Why Dodge's All-New 2025 Charger Daytona EV is Winning Design Awards

The 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV is stunning and now the innovative design is winning awards for its interior design and all of the design work that went into creating its user friendly technology experience. The 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona was just highlighted as one of Wards 10 Best Interiors and UX Award winners. The Charger Daytona EV is shown here being demonstrated at the Colorado Auto Show by product manager Ashton Munoz. Journalists, including me, were taken by the car’s beauty combined with Dodge performance. It appears that Wards’ judges were impressed as well.

“The interior of the Charger Daytona combines everything contemporary that you'd expect in an EV with a respect for the heritage of an iconic muscle car,” said Gary Vasilash, Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX judge. “Not an easy feat to accomplish, but they pulled it off in a manner that will make EV enthusiasts and the Brotherhood of Muscle both delighted with the execution.”

Winning Interior Design of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV

One of the most fascinating performance design aspects of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV’s interior is the oddly shaped steering wheel. Munoz described it as a “squircle”, part square and part circle. The flat-top/flat-bottom design is taken from race cars and so are many of the Daytona’s other design features. The driver-centric-cockpit gives the driver access to the “pistol grip” shifter. The shifter actually controls the Drive Modes that allow the driver to customize the feel and response of the Fratzonic Chamber Exhaust. The cockpit also features high-back fixed headrest racing style seats.

“The whole car says ‘muscle’ and backs it up with sound, fury and sports-car styling at every turn: the rumble coming from the Fratzonic ‘exhaust’ pipes, the solid, pistol-grip shifter, the driver-centric cockpit, the wraparound lighting and styling of the door panels and dashboard, the carbon-fiber trim bits,” said Bob Gritzinger, Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX judge. “It’s all there, along with cool and functional haptic feedback from the controls. The biggest surprise comes when opening the liftback to reveal a huge, usable cargo area.”

User Experience Highlights in the 2025 Dodger Charger Daytona

Wards lists other award-winning user experiences, like the standard 12.3-inch central touchscreen. The EV has Drive Modes that allow customization and there is an available Drive Experience Recorder (DxR) to make the Charger feel like a Dodge performance vehicle. The EV is Dodge’s quickest and fastest muscle car. The EV versions are rated as 670-horsepower for the Daytona Scat Pack and 496-horsepower for the Daytona R/T. Both have all-wheel-drive capability. The Scat Pack version reaches 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds while running the quarter-mile in an estimated 11.5 seconds. The PowerShot button gives the Charger Daytona extra power to boost its performance.

The judges have high praise for the Charger Daytona’s infotainment system. The standard 12.3-inch central touchscreen features the award-winning Uconnect 5 system with wireless CarPlay/Android Auto and Dodge Connected Services. Electric vehicle pages share power flow information, battery regeneration and charging status. Performance Pages, EV pages and Drive Modes give drivers easy access to their track times, charging schedule and the ability to customize the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust. Drivers can also analyze their day at the track with the available Drive Experience Recorder (DxR).

Innovative Cargo Design

One of the most interesting things that Ashton Munoz demonstrated at the Colorado Auto Show was the 2025 Charger Daytona’s innovative cargo design. The Dodge Charger EV is actually a hatchback. When the rear seats are folded flat, the maximum rear cargo area is 38.5 cubic feet which is 133% more cargo volume than the outgoing gas-powered Charger. The area is perfect for carrying skis, snowboards and lots of other gear. The “frunk” area offers an additional 1.5 ft cubic feet of storage. Plus, Mopar has already designed ski racks that fit perfectly over the glass roof.

“The next-gen Dodge Charger is all new from the ground up on a new STLA Large platform, with new multi-energy powertrains, as well as new exterior and interior designs and user experience systems,” said Matt McAlear, Dodge CEO. “This honor from Wards for having one of the best interiors and technology user experience is a true testament to the team that designed, developed and created an all-new Charger that looks, sounds, feels and drives like a Dodge.”

The Wards 10 Best Interiors and UX Awards

According to Wards, the annual Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX competition evaluates new or heavily redesigned vehicle interiors and user-experience technology, with scoring based on a variety of metrics, including design and aesthetics, comfort, materials, fit-and-finish, connectivity and infotainment, displays and controls, as well as advanced driver-assistance system content and value. For the 2025 awards, 34 vehicles were evaluated. The Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX program does not dictate entries for evaluation but asks brands to deliver a vehicle interior that best represents its designer’s intent and the brand’s foremost technology.

Evaluations of nominated vehicles took place in winter and early spring 2025, with judges experiencing the nominees during their daily driving.

I would expect that the four-door and gas-powered versions of the Dodge Charger Daytonas, that are expected later this year, will feature similar stunning and functional interiors.

Mary Conway Photo From the 2025 Colorado Auto Show

Mary Conway is a professional automotive journalist and has decades of experience specializing in automotive news analysis. She covered the Detroit Three for more than twenty years for the ABC affiliate, in Detroit. Her affection for the Motor City comes naturally. Her father ran a gas station while Mary was growing up, in Wisconsin.

Follow Mary Conway at @MaryConwayMedia and send her car news tips for future stories.