London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Most electric cars are quiet. But Dodge says its future electric muscle car will be super loud

Most electric cars are quiet. But Dodge says its future electric muscle car will be super loud

Dodge, famous for offering cars with big and powerful V8 engines, is phasing out some of its iconic, gas-powered muscle cars in favor of electric power. To ease fans into this new era, the company has opted to mimic some muscle car sensations — including shifting gears and a loud exhaust — in an electric concept car it unveiled on Wednesday.

It's part of an overall shift from Dodge, the American performance car division of Stellantis, towards electrified vehicles. The brand's current gas-powered muscle cars, the Charger and Challenger, end production next year. The concept muscle car, called the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT, resembles a model that will go on sale 2024, according to executives. It will join a new small SUV called the Hornet that will be available as a plug-in hybrid and is set to go on sale later this year.

The Charger Daytona has exhaust pipes that make noise and a transmission that shifts gears. None of that is necessary in an electric car, of course, but Dodge assumes its target customer isn't looking for what's strictly needed. These customers are looking for excitement, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said, which requires more than just fast acceleration.

"We think we're going to bring a car to market that customers didn't see coming," he said. "But they're definitely going to hear this one coming."

The Charger Daytona makes low, loud thrumming tones that sounds a bit like high-voltage electrical equipment. The sounds aren't produced by speakers, like the sounds from most electric cars, but by air pulses forced through pipes with baffles and chambers inside.

Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept


The air pulses vary in speed and force depending on how fast the car is going and how hard the accelerator is pressed, much like the air pulses created by an internal combustion engine. The sounds it produces can be up 126 decibels, according to Dodge. That's about the level at which the ears begin to hurt and well above levels at which sustained exposure can cause hearing loss, according to the National Hearing Conservation Association.

Unlike most electric cars, the Charger Daytona has a transmission with more than just one or two speeds. Most electric cars have only a one-speed transmission because, unlike gasoline engines, electric motors provide their full pulling power at even very low speeds and keep providing that power up through very high rotating speeds. Gas engines, by contrast, have a relatively narrow band of operating speeds at which they can provide full power so it's necessary to have a transmission with different gears to keep the engine within that "power band" as the car moves slower and faster.

But Dodge designers and engineers felt electric car drivers might miss the sounds and sensations of a transmission shifting, so, even though it's not really needed, the Charger Daytona has a multi-speed transmission. Kuniskis would not say how many gears the transmission has. The gas powered 717-horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat has an eight-speed transmission. Classic Dodge Charger muscle cars, like the ones the EV is modeled on, had three- or four-speed transmissions.

Dodge hasn't yet announced how much power the all-wheel-drive car's electric motors will produce, though the company promised that it will be faster than the Dodge Challenger Hellcat "in all key performance measures." The supercharged Hellcat, a gasoline-powered rear-wheel-drive car, can go from a stop to 60 miles an hour in 3.7 seconds, according to Car and Driver.

With its narrow rectangular nose and dark color, the Charger Daytona EV resembles a late 1968 Charger. In its dark paint color, it looks a good bit like the Dodge Charger used in a famous chase scene in the movie "Bullitt," the one that chases -- and gets chased by -- Steve McQueen's Ford Mustang.

The front of the Charger Daytona EV hides a wing that runs just above the "grille." The wing allows air to pass underneath it, improving the car's aerodynamic efficiency. Air vents cut in the sides at the front and rear of the vehicle also help to improve the aerodynamics of the generally squared-off body.

Dodge has not said how much the production version of the car might cost when it goes on sale.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×