Is the Chevrolet Camaro Going Away?

Over the last few months, there has been a growing chorus of rumors saying that the Chevrolet Camaro, perhaps the most important and paradigm-shifting muscle car ever built, is soon to be discontinued. At least as the two-door thrill machine we’ve known it to be over the last half century.

So let’s discuss, what will happen if the  Chevrolet Camaro goes away and, most importantly, what will come in its place?

A Quick History of the Chevy Camaro

Before we look to the future, we must consider the past. What is the Camaro? Where did it come from? And how did it get here?

The Camaro was unveiled in 1966, taking on all comers in the then-new muscle car category (of course, back then, they were often called “pony cars”).

Through the late-60s and 70s, it came to define the era. But in the 1980s, the Camaro was redefined, often through the image of the most popular IROC package. It was beefy, bulky, super fast and fun as heck to drive.

Then, in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chevrolet Camaro embraced the future, with sleek lines and curves that screamed 21st Century Machine. In 2002, however, the Camaro was discontinued.

But eight short years later, it returned with the sharp edges, aggressive grille, and muscular stance that hearkened back to the golden era of the late-1960s. And the last decade has been great to the Camaro, seeing RS and SS models being churned out that can easily stand alongside the giants of the muscle car class.

Now again, though, it appears that the Camaro may be on the chopping block.

So what does that mean?

Plugging In

Seeing as Chevrolet’s parent company, General Motors, has made a pledge to try and take their entire fleet electric by 2035, the days of the gas-powered V8s and V6s that motivate the Camaro seem to be numbered.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the Camaro, as it has been reported that the name will live on, badging a to-be-unveiled “Performance Electric Sedan.”

We understand the electric part and we know what a sedan is. So what about the performance?

Well, Chevy realizes that you can’t just slap the Camaro name on anything. It has to be something that can move. Because, you know, it’s a Camaro.

Thanks to the contemporary Dodge Charger or a Hemi-powered Chrysler 300, a four-door high-performance sedan is something that is already very palpably real.

So don’t think of it as the Chevrolet Camaro going away. Think of it as the Camaro evolving and hurtling into the future.

But if you want to look at something from within the GM family to understand what kind of power and performance we might be in store for in an electric Camaro, look no further than the GMC Hummer EV pickup, which is available with upwards of 1,000-horsepower.

Yeah, you read that right.

And with an all-electric Corvette on the horizon, you can expect the engineers at Chevrolet to have long-honed in what their high-performing electric Camaro may be capable of.