, we like what we’ve seen so far. While you can still buy the gas-powered version In addition to the coupe and sedan, Dodge also offers the Charger as an electric vehicle. Choose the Charger Daytona Scat Pack and you’ll get an electric vehicle with up to 670 horsepower and a range of 260 miles. Plus, if you’re okay with “only” having 496 horsepower, the Charger Daytona R/T has a range of 317 miles.
A redesigned Dodge Charger is always a big deal. After all, although the Charger is constantly being updated, it hasn’t been completely redesigned since 2006. And this time, you can get an electric version. Clearly, Dodge has a lot going for it in this redesign. So how did CEO Tim Kuniskis decide to market the new Charger? With a 10-minute video featuring the Dodge brothers, low production values and a script that only people who still use Facebook would find funny.
The video opens with Kuniskis sitting in the Charger and returning to Detroit in 1910. It’s cheesy but nothing out of the ordinary. Many cheesy promotional videos. I mean, one of the lines from the Dodge brothers is literally, “My God, Hamtramck! What is that, and who are you?” Even Widmer’s would have trouble handling that much cheese.
And then, basically out of nowhere, things went haywire in the right direction. Kuniskis begins talking about how the Dodge brand and its legacy are under attack by mysterious, unknown forces. Then, at around the 4:13 mark, he goes on a weird rant about how most people think electric cars are supposed to be politically correct, and it only gets weirder from there:
They told us we couldn’t sell Hemis, but they never told us we had to be boring and slow. So we take the rules, find the gray areas, and use them. Use them against them to build a muscle car. To build a Dodge muscle car and slide it under the ropes that the regulators threw down in front of us like spike strips on the highway.
What? Seriously, what the hell are you talking about, Tim? Gray areas? Also, who really thinks electric cars are supposed to be boring and slow? Have you been asleep for over a decade and somehow missed the fact that it’s not 2012 anymore? I’m starting to think so because just a few seconds later, you brag that the Charger Daytona doesn’t “look like a typical battery-electric melted jelly.”
If Dodge wants to compete with Mercedes’ electric vehicle lineup, we won’t stop them. Whether GMC Hummer EV Looks like a melted marshmallow? What about the Hyundai Ioniq 5? The Ford F-150 Lightning? The Genesis electrifies the GV70? The Kia EV9? I could go on, but you get my point. It’s been a while since most people associated electric vehicles with the G-Wiz, Tim.
We then get a few lines about how the Charger wasn’t designed with efficiency in mind and how performance was a top priority before Kuniskis drops the line, “This is NOT the electric car they want the brotherhood to have.” What else? Who are they? Regulators? The people trying to stop the emissions from killing our planet? There will certainly be a conversation about mining emissions and how we can recycle batteries, But no one told automakers that their electric cars needed to go slow.
Does Kuniskis think there’s some kind of global conspiracy to ban high-performance cars? If so, who does he think is responsible for this plot? I think we all want to know, Tim.
From then on, the dog’s whistle kept ringing. Including an extended joke about kale smoothies that you just learned made the actor playing John Dodge die a little inside. Honestly, it’s a little surprising that Kuniskis didn’t sneak in at some point, “You’ll own nothing and eat bugs.”
However, the most confusing thing about this video is that the Charger Daytona Scat Pack is not the first high-performance EV sold in the US. If Dodge released this car in 2010, sure. We’re willing to buy that corner. However, in 2024? Try your best.
Tesla has been selling versions of the Model S that are as powerful, if not more powerful, than the Scat Pack for years, and is not the only automaker to do so. Insight? Rivian? Porsche? Mercedes? BMW? They all make some absurdly fast electric cars. Heck, even Hyundai is about to start selling Ioniq 5N 641 horsepower here and Kia already sells the 576-horsepower EV6 GT.
The strange thing, however, is that Uncle Randy wouldn’t care that none of this makes any sense. Kuniskis owns the libs and for him, that’s what really matters. Well, that and making sure he doesn’t forget his Black Rifle coffee on the way to meet his parole officer because he finished serving his sentence for his role on January 6. And if that isn’t I don’t know what the ideal customer is
