In case you haven’t heard, Stellantis hosted a key event surrounding electric cars today. All of its brands are committing to battery power in one way or another, with each carefully curating its approach to electrification so it best fits their target customer base. That includes legendary muscle car maker, Dodge, who will sell its first electric performance model in 2024—and it’ll apparently have all-wheel drive.
It might seem hard to grasp given the automaker’s love affair with huge V8 engines and gobs of gasoline-fed horsepower, but yeah, it’s happening. Not just for the SUVs and sedans of the world either, but also for its bread and butter muscle cars. Times are changing, and gone are the days in which muscle exclusively means V8, loud exhaust, and rear-wheel-drive.
Dodge ended its EV Day presentation with a small teaser of what’s to come. And by a small teaser, we mean a visual of its first battery-electric muscle car doing a big smokey burnout in a typically on-brand display.
There were a few easter eggs to catch, though—like the fact that Dodge’s upcoming EV muscle car is pouring smoke from all four wheels. It looks like the upcoming flagship will be all-wheel-drive, then.
The thought of an all-wheel-drive muscle car might seem odd at first but look at the direction we’re headed in. Already today, the Challenger is offered with optional all-wheel drive, and despite feeling like a domesticated grand tourer, Dodge still calls it a muscle car. The same goes for the Charger, which has featured all-wheel drive as an option for years.
As for that logo on the front of the car, it’s called a Fratzog and it’s been around for decades.
This was the default Dodge emblem on many models built between 1962 and 1981, just before the iconic Chrysler Pentastar logo made its debut in Dodge’s archetypal red branding. And before you get too deep in the weeds trying to figure out just what the hell a Fratzog is, let me spoil it for you: it’s meaningless—just another marketing piece.
The end of the video shows a still with the modernized Fratzog logo, signaling the potential for yet another branding shift in Dodge’s long history of marketing revitalization efforts.
Speaking of old school, that illuminated grille gives off some serious classic Dodge vibes, doesn’t it? The Challenger and Charger both used the boxy design in the ’70s, and they’re the brand’s two remaining muscle cars today. The profile in the animation certainly looks coupe-ish as well, so it’s more than likely this is a sneak peek at the first electrified Dodge Challenger.
That being said, I’m really hoping for Dodge to pull out the pun cards and use the Charger branding at some point, because if it can claim to sell “American eMuscle” instead of just calling them electric cars, it can at least take this one for the team.
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