Recent reports have indicated that the Camaro will be built through 2023 or 2024 or whatever. While a rosy, feel-good assessment of Camaro’s continuing popularity, that’s not going to happen. With the dismal 2020 numbers just released, GM has no reason to continue production of the Camaro past 2021. Since the 2020 Camaro sold like crap we’re guessing 2021 will be the Camaro brand’s last year. 

The 2020 Camaro saw an almost 40% drop in sales for 2020

The Camaro saw an almost 40% drop in sales for 2020. Granted, 2020 was a tough year for cars in general. But spitting out less than 30,000 Camaros a year is not sustainable. At this point, a car with those numbers is just in the way of GM’s ambitious EV plans. 

GM needs the Lansing Grand River assembly plant where the Camaro is built. It shared the Alpha platform with both the Cadillac CTS and ATS. All three were built at Lansing Grand River, but both Cadillacs have been discontinued. That puts pressure on the Camaro as it takes a lot of overhead to turn on the lights at assembly plants. 

With no other models to share a platform with the Camaro is in a bind

With numbers down and no other models to share a platform with the Camaro is in a bind. The last year for the ATS was 2018 with around 1,500 built. It never saw sales greater than 3,500 a year but the ATS had the luxury of that shared Alpha platform.

It was a similar situation for the Cadillac CTS. While hitting sales of 15,000 in 2016 the numbers dwindled to only slightly less than 7,000 built in 2019-its last year. With both of those stablemates gone and 2021 unlikely to see better numbers for the Camaro it seems like the writing is on the wall. 

The sporty car segment in general is drying up. 2020 Challenger sales hit 38,350 while Ford sold 56,155 2020 Mustangs. Of course, Dodge and the entire Fiat Chrysler company is in the midst of a merger with Groupe PSA. So right now everything is up in the air in terms of products and plans. Ford is giving new life to the Mustang brand with the Mach E electric EV. 

There are no plans to expand the Camaro’s lineup

But, unlike with the Mustang, there are no plans to expand the Camaro’s lineup beyond what is already made-a coupe and convertible. There have been rumors of there being spinoffs of the Corvette brand but that would be a slippery slope for enthusiasts to embrace. 

Porsche has been successful in branching out from its core and maybe it would work for the Corvette brand but we probably won’t see it expanded. GM has big plans for the future but it doesn’t include coupes and convertibles. It is about EVs and autonomous technologies. What the Camaro is right now is an impediment to those goals. 

Nothing lasts forever and that goes for nameplates. If you’re a Camaro fan and thinking you might pop for one, you might want to do it sooner rather than later. We doubt there will be a Camaro for 2022 or 2023.