Death of the Camaro! Chevy announces plans to end production of sporty models

The Chevrolet Camaro, for decades the dream car of many teenage boys in the United States, is being phased out.

General Motors, which sells the beefy muscle car, said Wednesday it would stop production of the current generation early next year.

The future of the car being raced on NASCAR and other circuits is a bit bleak. GM says another generation could be in the works.

“While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured this is not the end of Camaro’s story,” Chevrolet vice president Scott Bell said in a statement.

The current sixth-generation Camaro, introduced in 2016, has done well on the track, but sales have declined in recent years. When the current generation Camaro was released in 2016, Chevrolet sold 72,705. But by the end of 2021, that number had fallen nearly 70% to 21,893. Last year it recovered a bit to 24,652.

The 2016 Chevrolet Camaro Edition pictured, for decades the dream car of many teenage boys in the United States, is being phased out

GM said the final 2024 model year cars will roll off the assembly line in Lansing, Michigan in January.

Spokesman Trevor Thompkins said he had nothing more to say about a future Camaro. “We’re not saying anything specific at the moment,” he said.

If GM revives the Camaro, it will almost certainly be electric, said Stephanie Brinley, associate director at S&P Global Mobility. “It’s unlikely that we’ll see another internal combustion engine vehicle,” she said.

GM has announced that it will sell only electric cars worldwide by 2035.

Brinley said the push to sell more electric vehicles makes it likely that all new muscle cars will be battery powered. But if there’s still a mixed fleet of internal combustion engines and batteries for sale in 2030 or 2040, some gas-powered muscle cars might survive.

Thompkins said GM has reached an understanding with auto racing sanctions authorities that the sixth-generation car can continue to be raced. GM will have available parts and the Camaro body will remain on the track, he said.

NASCAR said that while the Generation 6 Camaro was in production when GM was originally race-legal, it remains eligible to race in the NASCAR Cup and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

GM will offer a Collector’s Edition package of the 2024 Camaro RS and SS in North America, as well as a limited number of ZL-1 high-performance Camaros. The collector’s edition cars will have ties to the first-generation Camaro from the 1960s and its GM codename “Panther,” the company said, without giving details.

GM’s move comes as traditional gas-powered muscle cars are being phased out due to strict government fuel economy regulations, concerns about climate change and an accelerating shift to electric vehicles.

The classic 1967 Chevy Camaro is the original model that spawned the muscle car’s popularity in America

Justin Allgaier puts his Camaro through its paces as it drives the NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2022

A newer Camaro is shown at the 2016 New York International Auto Show

“While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured this is not the end of Camaro’s story,” Chevrolet vice president Scott Bell (pictured) said in a statement

Stellantis will stop making gas versions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger and the Chryser 300 large sedan by the end of this year. However, the company plans to launch a high-performance battery-powered charger sometime in 2024.

With instant torque and a low center of gravity, electric cars are often faster and handle better than internal combustion engine vehicles.

Stellantis, formed in 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot, announced the last of its special-edition muscle cars earlier this week, the 1,025-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170. The company says the car will be powered by zero to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) in 1.66 seconds, making it the fastest production car on the market.

In addition, Ford launched a new version of its Mustang sports car in September.

The Camaro was first introduced in 1966, two years after Ford’s hugely popular Mustang.

GM retired the Camaro nameplate in 2002 but revived it as a new 2010 model in hopes of appealing to enthusiasts and younger buyers. The 2010 version was similar to its predecessors, with a long, flat front and side “gills” reminiscent of the original while still featuring a modern overall design.