While the big V8 engine in the Dodge Charger is a thing of the past, the electric alternative called the Charger Daytona can't pull the wheels around in a burner.
Dodge has been marketing its new Charger Daytona with images of cars shrouded in tire smoke. But now it turns out the car can't pull a burner at all.
Dodge marketed the Charger as "the world's first and only electric muscle car," and many enthusiasts expected it to burn tires. But that's more than unlikely.
Because even though the car has four-wheel drive, and it should be possible to lock the front wheels and let the rear wheels spin freely, there is no so-called line lock function in the new car.
This is what American MotorTrend has come to in a test of the car. And that discovery doesn't exactly come with roses.
– The Charger Daytona can't do a burnout. No matter what we did, the electric Charger refused to throw the rear wheels around.
"It can probably do a burnout with a line lock feature. But Dodge inexplicably hasn't programmed that feature into the car," writes MotorTrend after testing the 670-horsepower electric car.
However, the Charger can still do wheelspin. Almost. In some versions of the model, there are driving programs for drifting and so-called 'donuts'. This allows the driver behind the wheel to turn down the car's otherwise quite restrictive stabilization program.
But the absence of a line lock function for burnouts, burners or whatever we should call it is a major shortcoming from a brand that claims to have forged the muscle car into the electric car era.
Dodge has traditionally marketed its muscle cars with a focus on burners and tire smoke. It's therefore surprising that the Charger doesn't have a line lock feature. In fact, the car brand went so far as to hire a 'burnout manager'. He was found in 2022. But is apparently unemployed again.
On the other hand, there are many indications that Dodge has been given freer reins after the Stellantis Group's CEO Carlos Tarvares was fired earlier this month.
The CEO was apparently the only one in the entire group who wanted Dodge to drop the big Hemi-V8 engine. However, for unknown reasons, Dodge will not answer whether there is actually room for a V8 engine in the new model. Not even when the boss is gone.
