The new electric Dodge Charger had a lot to prove when an influencer took one to a racetrack. Dodge’s electric replacement for its famous muscle cars still has flashes of aggressive styling, even if the reaction to its overall shape was mixed, and enough straight-line performance to impress. But the moment the driver tried to make it behave like the old-school cars it replaced, things went badly.

The test started with some donuts, where the Charger actually managed to surprise him. But once he took it onto the track and tried to slide it through real corners, the car seemed determined to do the exact opposite of what he wanted.

The Charger was fast, but that was not enough

Before getting onto the racetrack, the influencer admitted he had been hard on the electric Charger during the walkaround. He disliked its size, weight and fake V8 sound, but he was still willing to give it a chance once he could actually drive it hard.

In a straight line, the car changed his mind somewhat. He called the acceleration good and said it felt like it had around 600 horsepower. The Charger also had a surprisingly small turning radius, and an early attempt at donuts showed that the electric all-wheel-drive system could do something entertaining when pushed.

That gave him some hope for the racetrack.

Then the understeer took over

Things changed as soon as he started pushing the Charger through corners. The first major complaint was its weight, followed quickly by severe understeer. He could throw the car into a corner, but the drift mode would intervene and straighten the car back out.

“This car is actively trying to work against me,” he said.

The problem became even more obvious when he tried to enter corners sideways. The Charger would initially go into a slide, but when he got back on the throttle to keep it going, the car would intervene again by reducing the power and applying the brakes.

He eventually called it the new king of understeer, replacing an Audi he had previously given that reputation to.

Drift mode was not giving him the freedom he wanted

The influencer’s frustration was not simply that the Charger could not drift. His bigger complaint was that the car’s electronic systems seemed to keep taking control away from him.

Reflecting afterward, he compared the experience with other all-wheel-drive cars, pointing out that he had seen an Audi RS5 being driven sideways despite also having all-wheel drive — proof, in his view, that AWD cars can still be made to slide with the right setup. With the Charger, however, he said it felt more like driving a front-wheel-drive car because it kept pushing wide through corners.

After only one lap of the track and several donuts, the battery had dropped from 91% to 74%. He also said the driving was making him feel sick and that he did not want to continue for another lap.

He left the track wanting the V8 back

By the end of the test, the influencer had little left to defend. He said he had genuinely wanted to find something fun about the car, especially because he likes Dodge as a brand, but the track session had gone the other way.

His biggest complaint was that the electric Charger did not deliver the rowdy behavior he associated with Dodge’s older muscle cars. He argued that making a car fast was not enough and that the car also needed to feel engaging rather than relying on artificial engine sounds and electronic intervention.

“I really love the brand,” he said, before making his verdict clear: “Just please build the V8 again, Dodge.”

For a car carrying the Charger name and being tested specifically for its ability to behave like a performance car, the track session left him thoroughly unimpressed.

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*Research for this article included AI assistance, with all final content reviewed by human editors.