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Dodge is leaning heavily into its muscle-car heritage for its first-ever electric vehicle.

WHAT IT IS: A fully electrified hellsled from the automotive industry's gas-chuggingest, tire-smokingest, hair-on-your-chestiest brand, Dodge.

WHY IT MATTERS: When even Dodge is preparing to transition to EVs, it's time to accept the inevitable: The revolution will be rechargeable. Of course, that doesn't mean abandoning heritage. So Dodge, the marque behind the Challenger, Charger, Hellcat, Demon, and myriad other badass badges, is spinning up an electric muscle car as a bridge between its fully electrified future and its Hemi-powered past.

This car's retro flavor will help that mission. As seen in teaser images/video and our exclusive renderings, its boxy nose will ape those of classic Chargers—wouldn't that be an appropriate name to use on the EV?—from the golden period of muscle in the late '60s and early '70s; that era's triangular Fratzog logo returns, too, and is expected to appear on all of Dodge's EVs moving forward. The eMuscle name has also been bandied about, although it's not yet clear if this will be the new muscle car's name or an overarching theme for Dodge.

PLATFORM AND POWERTRAIN: Carlos Tavares, CEO of parent company Stellantis, has called the car "so brilliant that it is shocking"—it's electric, get it?—and teasers confirm it will have all-wheel drive, showing smoke billowing from all four tires. AWD means the muscle car will pack at least two electric motors, and Stellantis has said the car's STLA Large platform will offer motors that make as much as 443 hp each, which means it could have nearly 900 horsepower. But this is Dodge we're talking about, so it's entirely possible the car gets three or even four electric motors to help it achieve 60 mph in a rumored 2.0 seconds.

"If an electric motor will make it quicker, we will do it," Dodge chief Tim Kuniskis has said. The battery packs for STLA Large will range from 101 to 118 kWh in size with up to 500 miles of driving range, though surely not in this beastly machine. Worried about doing burnouts in silence? Fret not: Dodge wants the car to be loud and has created a muscled-up sound that intensifies based on how you're driving.

ESTIMATED PRICE: The sweet spot for muscle cars is from $40,000 to $50,000, Dodge says, so figure the production EV muscle car will land in that zone—at least to start. As with the Hellcat models and the Demon, you'll pay a premium for more performance, even as Dodge looks to maintain its traditional power-per-dollar value.

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