The next car to bear the Chevrolet Camaro name could an electric SUV designed to go head-to-head with the Ford Mustang Mach-E.
According to a Motor Trend, Chevrolet will launch a new “coupe SUV” to take on the Mustang Mach-E, and it could well be known as the Camaro EV.
If this report proves to be true, the Camaro will be going full circle. The original Camaro went into production in 1966, and was designed to be a competitor to the Ford Mustang, which launched in 1964 and was an instant sales success. The Mustang Mach-E went into production in 2021, and so far has no direct GM competitor.
With traditional body styles increasingly being shunned by buyers in favour SUVs, more and more historic nameplates are making the transition to high-riding vehicles, including the formerly sporty Mitsubishi Eclipse.
A few weeks back GM’s CEO Mark Reuss told Detroit News, the Camaro would only return if it could had the “formula of beauty, and a little bit of functionality and fun”.
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The new Camaro EV will likely be based on the BEV3 architecture that underpins the Chevrolet Equinox EV and the slightly larger Blazer EV, as well as the Cadillac Lyriq, Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX.
It’s likely regular versions will share drivetrains with its Chevy platform mates, while high performance models could use motors from elsewhere.
A variety of drivetrains are available in the Blazer: 164kW/329Nm single-motor front-wheel drive, 224kW/481Nm dual-motor all-wheel drive, and 272kW/440Nm single-motor rear-wheel drive.
There’s also the top-spec Blazer EV SS (above), which has a dual-motor all-wheel drive system making 459kW and 881Nm, and capable of completing the 0-60mph (0-97km/h) dash in 3.0s.
Two batteries are available in the Blazer EV: a 85kWh option with up to 500km of EPA range, and a larger 102kWh unit with up to 537km of range.
Unlike the Mustang, which has remained in production since its debut in the 1960s, the Camaro name has been rested a few times.
The first pause came in 2002, and ended in 2009 when the fifth generation car debuted on the Holden Commodore platform. Production of the sixth-generation Camaro ended in December 2023, with the company promising “this is not the final chapter for nameplate”.
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