[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by Bosse'sBoss

If the Corvette E-Ray has been a performing great hit for GM, I wounder Why they dont applied that V8 hybrid Tech to the great performing Alpha chassis Camaro to keep it alive?

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

$$$$

Originally Posted by GearheadSS

They can't apply the same tech to a completely different platform.

Where would they put the electric drive motor for the AWD? Where would the battery go? Where would the development dollars come from?

Never a possibility for the 6th gen.

I was in GM Portfolio Planning until I retired in 2017. Specifically focused on powertrain and technology. Hybrid technology was considered but not finalized for a Gen 7 Camaro. We all know how Gen 7 went, so I won’t dwell on that. There were considerations of pairing a 4 cylinder or a 6 cylinder with hybridization to produce a vehicle that would perform like a V8, but much better fuel economy. I don’t recall any consideration of a V8 based hybrid for Camaro. It works for Corvette because the mid-engine placement leaves room for the electric motor up front where the engine would be for a Camaro. Leave the V8 in the front and you do not get an “AWD via e-motor” solution for Camaro.

By the time I left, the company was on a path of stopping development on anything hybrid except Corvette (too far along in development, plus e-motor is necessary to achieve the target hp numbers that are still to come ) and except China. Planned Buick and CUV versions of the Chevy Volt were cancelled (except in China).

The thing with hybrids, especially plug-in hybrids is there is development cost and material cost required to support two fully functioning powertrain systems. For GM’s portfolio, a simple hybrid, like Prius, does very little to help with achieving fuel economy regulations. A lot of truck volume to offset. Toyota does not have that issue and they are also way down the cost curve for hybrid systems. Toyota can afford to have some nameplates that are hybrid only (Prius, Venza, Sienna, something else I’m forgetting). So for GM, the answer had to be plug-in hybrid and/or EV. Because plug-in hybrids require engineering two propulsion systems and also require a fairly large battery, GM decided to skip hybrid and just go straight to EV. There are many other factors in the decision to go EV, I am only discussing the “hybrid facing” part of the decision.