GM stops making the Chevy Camaro, leaving the future of the muscle car uncertain
New York
CNN
—
General Motors announced Wednesday that it is ending production of the latest generation of the Chevrolet Camaro, leaving the Ford Mustang as the last gas-powered American performance coupe.
Stellantis had previously announced that it would stop production of the larger Dodge Challenger at the end of this year. Around the same time, Dodge executives revealed an electric muscle car concept that, they said, previewed a future model.
GM has not announced any future versions of the Camaro, although it teased that there will be a future for the brand.
“While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured that this is not the end of the Camaro’s story,” said Scott Bell, vice president, Global Chevrolet.
GM is moving to an all-electric range of vehicles by 2035 as it invests billions in designing and building future EV models, with 75% of capital spending now dedicated to EVs and autonomous vehicles. This has resulted in a sharp reduction in investment in new versions of traditional vehicles with combustion engines.
The current model is the sixth version of the Camaro in its history. It is built at the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Michigan, which will stop building it in January 2024.
The Camaro model was first introduced in 1966 as a competitor to Ford’s hugely successful Mustang, which had come out in 1964. After five generations of redesigned models, the Camaro was dropped from the lineup in 2002, but brought back in 2010.
In recent years, however, sales have not matched those of the more popular Challenger or Mustang. In 2022, GM reported US Camaro sales of nearly 25,000, slightly more than half of the nearly 48,000 Mustangs sold by Ford and less than half of the 55,000 Challengers sold by Dodge.
Ford unveiled a new generation Mustang at the Detroit auto show last September. The new Mustang, which goes on sale next summer, will be purely petrol-powered, not electric or hybrid. This will mark the seventh generation and 58th consecutive year of production for the Mustang.
These muscle cars or pony cars are also among the latest car models – as opposed to SUVs or trucks – produced by the three car manufacturers.
— CNN’s Chris Isidore contributed to this report
