Our Dodge Charger Daytona EV's Worst Offense? It's Boring

• We've had our Dodge Charger Daytona EV for just about a year.
• I wasn't expecting great things for my first stint behind the wheel.
• Overall, I found the Charger to be a total snooze — the worst offense for a car like this.

Plus, as far as Dodge — or Stellantis — interiors go, this one is pretty nice. Aside from some quality issues (like a very wobbly center console), I really like the overall design, especially the all-encompassing ambient lighting. So long as you turn off the droning Fratzonic fake exhaust sound, the Charger is surprisingly fine as point-A-to-point-B transportation.

But that last line is really a backhanded compliment. "Fine as point-A-to-point-B transportation" is exactly what I would say about a Toyota Corolla. For an electric car with 670 horsepower, I expected so much more.

The problem

The Charger EV is trying so hard to be good at everything that all the personality of past Chargers and Challengers — both good and bad — is gone. High-power Chargers and Challengers have always been brash and ridiculous; that's what gave them their charm. They made you feel something. This thing, though … it's like it's trying to be sophisticated, but it just feels like a poseur. I don’t want a sophisticated Charger. That literally defeats the entire point. 

I hustled the Charger around winding Malibu canyon roads on a Sunday morning, and while it certainly handled better than the old gas-powered models, it wasn't fun. Like, at all. Zilch. A week later, I did the same drive in a Nissan Armada Nismo — a 6,100-pound behemoth of an SUV with way less power — and I genuinely enjoyed it more, despite the Armada being technically "worse" to drive. That dumb Nissan recognizes its ridiculousness and leans into it, and you just can't help but smile and laugh from behind the wheel. That's how I wanted to feel in the Charger, and I didn't. Not even a little bit.

Sure, you can turn on the Charger's faux exhaust noise, but it's annoying. You can punch the throttle when coming around a tight bend, but the handling stinks.

Not as bad as I expected — and somehow, that's worse

When I got behind the wheel of the Charger, I was hoping for a silly couple of days. I had very low expectations, and I figured that, at the very least, the car would make me laugh. But instead, I was just bored the whole time. And boring is the last thing a car like this should be. 

Is the Charger EV objectively better in many ways than its predecessors? Sure. But subjectively? There's simply no comparison. I'll be fine never driving this thing again.