There are some vehicles in the GM fold that have too much vested cache to risk ripping apart the script. The Chevrolet Camaro is a great example. It’s long represented the best of automotive Americana. Rear wheel drive, lots of power for the money, and a thunderstorm of a V8 engine. To tamper with the formula would be to tamper with the very ethos that draws customers to the car in the first place. And to those pointing at the sales scorecard as to why the Camaro might need to change – it’s not because it’s lacking electrification. It’s more likely that sales are down because the pricing is not agreeable for many buyers used to even the MSRP of the fifth-generation model. The so-called “healthy pricing of new cars” – the ever-growing MSRP based on everything from currency inflation to mandated content – is what is keeping consumers away. Not because the Camaro is missing a battery pack.
The cafe society tech bros aren’t going to (by and large) cross shop a Tesla with a Camaro, ever. But they might consider another new-money alternative: Polestar.
For those unfamiliar, Polestar is a new brand from Volvo that represents performance. Electric performance. The first model set to launch, the Polestar 1 sport coupe, will begin production in 2019 with 500 vehicles. All of which have been earmarked for the Chinese market, where it will be built. The excitement will be delivered via a Volvo twin-charged (turbocharged and supercharged) engine mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission and a pair of rear-mounted electric motors for a combined output of 600 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. Polestar has claimed 93 miles of electric driving range, but battery power capacity hasn’t been announced yet. It’s based on Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform that underpins everything from the Volvo V60 wagon to the venerable Volvo XC90 SUV.
The Polestar 1 has impressive numbers, to be sure. But it’s hard to see that formula in a car with the ethos of a Camaro. Does that make the Camaro a liability when it comes to GM’s ambitious/risky electric vehicle rollout strategy that’s been grabbing the headlines lately?
We don’t think so. But for the Camaro to be safe from electrification, it’s going to take some good marketing, and some executives who dare to picture a world with a gas-powered Camaro being developed alongside an electric performance coupe based on the Camaro – but not named as such. Yes, in all probability, an electric Camaro could likely attract some new customers, but it would come at the expense of deep-rooted branding. In this hypothetical scenario, Camaro customers would view the move as the nameplate “selling out”, and would feel alienated as Chevrolet moves the car into a different direction targeting what’s perceived to be a hipper crowd. In short, it would be robbing from Peter to pay tribute to Paul. Branding gymnastics, for no good reason.
GM has so far taken the politically safe route with plug-in vehicles and electric cars. The Bolt EV and Volt plug-in hybrid are not performance oriented, but they have enough torque from their electric motors to the point that they could be. Yet the branding and messaging continues to be geared toward the eco-friendly, the tech-oriented, the futurists, or a combination of the three. Everything is otherwise not set up to handle the immediate output these cars can provide – from the tires, to the brakes, to the suspension, to the half-shafts. I have no problem leaning into these vehicles – I’m a Volt owner twice-over, and it’s the car I choose to drive home for the money, after driving everything else. But it’s not because of the impotent branding platitudes.
Oppositely, and despite Chinese legislation very much arm-twisting automakers into electrification, Polestar’s messaging has been performance-driven. In fact, Polestar was Volvo’s performance sub-brand before the call to elevate the name to a standalone marque. This is a bold move that can only be gotten away with if a brand isn’t too deeply rooted or historically known for doing/being something. Polestar Performance has only been around since the 90’s, and compared to vehicles such as the Chevy Camaro, it has minimal name recognition and cachet by comparison.
So, what if instead electrifying cars like the Camaro, an electric vehicle brand was newly established? Or an electric performance sub-brand? Or simply a different vehicle name and design, but pooled in with engineering programs of a similar platform, or vehicle set? Volvo seems to be doing all the right things with Polestar, and it’s a great example for any automaker looking to extract untapped customers in the marketplace. A customer that aims to be 100 percent new school, and actually still enjoys driving things that don’t represent social currency on wheels. It would likely be an easier battle to win, as opposed to contorting an established nameplate in an effort to maybe appeal to strangers.
It’s easy to imagine a performance vehicle program comprised of a Cadillac or two, a Camaro, a Chevy performance sedan, and a performance electric vehicle derived off this architecture, under a newly created brand that is lock-step with the times. One that has no legacy, nor baggage. A clean slate into the future. It would be easy to see a showroom of premium and performance electric crossovers under this new brand, as well, which would be based on highly scalable vehicle sets or platforms.
Of course, General Motors has a tainted history of mismanaging brands, running them amuck, into irrelevance, and then into oblivion. Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, Oldsmobile, Geo and Saab were largely all casualties of GM’s brand malpractices over the past 21 years. Due to history not being on the side of brand experiments, it’s likely something as cutting-edge as an electric performance brand won’t happen. But for the sake of Chevrolet’s historic performance car nameplates, it probably should.
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Comments
I’m not sure if polestar and chevy can be on the same page….. Polestar and Buick or Cadillac maybe….
Here is what is going on.
The Camaro was a low priced economy car based model with power.
Today the Camaro is a higher cost specific GT coupe in a market that is losing interest in performance over utility.
There really are no cheap performance cars. Even the properly done AWD cars are $40k. FWD really sucks as performance as it just has such a hard time to put the power to th3 ground.
While electric has great performance there are issues. For one sound. Part of the real performance experience is the noise and vibration. I was in a 9 second Chevy two last night and nothing Tesla can offer relates to that experience.
Now I am not saying not to do an electric performance car but do not do that as a Camaro. Do it as new car and a sedan in this coupe weak market.
I still say this is the dumbest name ever…..Polestar……sounds like a stripper or strip club. Also, spending money to launch YET ANOTHER brand when you already have a hard time providing marketing dollars and a clear identity to the 4 you have left sounds like a bad idea all around……if GM was the one launching a chinese made electric performance car “division” with a stupid name, the posts would be 800 deep from the crybabys throwing tantrums about how dumb and stupid the idea was….but we all know….only GM make bad decisions, everyone else is brilliant.
This whole Polestar concept is dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb, the car still look like Volvos that were debadged for an insurance commercial.
Yes, Please…do not pitch any new brands to GM. They’ll scale back their launches at the other brands….dilute their resources greatly once again and end up in worse shape than the bailout. Let’s allow them to focus on making what they have the best it can be.
Doesn’t look like Volvo without the diagonal bar thru the grille.
I can’t follow your associations to the name Polestar — this refers rather to what in English is called the North Star or Polaris. German “Polarstern” and Swedisch “Polstjärnan”.
Sir, your “vision” has just described Tesla…pretty much. I guess GM wouldn’t be the first to market then.
All that remains to be seen is if the Tesla vehicle architecture is scalable and expandable to other models; premium and performance.
Automakers that are building cars in tents are not destined to survive. Maybe Tesla’s IP and brand will be useful for whoever ends up acquiring them. But who knows if anybody would care without Elon Musk at the helm.
You’re right, though. Tesla has great branding.
Lmfao. Tesla will survive, and I hope you’ve bet your money on them, just so you’ll lose it. Tesla will blow the fish right out of the water, and have consumers call on GM, Ford, Honda, Toyota for all not doing enough to move forward. Tesla can make stylish electric vehicles, while the styling of the Chevy Bolt would be considering niche. More people have bought the Model 3 than those that have purchased a chevy Bolt. It’s all about marketing, consumers faith in the brand, and Vision. That’s just what Tesla is demonstrating, and will continue on executing.
You confuse having _bought_ with having pre-ordered a Tesla Model 3.
Problem is that Tesla, i.e. Elon Musk, does not manage to organize a mass production of cars.
The Polestar 1 is built in China…it is not specifically for the Chinese Market. 40% of orders for the car are for North America, and it sounds as if they are upping production for the demand.
A sporty, electrified vehicle you say? One that can capitalize on Chevy’s performance history while not threatening legacy nameplates you say? OK, how about this…
Take a modified Alpha or Alpha2 platform. Slap on one of those 4-door “fastback coupe” designs that are so popular today, with a hatch in the back. Kinda like a Stinger GT.
Load it up with over 500 HP either all electric or combined. Enough power to make a Tesla Model S P90 a little afraid.
Electrics are great in a straight line, not so good on road courses because of all the weight. They are already drag strip monsters. So what to call this thing? C’mon guys:
Your new for 2022 Chevrolet Chevelle. Or maybe Chevell-E – I’ll leave that to the marketers.
Change some body panels, upscale the interior, and also call it the Buick Electra (get it? 😀 ) if Mary wants to get real crazy.
the most impressive polestar 1 number is the price … $155,000!!!!
i’d love to talk to the people willing to shell out that much money for this vehicle.
who in their right mind would get this over a mercedes amg gt?
Your question should actually be “Why can’t GM get Cadillac to command the same money?”
Use “Pontiac” for the exclusive, the electric performance in this case.
The Corvette needs to be electric long before the Camaro is
Yes, bring back the “Electrovette”!
I find the “pair of rear-mounted electric motors” interesting.
My idea of the ideal electric car has one electric motor for each of the four wheels, with an electronic control steering torque and speed individually for each wheel, depending on drive situation.
Unfortunately I don’t know if these two rear-mounted electric motors are one motor each of the two rear wheels, or if they are combined into one drive unit, with the two engines assigned for different revolutions per minute, similar to the Voltec drive train which adds the generator as secondary motor for higher speeds.