It feels like we’ve been waiting ages for the new Dodge Charger to drop, and a set of teaser photos recently published to Dodge’s social media platforms suggest that it’s very nearly here. Straight off the rip, a few things are obvious: It’s a coupe, it’s big, it looks almost exactly like the Dodge Charger Daytona concept, and its power source is rather ambiguous. For the people who’ve been complaining that Chargers only have two doors since 2005, your time has come.
Obviously, Dodge has done some work to partially obfuscate the look of the new Charger in these teaser photos, from choosing a grey car to positioning it behind a fence to shooting from a distance. However, there’s still a ton of cues we can pick out from the generous selection of teaser photos.
The front end looks a bit sad in these photos. Maybe the dreary January weather plays a role, but this front clip just doesn’t look as expressively malevolent as the old Challenger or the 392 and Hellcat Chargers with the stormtrooper front end. We’ve got two blocky headlights set into a horizontal grille-like element with one daytime running light bar connecting the two. Pretty simple. Below that, the outer front bumper grilles recall those of the outgoing Hellcat Challenger, while the main bumper grille is trapezoidal like the first facelifted modern Challenger from 2012. Also up front? The Fratzog logo from Mopar history. Gotta lean into that brand heritage, right?
Although it’s hard to tell much about the new Charger’s profile, it seems almost identical to that of the Charger SRT Daytona Banshee concept when viewed from afar, with a few minor detail changes. The mirrors are now actually large enough for a road car, while either a fuel door or a charging port appears on the left quarter panel. Dodge seems to have taken great pains to maintain the classic profile scalloping that reappeared on the previous Charger, and it seems to work on this new car.
Based on information Stellantis has released previously, we know for sure that the new Charger will ride on the STLA Large architecture and feature some level of electrification, likely a full-on battery electric powertrain. However, leaks of bodyshells at a Stellantis facility earlier this year show a transmission tunnel, so don’t be surprised if the three-liter Hurricane inline-six from the Jeep Wagoneer makes an appearance.
Another thing we gleaned from those body-in-white photos is that the new Charger is likely a three-door liftback, making it the first three-door liftback Charger since 1987, and the first liftback Charger coupe with a longitudinal architecture ever. The once-popular liftback bodystyle is now sorely missed from the mass-market coupe segment, so this added boost of practicality might be just what people need to consider the new Dodge Charger a practical family car, even if it loses two doors over the last one.
For a bit of context, here’s the Charger SRT Daytona Banshee concept from 2022. Notice the cutline of the front bumper, the distinct contouring where the fenders meet the hood and A-pillars, the bumper grille silhouette, and the rake of the A-pillars? Yep, all those things carry over from the concept, which suggests the concept may have been built using production data. Considering it’s a running, driving concept, using hardware already in development only makes sense from a cost perspective.
While some might scoff at the Dodge Charger going electric, over the past 58 years, the nameplate’s been positively eclectic. The Charger started life as a midsized fastback for 1966 and 1967, before morphing into the muscle car canonized in the pantheon of greats by productions like “Bullitt” and “The Dukes of Hazzard.” This second-generation Charger was also where the Daytona nameplate was born, with a legendary wing car designed for NASCAR superspeedways.
For 1971, the styling shifted again, with a sleek nose, a more wedge-like silhouette, and Chrysler’s fuselage surfacing. These 1971 to 1974 Chargers are the last of the OG muscle car crop, with available V8 hero engines like the 426 Hemi, the 440, and the attainable 383. Of course, you could also get a third-generation Charger with more economy-minded engines like the 225-cube slant-six, but that’s part of classic American coupes’ long-lasting appeal — they offered something for everyone.
In 1975, things got weird. The muscle car segment was dead thanks to rising fuel costs and concerns about emissions, to the Dodge Charger pivoted to being a rebranded Chrysler Cordoba. Look, it was the era of Quaaludes and leisure suits, it’s hard to explain but easy to acknowledge. Dodge eventually decided to use the Magnum name for its personal luxury coupe, putting the Charger nameplate on ice after 1978.
That ice melted quickly. In 1981, the Charger was back and unlike any other Charger prior or since. This new car was front-wheel-drive, and started its life as an option package before taking over the Omni 024 range entirely. As with before, this Charger had range from mild to wild, with turbo Shelby power at the top of the range and a humble 1.6-liter Simca Poissy engine at the bottom. It was an unprecedently weird time for the Charger nameplate, but a fun one.
Oh, and who could forget the iconic LX and LD Chargers, spanning 2005 until 2023. These rear-wheel-drive bruisers were available with as little as 190 horsepower and as much as 807 horsepower, a hilarious spread if I’ve ever seen one. These cars singlehandedly rebuild the Charger’s reputation into what it is today, and David did a phenomenal job with his history of the LX platform if you’re interested in reading more.
Through the nameplate’s long and tumultuous life, the Dodge Charger has been a sporty midsize fastback, a muscle car, a personal luxury coupe, an import-fighting front-wheel-drive hatchback, a full-size sedan, and now likely an EV. How’s that for constant change?
Expect the new Dodge Charger to debut later this year, possibly as either a 2025 model or a 2026 model depending on start-of-production. We wouldn’t be surprised if it offers a choice of electric or Hurricane turbocharged inline-six power, and it also seems reasonable to expect a liftback, given previous production leaks. Depending on where pricing clocks in, this could be one seriously tempting family vehicle if you don’t have much of a need for rear doors. Plus, even with its size, it could still give the Ford Mustang some competition.
(Photo credits: Dodge)
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I checked out the images on their Instagram page and they had one of the rears of the car. It does not appear to have any tailpipes on the one they posted. It would be extremely shortsighted and detrimental of Stellantis to ship this without NACS on board.
I’ve never thought of myself as a muscle car person, but if you say “3-door 800V EV coupe,” you have my goddamn attention.
That top 1/8th shot is horrible, while the 1/4 shot below is beautiful.
I like the overall look of this thing – nice to see coupes haven’t complete died out. As to the powertrain, I hope they’ve solved the problem of not only supplying inverse reactive current, for use in unilateral phase detractors, but also being capable of synchronizing cardinal grammeters.
I am hanging for an improved lunar wane shaft for this model
The question is, will it fill seemingly every intersection in your city with multiple black circles on NY’s eve like the current ones?
swear to bog, there are 9 such in my 3.2 mile drive from house to the supply house. Downtown seems like every other intersection.
Isn’t the STLA large basically an updated version of the Giorgio platform used in the Alfa Giulia and more recently the 2nd Gen Maserati Gran Turismo? If so there is potential for this car to drive pretty well.
I am really looking forward to seeing this thing in the wild. I am 90% onboard, but they missed on that narrow slot grille. Camaro did the same thing. Needs to be a taller grill and shorter lower intake. Tried to post a hyperlink to a mockup, but not working.
Here’s the link https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8aofnk207gqi9n2sb3ism/Charger-large-grill.png?rlkey=o7lo25u01biq4j5k7bqnrqjw2&dl=0
Ok, so what’s the difference between a charger and a challenger then?
There isn’t going to be a new Challenger. This is essentially replacing both the current Charger and Challenger.
Seems crazy to only have a 2 door option. The Charger being a 4 door might have been sacrilegious at the time but everyone is used to it nowadays.
It does sort of make sense when you consider the death of the sedan. I doubt there will be enough demand for both models so cater to the niche that still like coupes since anyone that might buy the sedan is already standing in line for the next electric SUV/CUV.
I owned a 68 Charger when I was 16 (too much Dukes of Hazzard growing up idk) and although I’ve always liked the last few iterations of chargers, yeah…. there should have been a 2 door model. I like they made a sedan version as well, but 2 doors is what the lord intended.
Happy to see Mopar evolving…
Well, I mean, the Challenger existed as essentially a Charger Coupe (as its full size dimensions made it more similar in market positioning to the original Charger than the more pony car-like original Challenger), hell, if the name was the big hang-up, plastic Charger script badges were always available to rebadge one.
????
-_-
!!!!
This is the first new car introduction that has gotten me excited in… 5 years? More? There’s still plenty of opportunity tor Dodge to screw it up (price, UX shenanigans, reliability), but it gives me a glimmer of hope that the future of transportation might not be all anodyne quasi-autonomous anon-o-pods.
Maybe I will buy a car built after 2015 that I actually want, some day…
I’m excited for it, whether as an EV or with the Hurricane I6. In fact, I particularly look forward to seeing it on the road, because I’m sure it won’t be in my driveway due to cost.
I am really interested in what they do with the EV but since they are not onboard with NACS its going to be a no go.
At first glance I thought the fratzog logo was the Klingon insignia. Glory to your Mopar!!!
Qapla’!!!
the first header image absolutely reads as sad face, but then they pile it on with the rest of them behind the chainlink fences, I can almost hear the Sarah McLachlan “Angel” playing and asking for donations.
For only $10 a month you can support neglected, V8 less Chargers just like these 🙁
It looks like it still has those stupid electric only door handles…
Why can’t they just make normal cars that happen to be electric? I have no desire to drive around in a Samsung Galaxy.
EXACTLY! That’s what I loved about the e-Golf, it was 95% a Golf. Then VW came out with the ID series which is almost universally hated except for the Buzz and even then it still hasn’t been sold in the US yet and it’s only coming in one variant.
Here’s a wild idea: Take a car people like, make it electric.
Not ‘Make an electric car, make people buy it via regs.’
Why does the hood have a big bump in it?
that’s where they store some of the electrons that have been boosted by the turbo.
(seriously though, apparently it might have a gas engine in some versions)
Nothing gets me more excited than a gray car with a rainy-day gray industrial backdrop!
In all seriousness, I like the way it looks, and I will appreciate seeing it around regardless of powertrain, assuming that it continues to come in an actual color palette. I know everyone is going to complain that it looks dull, but this particular shot couldn’t be less flattering.
I’m sure there are going to be versions of the Charger that will turn the aggressiveness up to 11, for better or worse.
Say that for the Charger/Challenger/etc, they’ve tended to offer them in a pretty wild array of colors, even if most of the buyers seem to go for “menace black”.
They’re still not the car for me, but I’m coming to respect them for continuing to put out actually interesting cars.
Given the body styling, I suggest “Generally Orange” as a colour.
Yeah it’s probably not a car for me? But they look good, and they often bring some color and pizazz to the car environment. Even if the typical Charger/Challenger driver probably hates the word pizazz.
I hope the header image is just an unflattering angle because I think it looks incredibly plain….and the point of these cars is to be the opposite of plain. I think everyone is a little worried about Dodge’s future given the fact that they can’t just throw V8s in everything anymore, and I’m not sure if this really does anything to calm those concerns.
I dug through the other images that are online too and I am definitely whelmed. Honestly it’s kind of giving me 240 SX/300 ZX vibes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely doesn’t feel like a very Dodge thing to me. The current Challenger is one of the best retro modern designs ever (perhaps only second to the Z8 in my opinion) and this is just…I don’t know, brotherrrrrr.
I wonder if the plainness shown here will make these great for selling graphics packages. I’ll bet a stripe or two would really break that up and the surfaces don’t have the weird creases and such that end up breaking up the decals or making them look funny.
Personally, I think it’ll look pretty good in a bright color with a dark stripe.
New plan: Ramcharger drivetrains in all the things.
I’ll allow it
Looks great. Also looks like it has at least 305’s out back
Dodge should have just reintroduced the Fratzog back when the cross hair was first reassigned to Ram, the two slashes always seems like a temporary placeholder that was made semi-permanent for laziness reasons.
I guess this confirms I can’t have a Charger as my next car though, given that I can’t get business mileage reimbursement on something with 2 doors that isn’t a pickup truck. Oh well, I guess the Toyota Crown is still in the running
You might if you threaten to quit over that silly policy.
I don’t think they’re going to change a company wide policy because 1 out of 76,000 employees threatened to quit over it
still don’t know how I feel but I do love the return of the fratzog
it would be nice if dodge found a way to turn this into a wider set of models that don’t suck like the hornet.
I await a V8 Hellcat version.
*sad supercharger whine*
It’s the perfect car for street takeovers and general miscellaneous jackassery. They should never kill the V8 off. I won’t stand for it.
The antics of the 350-credit-score Hellcat operators where I live never fail to amuse. They also don’t tend to keep the cars for very long.
I await the next fuel crisis eagerly so that I can snatch one up for pennies on the dollar in cash from a buy-here-pay-here lot where it was returned after it was repo’d from the previous owner.
A part of me really appreciates them, but another part of me kind of resents the jackassery that they seem to consistently result in. I’m personally not fond of takeovers or antisocial driving in populous areas. I do think there are some gray areas where you can be naughty on public roads (long on and off ramps, deserted country roads, empty parking lots, etc) but if your quest to return to monke puts other people at risk I don’t jive with it.
If you want to melt tires like a lunatic head to a test and tune night at your local drag strip. It’ll be a rootin tootin good time and you’ll have a captive audience.
Empty parking lots are great. A former professor of mine once did 90 mph in an empty Walmart parking lot in a malaise-era Cadillac Fleetwood.
Good, I hope that means we are moving away from the push for the angriest cars/pickups and into different design language.
At least the Charger’s got the beans to back up looking that angry – I’m really tired of getting mean-mugged by Honda Accords.
And often driven by a demographic to which a mean-mug arrest booking photo is a status symbol.
It just adds to these cars’ collective allure…
Right, I don’t know if it’s a good bit, but at least they’re committed to the bit and doing the bit. If you wanna drive an angry, pissed off car, absolutely, buy one of these antisocial-ass cars and own it, but don’t just sit in your hybrid crossover and seeth at the rest of us. Do something, dammit!
No, you don’t understand.
Angry looking Honda CRV=bad
Angry looking 700hp Hellcat=good
I like sleek fast cars, so maybe I’ll never quite get the aggressive modern muscle vibe. But I do know that trends tend to be a thing, so I’m hoping that angry Charlenger moving to something more sleek means all the things trying to look like they perform might copy that and give us a sleek CRV instead of the aggressive one.
Now what the cops gonna drive? Chargers were the perfect fit for today’s police culture.
Tanks and Humvees. They wanna pretend to be occupying forces anyway, so it’ll be an even better fit than aggressive Chargers.
I like the faux body rake. The front end kinda gives me Camaro vibes, though.
Are you referring to the hood spoiler (?) that’s giving the front end the appearance of a more squared-off angle? It’s arguably one of the best design wrinkles I’ve seen recently. Drag coefficiency is crucial for EVs but not everyone wants to drive something that looks like the Tritan A2 (even though they should). This is seemingly the best compromise for blocky aesthetic muscle cars in the electrified age.
Did I miss the images? I just see the header image and nothing else…
I only saw the header as well.
They’re there now. It looks awesome, IMO.