No More Dodge Daytona R/T Electric….Maybe?

By Dave Ashton

Dodge has announced the entry-level Charger Daytona R/T wil be discontinued for 2026, possibly as an ‘order only’ model, according to some rumors. However, the Daytona Scat Pack will stay, with a four-door and twin-turbo variants available for 2026.

“Production of the Dodge Charger Daytona R/T is postponed for the 2026 model year as we continue to assess the effects of U.S. tariff policies,” the company told us in a statement. “The Charger’s flexible, multi-energy STLA Large platform allows us to focus on the Charger Daytona Scat Pack’s performance as the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car, add the new four-door model to the Charger mix for the 2026 model year and lean into the new Charger SIXPACK models that will launch in the second half of the year.”

Filling a Gap That Maybe Didn’t Need Filling

It only takes a quick search online to find showrooms selling Charger Daytona’s at cut prices, some with a third off the RRP. In one case that’s a drop from $61,590 to 34,184.

It’s clear to see how the electric Daytone R/T came into existance. The massive push at the start of the 2020s to have every road-going vehicle run on electric motors instead of internal combustion engines.
Legislation looked on the horizon to slowly phase out all internal combustion-engined cars to eventually be replaced by all-electric or at least hybrid cars in the coming years.
Thus, we can see why Dodge wanted to be ahead of the curve and design a new muscle car for the coming age.

Electric is a viable alternative as a city car, but for a performance vehicle with a history firmly wrapped around the V8 internal combustion engine was always going to be a hard sell.

Give Dodge credit where credit is due. They knew in advance this would be an uphill battle. The Dodge Fratzonic exhaust system was designed to mimic the sound of a V8 engine. But, while the sound was there, it couldn’t reproduce the vibes of a V8 (sit in any age American V8 engined car and you will get the idea.)

While the eco-friendly, small car market gets electric vehicles, the performance market has yet to take the bait.

Maybe, the muscle car market is like other sectors where we are happy with what we have. Take the Fender Stratocaster guitar. It has been more or less the same design since the early 1950s, with slight ‘tweaks’ along the way. How can they sell us the same design for over 70 years? Maybe, they just got it right in the first place.

 

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