The Chevrolet Camaro, for decades the dream car of many American teenagers, will be discontinued.
General Motors, which sells the muscle car, said Wednesday it will stop making the current generation early next year.
The future of the car that runs in NASCAR and other circuits, it’s a bit murky. GM says another generation may be in the works.
“While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured this is not the end of the Camaro story,” Scott Bell, Chevrolet vice president, said in a statement.
The current sixth-generation Camaro, introduced in 2016, has done well on the race track, but sales have declined. When the current generation of Camaros came out in 2016, Chevrolet sold 72,705 of them. But by the end of 2021, that number fell nearly 70 percent to 21,893. It recovered last year to 24,652.
Pictured is the 2016 edition Chevrolet Camaro), for decades the dream car of many American teenage boys, will be discontinued.
GM said the last 2024 model year of the cars will roll off the assembly line in Lansing, Michigan, in January.
Spokesman Trevor Thompkins said he can’t say anything more about a future Camaro. “We’re not saying anything specific right now,” he said.
If GM does revive the Camaro, it will almost certainly be electric, said Stephanie Brinley, an associate director at S&P Global Mobility. “It would be unlikely to see another internal combustion engine vehicle,” she said.
GM has said it plans to sell only electric passenger vehicles worldwide by 2035.
Brinley said the drive to sell more electric vehicles makes it likely that all new muscle cars will be battery-powered. But if there is still a mixed combustion and battery fleet for sale in 2030 or 2040, some gasoline-powered muscle cars might survive.
Thompkins said GM has an agreement with auto racing sanctioning bodies that the sixth-generation car can continue to compete. GM will have parts available and the Camaro body will remain on the race track, he said.
NASCAR said that because the Generation 6 Camaro was in production when GM originally obtained permission to race, it remains qualified to compete in NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series races.
GM will offer a Collector’s Edition package of the 2024 Camaro RS and SS in North America, and a limited number of high-performance ZL-1 Camaros. The collector’s edition cars will have ties to the first-generation Camaro of the 1960s and its GM codename ‘Panther,’ the company said without elaborating.
GM’s move comes as Traditional gas-powered muscle cars are beginning to be phased out due to strict government fuel economy regulations, climate change concerns, and an accelerated shift toward electric vehicles.
The classic 1967 Chevy Camaro is the original model that spawned the popularity of the muscle car in America.
Justin Allgaier tests his Camaro while driving in the NASCAR Xfinity Series car race at Pocono Raceway, July 23, 2022
A newer Camaro is on display at the New York International Auto Show in 2016
“While we are not announcing an immediate successor today, rest assured this is not the end of the Camaro story,” Scott Bell (pictured), Chevrolet vice president, said in a statement.
Stellantis will stop making gas-powered versions of the Dodge Challenger and Charger and the Chrylser 300 full-size sedan by the end of this year. But the company has plans to launch a battery-powered Charger performance car sometime in 2024.
Electric cars, with instant torque and a low center of gravity, are often faster and handle better than internal combustion vehicles.
Stellantis, formed in 2021 by combining Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot, announced earlier this week the last of his special edition muscle cars, the 1,025-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170. The company says the car can go from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) in 1.66 seconds, making it the fastest production car on the market.
Additionally, Ford released a new version of its Mustang sports car in September.
The Camaro was first introduced in 1966, two years after Ford’s 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 end and side “gills” reminiscent of the original, while still sporting a modern overall design.
