We chat with Dodge chief Kuniskis on the reaction to the Charger Daytona SRT Concept and future e-muscle car plans.
, piqued enough interest for about 30,000 orders. Then came the unveil of the Charger Daytona SRT electric muscle car concept and its controversial"exhaust" note. The verdict? Many loved the idea, but not how it sounded, Kuniskis says.The team had already been working on the sound for a year."We were super confident with the idle because the idle was to us non-negotiable. It literally has the cadence of the Hemi [V-8] firing order so we knew that it was right.
"So, we decided no speakers, it's going to be the sound of the car and we drove a handmade car outside," Kuniskis explains."I wanted people to hear the sound as it drove by. It was important to make sound with the movement of air, not with some speakers." He says it needs to be heard with the spatial difference of a car going in the opposite direction—a nuance that cannot be picked up on a computer speaker for those watching the event remotely.
Nor is it done."Did we crack the code on wide-open motors? Not yet. But we've got two years," Kuniskis says, before the car goes on sale."We have changed the sound of that car 1,000 times and we will continue to.""We're still working on it and we have a plan to do something with it at SEMA that will help. By the time we get to launch we will be comfortable with the sound and where we are," Kuniskis promised from the show floor.
While the original Charger Daytona concept was on display at the Detroit show, Kuniskis said plans are to show a different side of the electric muscle car at SEMA in November. It will be a chance to show how Direct Connection authorized dealers are equipped to help buyers who want to modify their car."We'll show a different version of that car. It will look totally different, to show the multiple personalities.
"We still have work to do but we got a good start. This can have some legs. Now we still have two years of our business plan to keep trickling it out," Kuniskis says. And Dodge is a niche brand that seems unlikely to ever exceed 5 percent of total market share in the U.S."Most people can not like what we do. That's OK. They weren't going to buy a Hellcat either. The brand is not for everybody.