With the death of Chevrolet’s pony car, the Camaro, which rolled off the production line at the GM Lansing plant in Michigan for the last time in December of 2023, it has left all of us to speculate what will become of the Camaro nameplate and if there will be a 7th gen Camaro at all.

What killed the sixth-generation Camaro? Put simply: sales. The final year of the Chevrolet Camaro sold less than it did when it was canceled back for the 2002 model year. While we all feel passionate about performance cars, it’s still a business and it wasn’t pulling its weight in GM’s eyes.

The 6th gen Camaro sold a total of 353,080 units over its eight model years, which is less than the almost half a million units sold over just six model years for the 5th Camaro generation, and pales in comparison to the 1st generation, which only lasted three model years and moved a whopping 699,138 units. You don’t need a doctorate to see the inevitable.

I think we can all agree that it is a sad demise for a pony car that was dominating the track when compared to the Mustang and Challenger. The team at Chevrolet pushed hard to make the Camaro the better handling model of the three, keeping weight lower than the competition and focusing on the chassis and braking. The 5th generation was built on the Zeta chassis, GM’s first global RWD platform. While it did gain some physical size and weight over its fourth-gen big brother, it also was a vast improvement in handling, braking, and power.

When the 6th generation debuted for the 2016 model year, Chevrolet dove deeper for road course-dominating improvements instead of only straight-line muscle car power and torque. It was built on GM’s Alpha platform, which was stiffer and a little lighter than the previous Zeta platform. Pair this transformative change with tires, brakes, and power plants that were also an evolutionary improvement, and the result was the best-handling pony car on the market, delivering record-setting track times.

Where Oh Where Did My 7th Gen Go?

According to recent reports from GM Authority, GM had slated the 7th gen Camaro to be built on the Alpha 2 platform, which debuted with the 2020 model year CT4 and CT5 Cadillac sedans. The Alpha 2 platform took the already proven and well-reviewed Alpha platform and improved upon it with increased stiffness and slight improvements in safety and weight. Drivetrain plans have yet to be revealed, but it was rumored the 6.2 Gen-V LT engine platform would’ve carried over with some upgrades from the C8’s LT2 V8 to up the power to stay completive with the S650 generation Mustang’s 480 horsepower fourth-gen Coyote.

The Alpha 2 platform was introduced on the Cadillac CT4 and CT5 sedans.

Ultimately, the 7th gen Camaro plans were scrapped, but don’t think GM has given up on the nameplate just yet. Industry insiders reported that GM was considering using the Camaro name for upcoming 4-door EV models or possibly a mid-size EV SUV, much like the CT4 and CT5’s future plans. Thankfully it seems GM might have backed off this idea slightly.

It has been reported that there is still a big internal push within GM and Chevrolet for a 7th gen Camaro, from engineers and executives alike. Recently a proposal was brought forward within the company to revive the Camaro nameplate the way tradition intended, as a two-door performance car with an entry-level price point that is realistic for the middle class. Unfortunately, it seems it may not have been convincing enough, as the top brass axed the idea due to concerns about total sales figures for a second performance vehicle in today’s market to be sold alongside the Corvette.

What does the future hold for the 7th gen Camaro? For now, we don’t know. The performance enthusiast community will always welcome an affordable and fun coupe to the market, but convincing a major manufacturer to overlook the lack of high-profit sales figures to build it might prove to be an impassable roadblock. While GM’s EV sales figures have steadily been growing over the past few years, we hope they do the right thing and reserve the Camaro name for what it has always intended to be: the fun performance pony car for every man (and with gas-powered V8s, not electric).

The LT2 in the C8 Stingrays are very similar to the LT1 found in the C7 Corvettes and 6th gen Camaros. Improved exhaust, intake manifold, and camshaft profile could’ve been used to up the power to the 7th gen Camaros 6.2-liter V8.