√Official: Chevrolet Camaro muscle car to be axed next year

The Chevrolet Camaro will reach the end of the road in its current form early next year. It will remain in V8 Supercars for the time being, and a new iteration of the road car is promised – eventually.

The Chevrolet Camaro muscle car will be axed in the US early next year after nearly a decade of sliding sales – but its maker promises the iconic badge will eventually return.

US car maker Chevrolet confirmed overnight the final example of the Camaro – its Ford Mustang challenger – is due to roll off the production line in January 2024 after nine years of the current model.

This includes two years in Holden Special Vehicles showrooms in Australia between 2018 and 2020, through a local left- to right-hand-drive conversion in Victoria.

There appear to be no plans for a direct successor with a two-door body style and petrol V8 power.

However, Chevrolet says “this is not the end of Camaro’s story” – though it remains to be seen what form the nameplate would be revived in, and whether it could morph into a sedan or SUV.

Reports of the Camaro’s axing have swirled for nearly four years but this represents the first time its maker has confirmed the car’s future.

The news overnight leaves the long-term future of the Camaro in the Australian V8 Supercars championship — where it debuted in 2023 under new Gen3 regulations – under a cloud.

Chevrolet says the Camaro “will continue to compete on track” in Supercars, NASCAR, drag racing and other racing series for the immediate future, and it will work “with motorsports sanctioning bodies to ensure Chevrolet’s presence in racing moving forward.”

MORE: Ford and Chevrolet unveil 2023 V8 Supercars

Although the Camaro is safe in Supercars for the time being, it is unclear for how long this will last, and what the model could one day be replaced with.

The Camaro nameplate debuted in 1967 as a response to the original Ford Mustang, but went on hiatus in 2002 after four generations – before returning in 2010 and passing through two more generations since, the latest debuting in 2015.

The latest Camaro was officially sold in Australia for a brief period, converted from left- to right-hand drive in a facility in Melbourne by HSV from 2018 to 2020.

There are further Australian ties in the fifth-generation Camaro sold from 2009 to 2015, which was underpinned by the same rear-wheel-drive Zeta architecture engineered in Australia for the Holden VE Commodore.

The Chevrolet Camaro’s best sales year in the US was 2011, when about 88,200 were reported as sold.

Sales have largely been in decline since, with 77,500 reported as sold in 2015, 48,300 in 2019, and just 22,000 in 2022 (all figures rounded).

The Camaro hasn’t held the lead in the US muscle-car sales race against the Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger since 2015, and lost second place to the Dodge in 2018.

The Ford Mustang and Dodge Challenger each outsold the Camaro two-to-one last year.

The US car maker says there will be a final batch of Collectors Edition models, before production ends at the end of the 2024 model year. Orders are slated to open in the US mid-year.

Chevrolet is believed to be working on a new electric performance sedan due in 2025.

However reports out of the US have indicated this car could be used to turn the Corvette name into its own sub-brand – rather than wear the Camaro name – with electric sedan and SUV models joining the current petrol-powered sports car.

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