Dodge Motors presented its new line of EV Chargers at the 2023 Chicago Auto Show this week, complete with a fake roaring motor sound to hoodwink muscle car enthusiasts.
The 2024 Charger Daytona SRT will be available later this year, as Dodge terminates production of gas-fueled internal combustion engine-powered Chargers and Challengers in 2023.
Footage from the car show this week demonstrated the new Charger’s simulated motor sound.
Who says an #EV can’t have a muscle car exhaust note? @Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept not only looks badass, it sounds like it. EV purists won’t like it, but this is not for them.
The motor sounds so inauthentic even the leftists over at The Verge couldn’t help mock it.
How would you describe that sound? Ornery lion that just got neutered? Tracheostomy bobcat with a voice box?
Read more on the technology used in the new Charger’s phony exhaust, in addition to a fake transmission gear shifter, via Fox News:
Dodge brought its Charger Daytona SRT Banshee electric concept to the event and is showing off its unique “exhaust” system.
The production version of the battery-powered coupe is set to replace all of Dodge’s V8-powered sports cars next year, but it is equipped with a couple of features to keep the classic muscle car experience alive.
Along with a multi-speed transmission that’s not actually necessary for an electric car, but provides the physical impact of powerful gear changes under acceleration, the car also has something Dodge calls the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust.
The technology generates noise with the help of a series of tubes, similar to a pipe organ, that give it a more natural sound than just playing a synthetic engine note through a speaker, as some electric vehicles do.
Who says an #EV can’t have a muscle car exhaust note? @Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept not only looks badass, it sounds like it. EV purists won’t like it, but this is not for them. #CAS2023 pic.twitter.com/YUKcSVzNPg
— Robert Duffer (@DufferRobert) February 8, 2023
New #electric #dodge #charger #daytona #wtf With fake exhaust noise #twotwosteele pic.twitter.com/zcVF5rVj8e
— Two two steele (@TwoSteele) August 18, 2022
Dodge claims the industry-first exhaust sound technology can reach up to 126 decibels, “making it as loud as a Hellcat-powered Dodge.”
Dodge brand CEO Tim Kuniskis discussed creating the sound in an interview with MotorTrend last November, admitting the system relies on an “amplifier,” and thus most certainly speakers:
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. We also knew that we did not want this to sound like a fake V-8, we wanted it to sound modern, fresh, and new; and have this sort of screaming sound which is very identifiable with electric motors,” he said.
It was also a tricky thing to present outdoors and to online livestream audiences, says Kuniskis. The car is designed so air flows through an actual piped exhaust system generating a sound that goes through an amplifier and tuning chamber for the resulting 126-decibel roar. The plan for the live event was to put a microphone on the tailpipe and pump the sound through the speakers in the building. But the speakers in the building were tuned for the voices of the presenters, which would have made the exhaust too loud and sound fake.
“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.
Despite its laughable growl, Dodge has also claimed the new Banshee will be more powerful and faster than a Hellcat with a V8 engine, and two lower Charger models already boast 455 hp to 670 hp.
Time will tell whether the fake exhaust sounds and transmission shifting will be enough to win over gearheads who relish the authentic feel and sound of a gas-powered engine, or if this latest green energy venture will end up blowing up in Dodge’s face.
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