EV 4-door Camaro? No way, say V8 fans

American pony car fans are incensed at reports that Chevrolet will drop the Camaro and replace it with a four-door EV sedan.

The reports are unsubstantiated – Chevy staffers have fended-off reporters’ questions with no comment – but V8 fans’ horror at the suggestion is not.

Chevrolet’s parent company General Motors says its range will include 30 new EVs by 2025 and authoritative US magazine Automotive News says the Camaro will be gone by then, replaced possibly by an EV performance sedan.

Rival Ford has already done something like that, building a high-performance electric sedan using the Mustang name while still selling the petrol-engine pony car that gave birth to the nameplate in 1965.

Ford reportedly builds more electric than pony car Mustangs.

Dodge, which came late to the pony car revival with a modern version of the Challenger, has already said it’ll be building a high-performance electric sedan.

Chevy hasn’t announced when it will stop making the current generation Camaro – some fans are saying already a revised model is well overdue – or whether the name will live on in the electric era.

Or whether the possible future sporty four-door EV might be called Camaro as magazine Car and Driver has suggested, an idea that has no appeal to V8 pony car fans.

Car and Driver says Chevrolet sold 30,000 Camaros last year, a 38.3% drop on 2019.

“Ford sold more than twice as many Mustangs and proved that slapping the Mustang name on an electric crossover could work,” the magazine says.
“The Mustang Mach-E is one of the best-selling electric vehicles so far this year and we named it our first EV of the Year.
“Chevrolet could leverage a similar approach, using either the Camaro or even the Corvette name on future EV models that could include multiple body styles including sedans and crossovers.”
Hang on, say diehard Camaro fans.
Sticking points for them seem to be using the nameplate on a four-door sedan (some reckon they could get used to an EV Camaro two-door); weight of the battery pack which they see as being detrimental to handling, and the almost certain lack of a manual gearbox option.
“Until someone makes an EV with a clutch pedal, I’m not in the market,” says one in an online comment.