We got a lot of news from the Mopar world this week about the 2026 Dodge Charger. A twin-turbo inline six powers the new Scat Pack; a V8 Hemi is expected soon after all, and inexpensive gas models are gone. But what about the base-model Daytona Charger EV? Dodge’s CEO blames its absence on tariffs, which makes sense, but I think a bigger problem is that nobody wants one.
Dodge launched the new electric Charger at two trim levels: A base R/T starting at about $62,000 and the higher-performance Scat Pack that starts around $76,000. After a couple of production model years, the R/T was dropped and is notably absent for 2026. The car’s postponement (not cancellation—it might come back) was confirmed back in May.
This week, amid the rollout of the new Charger Six Pack, Dodge CEO Matt McAlear dismissed the idea of low demand for the cheaper Charger EV and essentially blamed tariffs for its demise. In a roundtable with the media, including our own Byron Hurd, he said:
“[The reason] you don’t see an R/T for the 26 model year on the Daytona EV has nothing to do with sales. You know, there was miscommunication out there that we killed that because it wasn’t selling. Absolutely not. It’s simply evolving to a tariff landscape, and where we have to go to maintain profitability in an ever-evolving landscape that right now is reducing the $7,500 central package credit come September.”
As far as when to expect the Dayona EV’s return, the future is unclear.
“As soon as the tariffs stabilize and we’re able to ramp up our manufacturing curve, we’re launching a lot of cars right now at Windsor,” McAlear said. “Still producing the Pacifica, you know, now we got uh, you know, two-door, four-door Daytonas. We’re bringing out high outputs … two- and four-door. So as we ramp that up, as the landscape stabilizes on tariffs, then we will look to grow production. Believe me, we want to employ as many people as possible and produce as many vehicles as possible.”
My read on that is—he’s saying tariffs effectively priced the car out of viability. Which, yeah, if you’ve got a decent car that’s way overpriced, you’re not going to move that many. But the thing is, demand for the Daytona EV looks pretty soft right now, even below its original list price.
I just hopped on AutoTrader and found 1,681 Daytona EVs currently listed for sale under $60,000 around the country. A whole lot of them are brand new or only have delivery miles on them. The fact is, if these were moving, we wouldn’t be seeing $14,000 discounts on models with 0 miles.
Given the market and regulatory environment we’re living in, I have to say I do not see Dodge being in any kind of rush to stamp out more of these cars. The Charger Daytona R/T might be “postponed” for 2026, but its odds of resurrection look pretty slim to me.
Are you driving a Dodge Charger Daytona R/T? I’d love to hear about it. Drop me a line at [email protected].
Comments