Corporations will use any excuse to justify doing something they’d probably need or want to do in the absence of that excuse. During the pandemic, there were a lot of items that experienced totally justifiable price increases due to supply chain issues and changes in demand. Then there’s stuff that got more expensive seemingly because everyone was using the emergency as a reason to charge more.
Are the tariffs on vehicles going to cause prices to go up, vehicles to get cancelled, and otherwise result in changes to the market that were not planned? Absolutely. Is it the only reason why Stellantis would need to kill the Dodge Charger Daytona R/T electric car? That’s what it sounds like Stellantis is saying, and I am just a bit skeptical. I have honestly missed Stellantis shenanigans in The Morning Dump. Nature is healing.
Lotus is one of the companies that seemed like it we be most proportionally screwed by tariffs, but now there’s a silver lining. Lotus might be saved, and it might be saved by internal combustion. BYD isn’t worried about protectionism long-term, as it’s expanding its presence in Europe much in the same way Japanese automakers took hold of California in the 1970s and ’80s. Is Hungary the new California? They both make pretty good wine.
Ending on a truly terrible note, a massive fire in England at a classic car mecca has claimed three lives.
Charger Daytona R/T Postponed ‘To Assess The Effects Of U.S. Tariff Policies’
When Sam reviewed the all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona, he walked away impressed with its muscle-car approach to something that’s entirely electric. At the same time, he worried that there would be “a group of Hellcat V8 diehards that will go to their graves condemning this car and refuse to consider it no matter how many times they get beat at the drag strip.”
I haven’t driven one yet, and maybe I’ll never get the chance, but the few I’ve seen do look great. I also think the 465 horsepower and sub-5 second 0-60 mph time in the R/T trim is plenty enough for me, thank you. However, at over $60,000, there are just too many other electric cars with better range and similar performance I’d consider. You’re not even that far away from a base Lucid Air.
That’s assuming you pay full freight. Dealers have already been dropping the prices of Chargers by up to $32,000. Heavy discounting for a brand-new car is a terrible sign. The fact that it’s for a Charger, the once extraordinarily desirable muscle car, is something that sounds insane until you find out it’s because the car is a pricey and not particularly range-ful BEV. The company sold fewer than 2,000 of them in Q1, though we don’t have much to compare it to since the car just launched. By comparison, Dodge sold 10,660 of the gas-powered Chargers in Q1 of 2024.
All of this is reason enough to probably reconsider selling the entry-level R/T version, and Mopar Insiders learned a that’s a part of a bunch of changes coming for MY 2026:
Dodge is dropping the Daytona R/T for 2026. While our sources told us that the Charger Daytona would be an order-only model for the new year, Dodge has changed its mind. Dodge appears to have eliminated the R/T due to poor sales. According to various car inventory search websites, more than 3,500 units of the 496-horsepower R/T two-door are sitting on dealer lots, so it looks like Dodge is cutting its losses and shifting focus. Meanwhile, the more powerful Daytona Scat Pack—making 670 horsepower—still has around 1,600 units left from 2024 and 2025, but it’s sticking around for another year with some significant changes.
The site also reports that the four-door electric Daytona Scat Pack will be around in 2026, making people who missed the old Charger sedan happy. Maybe. Why did this happen?
Slow sales seem like the obvious reason, but that’s not what a Stellantis spokesperson told Carscoops:
“Production of the Dodge Charger Daytona R/T is postponed for the 2026 model year as we continue to assess the effects of U.S. tariff policies,” the company told us in a statement. “The Charger’s flexible, multi-energy STLA Large platform allows us to focus on the Charger Daytona Scat Pack’s performance as the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car, add the new four-door model to the Charger mix for the 2026 model year and lean into the new Charger SIXPACK models that will launch in the second half of the year.”
The Charger Daytona is built in Canada and, therefore, is likely subject to some tariffs. The vehicle is almost certainly USMCA compliant, so it’s probably not seeing import duties as high as other vehicles. This is merely my opinion, but like a pair of Yeezy Foam Runners… I’m not buying it. The car is already likely a money-loser, so having to make it more expensive to any degree is untenable. However, there’s no reason to keep making a car that requires such heavy discounting, and this feels like something that Stellantis would have to do anyway after seeing the (lack of a) market response.
It’s much better to focus, as Stellantis is doing, on the pricier models.
Lotus To Be Saved By The Gas Engine
Lotus, which makes no cars in the United States and has no real hope of doing so, is perhaps the company most disrupted by the tariffs. And I’m not even talking about the recent ones. I mean the Joe Biden tariffs on Chinese-built cars. Add any more tariffs onto that and Lotus, which planned to introduce a bunch of Chinese-built EVs to the United States, would be more boned than Lotus usually is.
There are some changes afoot that might make things a little easier for the automaker. First, the popular Lotus Emira is made in Hethel, which means it will likely be able to sneak into the country under a proposed lower tariff number. Even better for everyone, sliding EV sales have persuaded the company to reconsider that whole full-electrification-by-2028 plan.
What’s the new plan? Dan Balmer, CEO of Lotus Europe, explained it to CAR:
The Hyper Hybrid is the answer, Lotus hopes. EREVs, or extended-range electric vehicles, have become big business at the premium end of the market in China. Li Auto’s blandly attractive SUVs with their big batteries mated to a back-up 1.5-litre engine have eaten into the market share of BMW, Mercedes and JLR.
The problem for a luxury manufacturer is that once the battery is depleted the four-cylinder engine is sweating hard to power a generator to keep the electric motor fed.
Lotus’s solution is the Dual Hyper Charging technology. Once the battery runs low mid-journey, the company’s ‘ultra-fast’ On-The-Drive Charging technology will provide a rapid top-up, theoretically retaining the same smooth, powerful electric experience for longer. ‘It will satisfy Lotus users’ pursuit of driving joy,’ Feng told analysts.
Also, the Emira gets to stick around a bit longer, and some other electric projects are getting postponed.
It all seems like good news to me.
BYD Will Base Its European Operations And R&D Center In Budapest
Budapest is a great town, although I think I was once drugged there. I don’t remember much, other than ending up at the casino and winning what felt like a lot of money (probably due to the exchange rate and my inability to quickly convert Forints to USD in my head).
BYD seems to feel the same, and so the company has launched its European HQ in the country, not too far away from its first European plant. From the automaker:
As evidence of BYD’s stated policy of localisation in Europe, it has committed to produce patents based on development at the Hungarian centre, and to cooperate with Hungarian start-ups and domestic suppliers. The proportion of higher-education employees at the centre is expected to be at least 90 per cent.
Commenting on the announcement, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said: “Establishing BYD’s European headquarters in Hungary is a natural progression. As the core hub for BYD’s European operations, the headquarters will focus on three key functions: sales and after-sales services, vehicle certification and testing, and localised vehicle design and feature development. Through these synergies, we aim to deepen integration with local markets, enhance our localisation capabilities and brand influence, and ensure sustainable growth in Europe.”
On hand was Viktor Orbán, the wannabe strongman ruler of Hungary. The placement in Hungary isn’t a surprise. The country is in the EU, and Orbán, much like Turkey’s Erdoğan, likes to play various global pacts against one another. Hungary is the EU state that’s most closely aligned with Russia and, arguably, China. This makes it a safer place for China to invest without having to worry about as many political problems.
Also, it’s close to a bunch of European markets, the food is great, the labor is educated and relatively cheap, and the rosé ain’t half bad.
Three Killed In A Fire At Bicester Motion
I was watching the news out of Britain yesterday and holding my breath, hoping that terrible scenes of a massive fire at a former RAF Base-turned-car nirvana only claimed machines, and not lives. Unfortunately, two firefighters and at least one civilian were killed in an explosion and blaze at the facility.
Bicester Motion, if you’re not aware, is a sort of incubator for people in the automotive space a couple of hours north of London. There’s a regular “Scramble” historic motoring event on the old flight surface. Hagerty has an event space there. And basically every inch of the place contains car, or at least car-adjacent, workshops and spaces.
Tragically, a fire at a main hangar set much of the place ablaze yesterday. From the Oxford Mail:
The tragic incident has taken the lives of three people, two firefighters and one member of the public, and seriously injured two further firefighters who attended the emergency response.
The full scale of the disaster is only coming to light this morning after the fire began at about 6.40pm on Thursday, May 15.
Several car groups have reported that the building affected on the northern edge of the site was hangar 79, which was used to store multiple vintage vehicles.
The loss of classic cars is bad, of course, but nothing when compared to the lives lost and people injured. I suspect we’ll get more news soon about the cause of the fire. In the interim, our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
So the last time I was in Hungary I dropped a friend off in Vienna en route to Prague, and for that last stretch I got stuck in some inexplicable traffic. I only had the radio to listen to, and every station was playing “Budapest” by George Ezra. It’s not the worst song to have to listen to a bunch of times.
The Big Question
How cheap would a Charger R/T have to be for you to buy one?
Photo: Stellantis
If that price drop happened six months ago my wife might be cruising an EV Charger instead of a new Terrain LOL!
The core demographic for these cars is growing old, and is moving from Stellantis to Celebrex and Cialis.
Weird, I thought people leaving the military with poor impulse control and little financial literacy were about the same age as always.
Hypothetically, there would have be more than 2 each on every Dodge dealer lot in town before I’d think about the Charger. If you don’t stock them then how are you supposed to sell them?
I have no desire for anything from Stellantis right now really, only have a 120v outlet at home, and no chargers at work, so…. free.
Wouldn’t it be great if Dodge built some cars? Any car at this point. Take the electric Charger/Challenger (2 and 4 door) replacement EV blob thing, rip out the EV guts, install the Pentastar V6 and start, you know, selling cars. People will buy them.
But NnnnnoooOOOOOOoooo!!!
I haven’t seen a Charger yet, but I did see my second Fisker Ocean today!
I saw a Vinfast VF8! I almost said “somebody bought one!”
Not to long ago I also saw a Vinfast VF8 with local plates.
I have not seen it again since.
Make inferences as to why.
I think they will be more lease specials then anything. They sold tons of v6 challengers in mid 20s and under. It’s probably the same for this. It seems like the sub $200 a month leases do well but might be need to be sub $150 for these. It’s also a head scratcher there in theory should be a market for a luxury BEV sports coupe. The charger is a big boat but if gm or Ford came out with a BEV Rivera or a continental that was less of a boat more to sports coupe maybe it would sell better.
The base Charger EV was/is actually the only interesting one to me. I know it gets poor reviews mostly, and has some stupidity (the fake exhaust noise, but you can turn it off… Fratzronic or whatever some marketing genius decided to call it) but in base form, it’s still just a working (hopefully) two-door EV.
With the bad reviews and dealer discounts, I’d thought/hoped that the price for these used might eventually drop enough for me to consider (fantasize?) about maybe test-driving one. I mean: if you just want an EV for your daily, one that’s got a couple doors, four wheels, and a usable trunk, the base Charger EV fits that bill, right? Even if critics didn’t like it, if it works for what you need, then it’s worth considering, right?
I’m a bit unclear from the article though: it’ll still be available (in base form) but just via special order, so dealers will be unlikely to have them on the lot in the future?
Same here, regarding the base model. I finally saw one in person the other day, it was a nice shade of orange and the driver had the fake exhaust noise turned off.
Yah, I know! It’s just an electric car. The base one (if it gets cheap enough) seems OK for a daily driver. I don’t need/want a muscle car, regardless of whether it’s powered by gas or not… but the base Daytona is actually kind a decent-looking car without too much visual nonsense going on (at least on the outside) in base form.
A very quick skim of base Daytona EVs near me don’t show any deep discounts, with prices still in the area of $60K, but again, I didn’t shop hard or anything. Also, cars new and used tend to be costlier in SoCal than further afield, so there’s that too. 🙁
“How cheap would a Charger R/T have to be for you to buy one?”
About tree-fiddy.
“I ain’t givin’ you no tree-fitty, you goddamn Loch Ness Monster! Get your own goddamn money!”
What’s a Hethel?
You’d have to pay me to drive a new Stellantis vehicle, and that price doubles for anything electrified. Not making that mistake again.
Wouldn’t the ‘electrified’ part make it beter? I know the olds like hemis and pentastars despite their abysmal reliability, but to me it seems there’s less chance of self-destructing lifters sending shrapnel through the oiling system and bearings when you replace that garbage with electric motors.
..kinda like how I’d never touch an ICE Hyundai, but an electric one I could definitely consider.
The new Charger’s fundamental flaw is being a square peg in a round hole via being based on the SLTA Large platform. It just doesn’t box with muscle car characteristics due to the sheer size and weight dictated by the platform.
The ICE versions will be more interesting to WAY more prospects, but when are we really going to see them, and at what price point?
What’s ironic is the Wagoneer S is this perfect application for SLTA Large, and it isn’t exactly burning up the sales charts either.
I hope they do an ICE version there as well as it would be a really nice alternative to the rest of the Jeep lineup. 540 HP Hurricane Six in a Grand Cherokee sized SUV? Sign me up.
The problem with the Wagoneer S, at least to me, is that it’s weirdly uncomfortable and cramped for a car that’s so big.
Tongue-in-cheek, of course, but
$5k
I expect I could get 5 large of chortles out of one before its inherent Stellantisity rendered it non-op.
Before I set foot in the showroom, however, I would have to find someone who could hack the Fratzonic: if I’m driving one of those things, I’ll be sounding like George Jetson all the way