Last week's news about the Chevrolet Camaro was not good, particularly for the muscle car's most loyal fans. According to a source, General Motors does not have plans to replace the Camaro when the current sixth generation's lifecycle comes to an end. The reason? Slow sales. GM CEO Mary Barra has proven time and again that if a certain vehicle doesn't sell, it's gone. This was the same mentality applied to Barra's decision to sell Opel to the PSA Group. Opel lost money for GM, therefore it had to go. Point being, the Camaro's slow sales could be real trouble. But it only took a day or so for a second report to correct the first one. Instead of canceling a seventh-gen Camaro altogether, it was simply going to be delayed. So, what's really happening?

GM Authority reached out to its most trusted sources and managed to paint a better picture of GM's plans. Basically, the plan is to discontinue the current Camaro at the end of the 2022 calendar year.

Launched in 2016, this would give the sixth-gen Camaro a total lifespan of eight years. Sources claim this was the plan all along. Makes sense, but what's happening next? Well, those same sources claim that just over the past few months, Chevy has begun initial development of a seventh-gen Camaro on a new Alpha 2 rear-wheel-drive platform. Think of this as an updated version of the current Alpha setup. But here's the problem: the Alpha platform is what GM considers to be a "legacy architecture," meaning it does not factor into the automaker's entire product portfolio.

Ideally, by 2025 GM plans to have its entire product portfolio riding on four highly-flexible architectures to help reduce costs. One of those platforms will be for RWD vehicles – not including trucks and SUVs. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's not slated to enter production until 2025, at the earliest, when it'll underpin the next Cadillac CT6.

Given this situation, GM has two options: 1. Develop the next Camaro on this RWD platform and either drop the current Camaro in 2023 or extend its shelf life by two years, or 2. Radically change direction and reimagine the Camaro completely.

Reportedly, GM has opted for the latter. This means, more than likely, an all-electric setup. In fact, not so long ago GM reassigned longtime Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser to lead the company's electric vehicle program. The guy knows a thing or two about muscle cars, so why not combine them both? So, an all-electric, seventh-generation Camaro? If this does happen, it's still several years away from production.