Sad Trombone: Our Dodge Charger EV Lost $50K in Value After Just One Year

• What's new: We spent a year with a Dodge Charger Daytona EV.
• Why it matters: The Daytona rewrote the playbook for the Dodge Charger by giving it an electric drivetrain ... and not to great effect.
• Edmunds says: Living with the Charger was like death by a thousand cuts, and the final kicker was the Dodge losing more than half its value when it came time to say goodbye.

"Going electric didn't have to tank the Charger, but it did. There's room for a big, dumb EV that does knuckle-dragging burnouts, doesn't care about range, and looks menacing. But, instead of a Charger, we got something that could have been called the Intrepid. I can only imagine that most of Dodge's customer base for this car evaporated overnight." — Kurt Niebuhr, manager, vehicle testing

"I can't find a good seating position in the Charger. I have a short-leg, long-torso build, which is usually pretty good for me. It means that my arms can almost always comfortably reach the steering wheel and controls. But the pedals in the Charger are way too close, and the steering wheel and gauge cluster way too far away. So even for me, I wind up feeling like the seat is too far back for my upper body unless my legs are bent at a pretty severe angle. For a car that's longer than the line at the DMV, it seems kind of ridiculous that they wouldn't have room to get the pedals in a good spot." — Will Kaufman, manager, video

"The turning radius is problematically awful for any kind of close-quarters driving, including normal parking lots. It's also literally as wide as a Ford F-150, which makes it tricky to park in a garage. And, yeah, having super-long doors so you can get into the enormous back seat (and so Dodge could keep costs low by having a consistent wheelbase between the two- and four-door Chargers) means that, if you're parked next to someone, getting in and out will be a real squeeze." — Duncan Brady, script writer

"The fake Fratzonic exhaust noise is an insult to V8s everywhere. Do people think this actually sounds good? The best part about this 'feature' is that you can turn it off." — Steven Ewing, director, editorial content

"I can live with a car that has quirks, but the Charger has proved to be nothing but inconsistent whenever I've brought it home. From the radio scrolling stations on its own, to the backup camera not coming on until I've stopped reversing and started going forward, to the regen braking packing it in on nearly every trip, and to the creep function randomly engaging while stopped (fun when you have your foot off the brake and the Dodge just moves towards the car/wall/building in front of you), the Charger just can't do the same thing — its job — every day." — Kurt Niebuhr, manager, vehicle testing

"The Daytona struggles to keep body motions in check through a bend while its Brembo brakes begin to fade far sooner than they should. Factor in its all-season tires, and you get a car that writes checks in the straights that it can't cash in the corners. At least it's like a muscle car in that sense, but the truth is that neither you nor the car ends up having a good time." — Gabriel Vega Cortés, vehicle test editor

"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." — Ryan Greger, senior social media strategist 

It also broke — in weird ways

Senior vehicle test editor Reese Counts recalls a peculiar experience with our Charger Daytona.

"The battery in our long-term Dodge Charger Daytona died on me, but not in the way you might think. I was at the Edmunds summer party and stepped away to take a phone call. Since it was hot and an idling EV doesn't burn fuel, I figured I'd take the call inside the Charger and run the AC. Everything was fine until the call ended." 

"I hung up and pressed the car's power button, but it wouldn't turn off. At least not fully off. It got stuck in accessory mode. I couldn't turn the Charger fully on and drive away, but I couldn't turn it fully off either. I tried holding the button for a long time to see if that forced anything, and I spent a while searching online to see if the Charger has a hard reset mode like Teslas do. No dice."

"And before you ask, yes, I considered disconnecting the car's 12-volt battery. EVs all use two types of batteries. There's the big high-voltage battery that powers the electric motors that turn the wheels and move the car, but, like gas-powered cars, there's also a regular 12-volt battery to run all the accessories, like the lights and air conditioning. Unfortunately, I didn't have any tools on me to remove the panel that hides the battery or disconnect the cables from the battery terminals."

"By the time the tow truck arrived a few hours later, the Charger had been sitting in accessory mode for so long that the 12-volt battery finally died. After the driver used a portable jump starter to restore some energy to the 12-volt battery, the Charger came back to life as if nothing had happened. In fact, I was able to put the car in D and drive it onto the flatbed truck myself. Our local dealership was unable to replicate or diagnose the problem, and it never happened again. This isn't the first EV to just stop working on me, but I've never had to get a tow before."

And then there was the very strange case of our Charger's unintended acceleration, which we later learned was a, uh, "feature" called Drive by Brake. I'll let director of written content Brent Romans explain.

"Dodge claims the Drive by Brake mode activates if the vehicle encounters a certain problem, such as an accelerator or gas pedal that stops working. The Drive by Brake mode applies a low level of power and constant acceleration (up to approximately 50 mph) so that the driver can continue to drive the vehicle, rather than being stuck with a disabled vehicle. The driver is expected to control the acceleration by applying the brake pedal."

But some of us liked it, kinda

"The Charger Daytona exceeded the EPA's estimates, and not by a small amount. On the Edmunds EV Range Test, the Charger Daytona Scat Pack traveled 255 miles, beating the EPA's 216-mile estimate by 18%." — Brian Wong, senior reviews editor

"That huge hatchback does hold rock 'n roll gear, like a Fender Precision Bass and a pedal board, with ease." — Kurt Niebuhr, manager, vehicle testing

"While its interior tech remains buggy with an infotainment screen prone to freezing and a backup camera that occasionally stutters, the Daytona's cabin is reasonably quiet at higher speeds, and its seats are pretty comfortable once you dial in your seating position just right." — Gabriel Vega Cortés, vehicle test editor

"Dodge unfortunately screwed up a lot of the details with its new Charger, but it got the styling and swagger absolutely right." — Brent Romans, director, written content

"If there's one thing Dodge got right, it's the styling of this thing. Can't tell you how many non-EV enthusiasts gave this a thumbs-up. People love this thing, and it's easy to see why. It looks pretty darn cool." — Jonathan Elfalan, director, vehicle testing

Even so, a few good attributes and cool looks aren't enough. The Charger was a big, expensive disappointment. We won't miss having this thing in our fleet.