Ford rustled more than a few feathers when it revealed the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E late last year, but it wasn’t because anyone had beef with the idea of a sporty, all-electric SUV. What most took issue with was the model being branded as a Mustang. Ford must have known its controversial decision would rub diehard Stang enthusiasts the wrong way, but with a nameplate with as much brand equity as Mustang at its disposal, we can understand why it would want to use a familiar badge and styling on its crucial new EV.
General Motors is currently carrying out its own electric-vehicle strategy, and we don’t know if a direct competitor to the Mustang Mach-E is in the cards. But GM does have a flexible EV platform due in 2021 that is set to underpin at least nine different vehicles, with the first being a Cadillac SUV. If GM wanted to follow Ford’s lead and leverage the Camaro’s name and looks for a sporty electric crossover of its own, it might look something like these renderings.
The Camaro’s styling translates about as well as you’d expect to a tall, high-riding SUV body style—after all, the current-generation Blazer draws liberally from the bowtie-wearing pony car—but does our fantasy Camaro E-SUV look any worse than the real Mustang Mach-E? We think that’s up for debate. The sloping “coupe-like” roofline made popular by the BMW X6 and others would likely be a requirement, as would a narrow (for an SUV) greenhouse opening. Also, some semblance of muscular rear haunches would be a must if the car is to trade on the Camaro name. What might Chevy call such a product? All we can do is speculate, but we think Camaro E/28 has a nice ring.
Not much is known about GM’s next-gen electric powertrains, but we’d expect a Chevy Camaro electric SUV to at least match the 255 horsepower Ford is targeting for the base Mustang Mach-E. For higher-trim variants, Chevy would likely have to adopt a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup to stay competitive with the 332-hp, 417-lb-ft Mach-E 4 and 459-hp, 612-lb-ft Mach-E GT.
So will we see a new all-electric Mustang-Camaro rivalry? We hope so. And after all, if GM does have a competitor in the works, it wouldn’t be the first time a Camaro followed in the hoof prints of a Mustang.
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Source: WORLD NEWS
