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CAMARO DIES IN 2024 – Replaced with EV?

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CAMARO DIES IN 2024

As General Motors continues its march towards its inevitable transition toward electric vehicles, Automotive News notes that the Camaro will die (again) in 2024. GM, like nearly every other auto manufacturer, is steadily marching toward the mandated switch away from gasoline-only propulsion.

By 2035, the automaker hopes to go all-electric, no longer selling gas- and diesel-powered cars, trucks, or SUVs.

GM hasn’t firmly committed, noting that it won’t blindly adhere to its 2035 goal if the market hasn’t shifted to support the transition. It can be nothing more than a goal, rather than a promise.  Much of the world does not have the infrastructure to support a move to 100% electric vehicles.

In the United States alone, California still experiences rolling power outages during hot days. With 15 million cars on the road today, there’s no way California can provide the electrical power to charge 15 million electric cars by then.

This state has not invested in renewable energy sources to provide clean electric power. Our water supplies are insufficient and squandered away with poor decisions and nuclear energy production is non-existent in California since they closed down Diablo Canyon’s facility, so Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for almost one-half of in-state electricity generation.

Each state and each country will have its own challenges.  As such,  if buyers aren’t ready for only EVs, GM may still provide gas- and diesel-fed vehicles to meet demand.

If you’re clinging to the hope that the Camaro may live on in its current form or possibly as a face-lifted or even modernized seventh generation (even if were a hybrid), it’s not looking good.

GM is retiring the Alpha platform on which its pony car rides. However, it could conceivably utilize the Alpha’s replacement — the rear-drive A2XX platform on which the Cadillac CT4 and CT5 ride.

What we know at this point is that if no miracle happens, the Camaro dies in 2024, and it will die an unceremonious death.

Although the Camaro dies in 2024, the Camaro name might live on, however, as a “performance” electric sedan, much like Ford did with the Mustang.

Purists will argue that the Mustang Mach E is a Mustang in name only and it’s a safe bet that they would feel similarly were the Camaro to emerge from its transition to electrification as an SUV or anything but a two-door sports coupe.

However, GM is hinting that the transition would see any Camaro or Camaro replacement revived as a four-door sports sedan. Dodge did just that with its Charger nameplate.

When the Camaro Dies in 2024 – you might not recognize its successor

Of course, that sedan isn’t electric— flagrantly flaunting a great selection of multiple V-8 engine options—but even Dodge is making big electrification moves in the coming years, having already previewed an all-electric muscle car that looks like a retro-futuristic Challenger. Ford hasn’t committed to electrifying the two-door Mustang yet, but it has introduced the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV that shares the pony car’s iconic name.

Whatever the decision, fans shouldn’t worry too much about the performance aspect. Electric vehicles are wicked fast —  the Hummer EV pickup offers a 1000 hp variant and is said to be Porsche-quick to 60 mph despite its gargantuan weight. Let us also not forget that there’s an electric Corvette on the way,
So when the Camaro dies in 2024, it’s more than likely that Chevy will have a range of  EV performance vehicles to satisfy even the most discerning critics. While the sun is setting on thumping V8s, the dawn of 1000 hp street cars is upon us.
Before anyone frets about the steady march of progress, we have to remember what happened over past six decades:
I remember the switch from leaded gasoline to unlead gasoline – engine builders lamented it as the end of the world.
I remember the oil embargo and gas lines – some predicted that life would only go on after the world switched to Honda Civic CC cars.
I remember the switch from carbureted cars to fuel injection – ‘the complexity would destroy the DIY market,’ some said.
I remember the smog laws in California – air pumps, catalytic converters and the biannual smog checks — still, we soldiered on.
I remember the advent of computerized ECUs – an initiative to prevent any sort of tampering in OBD I and eventually OBD II equipped cars.
Through every change, every technological and every piece of restrictive legislation, they haven’t been able to destroy the car hobby.  We will survive this, too, so when the Camaro dies in 2024, we will sip a toast in tribute and light up a cigar when its replacement is born.

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