Chevrolet Camaro Discontinued After 2023, WTF?!?

By Dave Ashton

The latest shock news indicates that the current Chevrolet Camaro development has been suspended and the nameplate will most likely discontinue after 2023.

According to a post over at Muscle Cars & Trucks multiple sources within GM say there are multiple factors that have contributed to the decision. Most obviously current trends moving away from car sales and high performance vehicles. The big question now is will this be a hiatus or a shelving of the nameplate for the foreseeable future?

In many ways, this isn’t a new situation. The model was discontinued after the 2002 model year, returning in 2010 with much applause and being one of the bestselling muscle cars up to 2014. The Mustang and Challenger hit back in 2015, taking away sales from the Camaro, which have not bested the levels they once had up to 2014.

Why the decision?
The big picture view says current trends are moving towards electric vehicles and SUV’s. Other carmakers seem to be making plans for cutting back their car lineup, which means dropping the Camaro in this vein should be no surprise. The Cadillac ATS and CTS which share the same platform as the current sixth-generation Camaro have been discontinued, with no plans for the Camaro to transition to the updated A2XX platform.

Sales of the sixth gen. Camaro haven’t hit the rates of the fifth Gen. version. There was a 25% drop in sales for 2018 which were compounded by factors such as the reception of the 2019 Camaro design refresh wasn’t exactly positive. The option of a V8 hybrid also didn’t go down very well.
The focus on electric vehicles for GM has pulled noteworthy characters away from the Camaro design team and a future policy for zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion is at odds with the ethos of what the Camaro has stood for since day one.
Already popping up online is the thought that the next mid-engined C8 Corvette maybe too expensive for some and could drive sales towards the Camaro. Maybe pushing GM to invest back into the Camaro. This could be wishful thinking as car development is usually years into the future, but least at the moment there’s no official announcements.

The irony here is that the sixth gen. Camaro may have some deficits in styling and pricing, but it’s still one of the best handling sports cars. The 1LE package comes with every model and the ZL1 1LE has even given the C7 Corvette a run for its money. Maybe, the upcoming mid-engined C8 will create a bigger separation between the models, but this could also be a little too late.

Just like Ford seem to be throwing everything away in their car lineup apart from the Mustang, you may think GM would have the same thoughts about the Camaro. But the Corvette is looking like it will be their Halo model moving forward, but into the more exclusive supercar territory.

On a positive note, we still have until 2023 to enjoy the current Camaro and with a nameplate that has existed since 1966, with only a brief layoff from 2002-2010, it would seem very strange to not have a Camaro from now on, even if it was some sort of electric or hybrid version. Is something better than nothing?
For instance, what’s Bumblebee from the Transformers movie going to be from now on? A Chevy Bolt?? The Decepticons are just a bunch electric SUV’s? Sad times……..

 

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