DETROIT — Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis likens the sound created for the electric Charger Daytona Concept to a church pipe organ.
A key question is whether the artificial noise — generated by an amplifier and tuning chamber at the rear — will help Dodge convert consumers into believers of battery-powered muscle or repel them.
Some analysts say a quiet Dodge electric vehicle will never work and that it has to deliver a roar, even if there's no gasoline-burning engine. On the flip side, they wonder whether some devoted followers of the rumbling V-8 engines the brand built its image around could be put off.
"I think people are going to like it, but I do think it will be polarizing," said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights for Edmunds. "I don't think it is that necessary. It really is a vanity type of thing."