Dodge formally revealed the redesigned Charger right this moment, and we’ve to say, we like what we’ve seen to this point. Whereas you’ll nonetheless have the ability to get a gas-powered model of the coupe and sedan, Dodge can also be providing the Charger as an electrical automobile. Go for the Charger Daytona Scat Pack, and also you’ll get an EV that makes as much as 670 hp and a spread of 260 miles. Alternatively, in the event you’re OK with “solely” having 496 hp, the Charger Daytona R/T gives 317 miles of vary.
A redesigned Dodge Charger is all the time going to be a giant deal. In any case, whereas the Charger has regularly been up to date, it hasn’t been absolutely redesigned since 2006. And this time round, you will get an electrical model. Clearly, Dodge has lots driving on this redesign. So how did CEO Tim Kuniskis resolve to market the brand new Charger? With a 10-minute-long video that options the Dodge brothers, low manufacturing worth and a script that solely individuals who nonetheless use Fb might presumably discover humorous.
The video opens with Kuniskis getting right into a Charger and touring again to Detroit in 1910. It’s tacky, but it surely’s nothing out of the abnormal. Numerous promotional movies are tacky. I imply, one of many Dodge brothers’ strains is actually, “Holy, Hamtramck! What’s that, and who the hell are you?” Even Widmer’s would have a tough time dealing with that a lot cheese.
After which, basically out of nowhere, issues take a tough flip to the appropriate. Kuniskis begins speaking about how the Dodge model and its legacy are below assault by mysterious, ill-defined forces. Then, at concerning the 4:13 mark, he goes on this bizarre rant about how most individuals assume electrical vehicles are imagined to be politically right, and it solely will get weirder from there:
They instructed us we couldn’t promote Hemis, however they by no means instructed us we needed to be boring and sluggish. So we took the foundations, discovered the grey areas and used them. Used them towards them to construct a muscle automobile. To construct a Dodge muscle automobile and slide it below the wire that the regulators threw down in entrance of us like spike strips on the freeway.
What? Critically, what the hell are you speaking about, Tim? What grey areas? Additionally, who really thinks EVs are imagined to be boring and sluggish? Have you ever been asleep for greater than a decade and someway missed the truth that it’s not 2012 anymore? I’m beginning to assume so as a result of just a few seconds later, you brag concerning the Charger Daytona not “trying like a typical battery-electric melted jellybean.”
If Dodge needed to take a shot at Mercedes’ EV lineup, we’re not going to cease them, however come on. Does the GMC Hummer EV seem like a melted jellybean? What concerning the Hyundai Ioniq 5? The Ford F-150 Lightning? The Genesis Electrified GV70? The Kia EV9? I might go on, however you get my level. It’s been a very long time since most individuals related EVs with the G-Wiz, Tim.
We then get a number of strains about how the Charger wasn’t designed with effectivity in thoughts and the way efficiency was a prime precedence earlier than Kuniskis drops the road, “That is NOT the electrical automobile that they need the brotherhood to have.” Once more, what? Who’s “they”? Regulators? Those attempting to maintain emissions from killing our planet? There’s actually a dialog available about mining emissions and the way we are able to recycle batteries, however nobody is telling automakers their EVs must be sluggish.
Does Kuniskis assume there’s some sort of world conspiracy to outlaw efficiency vehicles? If he does, who does he assume is in control of this conspiracy? I feel we might all wish to know, Tim.
From there, the right-wing canine whistles simply hold coming. Together with an prolonged kale smoothie joke that you just simply know made the actor enjoying John Dodge die a bit of inside. It’s truthfully a bit of stunning that Kuniskis didn’t sneak in, “You’ll personal nothing and eat bugs,” sooner or later.
Probably the most complicated factor about this video, although, is that the Charger Daytona Scat Pack isn’t the primary high-performance EV to be offered within the U.S. Removed from it. If Dodge had launched this automobile again in 2010, certain. We’d be prepared to purchase that angle. In 2024, although? Come on.
Tesla has been promoting variations of the Mannequin S which might be simply as, if no more highly effective than the Scat Pack for years, and it’s removed from the one automaker to take action. Lucid? Rivian? Porsche? Mercedes? BMW? All of them make some absurdly fast EVs. Heck, even Hyundai is about to start promoting the 641-hp Ioniq 5 N right here, and Kia already sells the 576-hp EV6 GT.
Odds are, although, Uncle Randy isn’t going to care that none of this makes any sense. Kuniskis owned the libs, and to him, that’s all that basically issues. Nicely, that and ensuring he doesn’t neglect his Black Rifle espresso on the best way to verify in together with his parole officer now that he’s out of jail for his position in January 6. And if that’s not the best buyer, I don’t know what’s.