Dodge has a lot riding on the success of the next-gen Charger, specifically the Charger Daytona EV. Aside from pissing off “The Brotherhood” by abandoning the Hemi V8, Dodge needs to nail the Charger to get its EV transition underway. Unfortunately for Dodge, a few problems have crept up during last minute testing, forcing the company to delay the EV’s launch by 90 days, Mopar Insiders reports.
Speaking to Mopar Insiders anonymously, dealer sources say electrical issues have come up during testing and Dodge needs more time to sort the problems out. Said problems are things that could be a disaster if they happened in customer hands. Mopar Insiders even saw some of these issues first hand:
For instance, one prototype was spotted by one of our readers being hauled back to the Chrysler Technical Center (CTC) in Auburn Hills on the back of a flatbed wrecker with tow straps running through its open windows.
In another case, engineers were locked out of the vehicle’s hatch, forcing them to climb through the interior to access the cargo area. This explains the number of prototypes we have seen with cords hanging out from their hatches, as the upscale models have power hatches.
When it was revealed back in March, Dodge set a late summer on-sale date for the Charger Daytona, but these issues have pushed the launch back into the fall. Mopar Insiders says these changes have been made at the dealer level as well, with ordering processes for both dealers and customers and dealer allocations also delayed. Insiders reached out to Dodge for a statement on the delay and was met with silence.
For those of you not interested in the Charger EV, there’s still hope for the gas-powered Six Pack models. No issues were mentioned with those models and they should still be on track to arrive later this year.
