Category: Speed

• Edmunds pits the electric Dodge Charger against the most powerful Ford Mustang in a U-drag race.
• The Ford has a better power-to-weight ratio, but the Dodge has more power and traction and quicker acceleration.
• The Dodge beats the Ford in both races, but the second race is very close, highlighting the two cars’ strengths.

Electric vehicles are just quicker in a straight line compared to combustion cars thanks to their plentiful and instant torque, precise traction control and no need to shift gears. Period. You floor a powerful EV, and it will leave an equivalent gas car for dead, at least in a straight line. But would a U-turn at the end of a drag race be enough to secure a win for a lighter gas–powered car?

In the case of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV versus the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, the answer is nope.  Even though, on paper, the ‘Stang has a superior power-to-weight ratio, Dodge’s electric muscle car can still take it down.

Edmunds put the two head-to-head in two of its U-Drags, basically a drag race with a U-turn at the end that is meant to highlight not only cars’ acceleration but also how well they scrub off speed, their cornering speed, and how well they put their power down.

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On paper, the Mustang Dark Horse, which has 500 horsepower and is the most powerful current model variant, can hit 60 mph from a standstill in 3.7 seconds with the 10-speed automatic transmission; it’s 4.1 seconds if you go for the manual. Until the new Mustang GTD goes on sale, this is the top-shelf Ford ponycar. 

However, the Dodge Charger Daytona EV with the Scat Pack, which has up to 670 horsepower, is four-tenths quicker with a time of 3.3 seconds, which was shown to be even lower in independent testing.

Even with the power advantage, the Charger weighs a lot more and it’s the Mustang that has a better power-to-weight ratio. This should be a close race between the two, and it is, but even with the extra weight it has to carry around, the Dodge still manages to pull ahead.

Having a U-turn at the end of the first acceleration run highlights how much better the lighter and more track-focused Mustang is around the bends. It stops and steers much better than the Charger, which looks cumbersome by comparison, but it still loses to the Dodge in both races. Edmunds swaps drivers and lanes for the second race to make everything fair, and even though the difference was smaller and the Mustang put on a better show, pulling out of the U-turn ahead, the Charger reeled it in by the end of the run.

Nonetheless, the electric Charger has been a polarizing vehicle, disappointing some reviewers for lacking the ability to do burnouts and sometimes shaky EV powertrain. We’ll be testing it again for ourselves soon here at InsideEVs, so stay tuned for that.

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