Dodge EV Debut Later This Year Will Be a High Performance Driver
Dodge electric muscle car concept won’t just be a display vehicle or computer generated video.
During the media preview for the Roadkill Nights event at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan last weekend, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis talked a bit about the future of the brand. He began by talking about the Never Lift program, which is based on a calendar of dates that will forecast every bit of news on the Challenger and Charger for the next two years. That calendar will be introduced during the fourth quarter of this year and during that same period of time, Dodge will also debut their first electric concept car.
Kuniskis didn’t go into too much detail, but he did emphasize the point that the first Dodge EV concept car will not just be a static display model and a list of specifications. It will be a running, driving, high performance EV and it will help show how Dodge is going to do their electric vehicles differently than other brands.
Dodge EV with be Ready to Rock
Some of you might not understand the significance of Tim Kuniskis stating that the first Dodge EV concept would be a running, driving vehicle. When many concept cars are first introduced, they are just display models. They might be able to move around under their own power, but seldom can they actually perform as well as the finalized production version. This is especially true of vehicles which have not-yet-available drivetrain technology and a great example is the new GMC Hummer.
When General Motors introduced the new Hummer last fall, the company showed video of it in action, bragging about how it would offer 1,000 all-electric horsepower. That would allow the big, heavy all-wheel-drive truck to blast from a stop to 60 miles per hour in just three seconds. However, the day after the initial online debut, news spread that the company didn’t actually have a new Hummer that would do what they claimed.
They had the fully assembled display vehicle and they were well underway with the development of the battery electric drivetrain, but they didn’t actually have a working concept that would do what the video showed. The video was computer generated and all of the numbers were estimated.
That is not the route that Dodge is going to take. When they introduce their first all-electric concept car during the fourth quarter of this year, it will be a complete, high performance driver. Although Kuniskis stated in the Dodge EV Day video that the first electric muscle car won’t arrive until 2024, the company will give us a look at what they are planning roughly three years early. However, right now, we have no idea what they are planning to show us later this year.
What Will It Be?
Based on Kuniskis’ comments, we know that the Dodge EV concept that will debut later this year will be a functional, high performance driver, but we don’t know what it will look like.
The EV Day video showed several shadowy images, some which look like they could depict a classic car and some which look like they could show a modern Charger. The front and rear end shots, along with the burnout clip, appear to be of a vehicle shaped more like a classic Charger.
The profile shot in the middle of the video looks more like the silhouette of a modern Charger (below) and during the EV Day video, Kuniskis did make a comment about a charger making a Charger faster – so it seems likely that we see some variation of that nameplate in use for the concept.
In any case, when Dodge does reveal their first all-electric vehicle, it will be able to flex its muscle in the real world, not just in videos.
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