2026 Dodge Charger Scat Pack First Drive Review: The Hurricane Hits

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – There’s an old Kenny Chesney song that opens with the narrative of a man in the ubiquitous Virginia is for Lovers T-shirt. The subject has a bible in his left hand and a bottle in the other. If Kenny’s right, all we really get is the sunshine and our name. And when it starts to rain, you sure as hell better have a sense of humor.

For the early part of the 2020s, it was raining electric vehicles. Dodge, slow to the party, finally countered with the electric Charger, a powerful, stylish step forward that redefines the notion of a muscle car. Funny thing is, months after the Charger launched, a political storm washed over the United States, changing much of the regulatory environment that helped drive EV sales.

Dodge still had the Charger name, so it responded with a Hurricane. More specifically, the high-powered straight six-cylinder motor the automaker named after a tropical storm. I’m not here to tell you that EVs are the bible and gas-slugging engines are the bottle. Or vice versa. I’m just saying the Charger now comes as an all-electric or ICE-powered muscle car, and in coupe and sedan versions to boot.

On a chilly autumn morning, I put my foot to the floor in both the Hurricane-powered Charger Six Pack with 550 horsepower and the all-electric 670-hp Daytona. Both were pretty awesome, as you would expect. While we’re familiar with the Daytona EV and appreciate what it’s brought to the muscle car segment, the Six Pack is like getting reacquainted with an old friend.

I test drove the Six-Pack-powered Charger Scat Pack Plus in Redeye paint with a black interior that stickered for $67,360 with destination fees—a lofty figure for a Dodge Charger. The suits are quick to point to the added value and technology modern Chargers now offer; also, everything just costs more now.

There’s a heightened sense of excitement when I turn onto Ann Arbor’s Jackson Avenue. Yes, I’m driving the much-anticipated gas-fed Charger, but it’s also a two-door, which is something Charger fans have been clamoring for since the return of the name in 2005 (even with the presence of the two-door Challenger). Dimensionally, the two and four-door are about the same, but a two-door carries a different vibe.

The Scat Pack Plus is an all-wheel drive car, but you can turn it into a rear-wheel drive setup at the push of a button, which I do immediately. This opens the transmission’s wet clutch and sends all of the torque to the rear wheels. Rear-wheel drive, two doors, gas coursing through its veins as the Hurricane rumbles—hell yes.

I drop my tester into Sport mode and spin the tires a bit. It has guts. I depress the throttle, the Charger’s anger unleashed, and the car hurtles forward. It’s a public road, so I’m not playing with the line lock, but I’m sure that will tempt some. There’s a time and a place.

The twin-turbo 3.0-liter six in the Scat Pack is also rated at 531 lb-ft of torque and can hit 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds en route to a top speed of 177 mph. While it’s at home in the Charger, it’s also used in Rams and Jeeps. The base version, the R/T, is rated at 420 hp and 468 lb-ft. Frankly, the R/T, or standard output, would be more than enough motor for the Charger, though I’m enjoying the added grunt of the high output variant. Dodge says 88 percent of its peak torque is available at 2,500 rpm, which works out to 467 lb-ft of twist available almost immediately. It’s not quite electric-car territory, but it’s quick.

The Charger is a straight-line car, not a corner carver in any sense, but LX owners looking to trade up to the new generation will enjoy the more modern steering and composed ride and handling characteristics. It’s still a big, at times unruly car, but it’s eons away from the floaty chassis dynamics of its recent predecessors.

As Dodge fans know, the LX is the name of the platform that underpinned Chargers, Challengers, Magnums, and the Chrysler 300 for nearly 20 years, with roots tracing even further back to the late 1990s Mercedes E-Class. While it was a game-changer back when for the then-DaimlerChrysler, Stellantis’ new STLA architecture brings the Charger into 2020s. But squeal the tires and make a hard left, and you’ll find yourself partially in another lane, and some of that old LX magic lives on in spirit.

In that vein, the Charger’s design is completely modern, with some light throwback cues but nothing overt. It looks like the natural evolution of the '60s muscle car, much like the last generation sedan in its early days. To my eye, this is the cleanest Charger design in 20 years, erasing some of the cartoonish scallops and fender cuts that marked its later years as the industry moved toward busier designs.

The 2026 model has smooth lines, subtle curves, and the use of shapes and lights to recall the great Chargers of the past. Unlike the LX Challenger, the 2026 Charger is not a copy from the 1970s, and a newer enthusiast could see the ‘26 model in the street, get that it’s fast, and have no idea of the lineage. Still, I received plenty of attention during my test drive, and it doesn’t take much imagination to look at the long horizontal light pipes and recall the 1968 model.

Functionally, the Charger is huge, which means the fastback design offers a liftback trunk that can fit more things than some comparably sized crossovers. The seats are comfortable, providing plenty of bolster. There’s a big center stack where I dropped my phone for a quick charge. The shifter is huge. It’s almost like a pistol grip, without going quite that far.

Still, I found the interior to be a bit disappointing. It’s technical, yet oddly furnished, which doesn’t make for a great aesthetic. The rubber-like door inserts felt and looked weird, and the ambient lighting didn’t add much to the experience. I had a similar criticism of the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which has a touchscreen-heavy setup and was jarring to the Mustang faithful.

A few round gauges in front of the driver (even digital) would have gone a long way to connecting the Charger with its past and created more of a muscle car theme. The screens are easy enough to use, and I was able to change the drive modes of the car, the radio station, and heating and cooling, which puts the Charger’s electronics ahead of many other models that lack basic usability.

But overall, I was impressed with the Charger Six Pack.

It is close to the traditional muscle car experience Dodge and Charger owners will seek out. While I didn’t love the interior, the exterior is excellent, it rides well, and it is cool as all hell. It’s also rather expensive, though you get a lot of horsepower for the coin. Considering the average cost of a new car is just under $50 grand, starting the Charger a bit over that line of demarcation feels fair.

A note about the EV. I test drove the Charger Daytona Scat Pack with Track Package right before I drove the Scat Pack Six Pack (Dodge might want to clean up these names…). It has 670 hp, 627-lb-ft of torque, and can hit 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. It’s faster, more powerful and looks identical to the gas-slurping version. You can drive up to 223 miles on a single charge of electricity. That’s remarkable.

It’s also a very rare thing. The Mustang offers a V8 and an electric crossover. Chevy has no Camaro of any sort at the moment. Dodge is your only real opportunity to make an apples-to-apples comparison as to which one you prefer: Gas or electric. All of the other variables are the same. Sure, someday, there probably will be a Hemi V8, and maybe that answers the question for you.

Right now, you can decide how you want to live your life with Dodge. If you want to buy a home port and download some apps for your travel, the Charger can be as electric as any Tesla, Lucid, or Ford.

Or, as I’ve just laid out, Charger Six Pack is a characterful muscle car with a modern performance engine under its hood. It’s your call. And for the manner in which many Chargers will be driven every day – like their LX predecessors – you don’t need to wait for the Hemi. The Hurricane hits now.

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