General Motors has filed a trademark for the Panther name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and it has again sent the rumor mills into overdrive about the revival of the Camaro sports car. Panther was the codename for the original Camaro during development, and a panther resurfaced in the Camaro Collector’s Edition’s logo. We don’t think a Camaro revival is in the cards, so what is Panther all about then?
Could GM Be Working On An Affordable Sports Car?
GM has said there’s simply no business case for a new Camaro, but Panther could still bring some excitement in the form of a smaller and more affordable sports car in the mold of the Toyota GR86. This would be much cheaper to develop than a real V8 pony car, but profit margins will also be slimmer, which is why Toyota shares the development costs of its sports cars with other automakers – Subaru in the case of the GR86 and BMW in the case of the GR Supra.
Why A New Camaro Is Unlikely
It’s not easy making a business case for sports cars these days. The Camaro went out of production in December 2023, and in its last model year on the market, Chevrolet sold only 6,000 of them, down from a high point of 70,000 in 2016. In fact, so slow was the stock to deplete that some dealers still had new Camaros left on the lot in February 2025. A trademark application doesn’t mean much either, as GM has also filed a trademark for Pontiac recently, and that doesn’t mean the brand is being revived.
Maybe An Electric Crossover SUV?
A compact sportster on a shared platform could happen, but we don’t know how GM will make it work in the current climate, and the way the market is leaning toward EVs. The next Camaro was envisioned as an electric sedan back in 2021, and this could still be a possibility, though we shouldn’t be surprised if it morphs into an SUV, the way Ford has done with its Mustang Mach-E and the new Capri. An electric crossover called the Panther would certainly be less controversial than the hallowed Camaro name on an SUV.
