The last-gen Camaro was a tough sell. Okay, sure, year-over-year sales for 2023 were up 25.9 percent, but perhaps that’s due to the Camaro being discontinued. Even with the sales spike, those 31,028 units still made the Camaro the lowest-selling passenger vehicle in the Chevrolet lineup. Experiencing YOY sales drops, more Corvettes (34,353) and even Express vans (40,660) were sold than Camaro. And those who hoped a nostalgia-filled shake would bring all the buyers to the yard, well, they got a big fat nope.
The Camaro’s decline often made headlines. We covered the slowing sales on multiple occasions like here, here, and here. The continued market proliferation of SUVs and trucks only further pushed the muscle car out of view. Hell, even the famed Ford Mustang transitioned from pony car to pony crossover—and an all-electric one at that. Where was Camaro to go? To its much-delayed but inevitable grave.
At least in the form that we knew it.
General Motors hopes for a comeback Camaro that harkens to its roots as an affordable car, not some high-performance, tricked-out track beast. It’s a nice sentiment but also a very plausible one since the big boss said it himself. GM President Mark Reuss recently told MotorTrend that he’d like the next-gen Camaro, whenever it happens, to attract buyers beyond the current core of performance-minded enthusiasts.
A wider audience would definitely help on the sales front, but Reuss probably isn’t speaking only from a business standpoint. After all, his first car was a first-gen Camaro. But, for the sake of dollars and sense, Reuss would prefer the reanimated Camaro to be an EV.
And since coupes are bad for practicality (aiming for mass-market appeal, ‘member?), the new Camaro would be redesigned as a sedan. Not to say a coupe-like four-door can’t look good. Fastbacks and liftbacks are a mighty fine thing these days. Just don’t make it a hatchback, though, because that could look pretty weird, at which point you might as well go crossover.
What else is on Mr. Reuss’ wishlist? Getting battery production up to scale so that a Camaro EV can be priced along the lines of the all-new electrified Equinox. The 2024 Equinox EV starts at $33,600 (not including destination), while the 2024 Camaro had a base MSRP of $30,900. It’s not too bad of a price jump, considering 1) EVs offer instant power and torque, which might appease the hi-po bros, and 2) there may still be federal and local tax breaks available, which would persuade the penny pinchers and pony-car curious.
Should everything work out as planned (because it always does, right?), there might be a Camaro again in the future. We’ll leave it to the boss to decide whether the new Camaro EV continues to be “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs,” even if those Mustangs have gotten a little bigger.