Following an abundance of rumor and conjecture (plus a bit of trying to wring the grapevine for news), top brass at General Motors have confirmed an electrified Corvette will prowl the streets and tracks of America as soon as next year. Even more interesting? An all-electric Corvette, based on The General’s new Ultium EV architecture, will also show up in due course.
Word of the electrified Chevy supercar initially dropped during a CNBC interview with Mark Reuss, president of General Motors. He told the channel’s morning crew that the company plans to launch an electrified version (read: gasoline-powered plus one or more electric motors) of the Corvette in 2023, followed by a fully electric version later. A teaser video, shown below, puts a prototype electrified ‘Vette on full display; telltale signs include bright green brake calipers and the car’s ability to spit loose surface debris from its front tires. The latter all but confirms the presence of all-wheel drive, a change which will surely enrage jorts-wearing purists but likely pump Corvette’s already stellar performance numbers into the stratosphere.
More details then surfaced on Reuss’ social media account on LinkedIn – a platform which is a bastion of breaking Corvette news, apparently:
Some time ago we moved the Corvette team into the EV space in Warren, Michigan, and when we revealed the new mid-engine Corvette, I said there would be “more to come.” This morning I sat down with Phil LeBeau of CNBC and finally answered the question I’ve been asked countless times.
Yes, in addition to the amazing new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and other gas-powered variants coming, we will offer an electrified and a fully electric, Ultium-based Corvette in the future. In fact, we will offer an electrified Corvette as early as next year. Details and names to come at a later date.
The march towards electrification may be alarming for some of us gearheads who enjoy the raucous rumble of a V8 engine, but the fact remains
In addition, GM also announced an energy recovery system for their Ultium Platform. According to the eggheads, it is a patented onboard system that takes heat generated by EV batteries and uses it to warm the cabin. Not a bad trick. But the real benefit will likely come from its ability to create more efficient charging conditions and increase vehicle acceleration. Creating favorable charging environments will allow the battery pack to juice itself more quickly, reducing the amount of time needed to loiter at a charging station. Better acceleration, on the other hand, needs no explanation. Comfy batteries also tend to manage their power reserves more efficiently, so GM is estimating a 10 percent range bump with this system.
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“Details and names to come at a later date”
*Names* sounds ominous. If they “Mach-E” the ‘Vette, Bowling Green will be burnt to the ground by the True Believers.
Here’s a marketing challenge: Do you make the electric Corvette quicker and faster than the Z06, for instance (because you can), or does it take a back seat while getting beat by its competitors?
It might even be the top of the range, ala Porsche 918 (which was an INCREDIBLE performer).
> If they “Mach-E” the ‘Vette, Bowling Green will be burnt to the ground by the True Believers.
Yeah, I’m fine with an electric Corvette; I’m not fine with a Corvette CUV.
As a C7 owner, I’m all onboard with this. More power, better traction, higher performance. I’m a bit concerned with the extra weight affecting handling however. But if that can be managed, this should be a great car. The biggest obstacles will be cost and acceptance. Cost hopefully will go down with time but acceptance will likely come from the younger part of the ownership spectrum. Recall the electric Harley and the push back from the archaic, backward thinking owner base that viewed electric bikes as “socialist crap”. If the politics section of CorvetteForum is any indication, there will be a similar problem here as well, at least from a portion of the owner base. I’d like to think that there are enough people who will ask the question “Is the performance there” and be guided accordingly. As for a full electric “E-Ray” I’d miss the sound of that glorious 6.2 litre V8 but I’d get over it if the performance was better.
I consider adding AWD much worse than going electric or hybrid. The C8 already has too much backed in understeer for what it is. People want to write about d*ck-waving, adding AWD to go from 3.0 0-60 to 2.8 is some of the biggest d*ck-waving around.
“and the car’s ability to spit loose surface debris from its front tires.”
The take rate will be interesting, I’ll be curious to know if GM will be hiding the current drivetrain in some options package to extort a little more cash from people just wanting a C8 and are not willing to become guinea pigs. Don’t get me wrong I think its cool but GM’s success rate on the watermelon’s technology has not been stellar.
The last year for the Spark EV was MY18 as I recall, now you can’t get the batteries:
https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/24/23039665/gm-chevy-spark-ev-no-longer-provide-battery-replacements
28, considering that the Spark EV was sold in just two states to start, then only slightly expanded, and sold just a few thousand models total, you wouldn’t expect spare batteries to be piled up in every dealership in the country. This is not evidence of why electric cars aren’t viable, but of GM’s standard halfassery.
I’ve always assumed the C8 would be the last ICE-powered Corvette. Although I think the transition will be slower than now predicted, I expect everything will be electric (or other clean/renewable fuels) not too far into the future.
Do as you will but I hate this newspeak “transition”, there is no transition nor will there ever be one. I take the view most major platforms have been purposely engineered to accept different drivetrain choices.
There will be a transition. European and Chinese regulators are making sure of that. EVs will take over quite a few markets. But in the U.S. the transition won’t be complete, nor will it be all that fast. I’m guessing we’ll have a majority of cars sold be BEVs sometime in the early 2030s.
I’ve pretty much come to accept that the West is all going to burn to a crisp and the South is going to become unsurvivable outdoors in the summer. Buy your property in upstate New York or Vermont, the only places that are climate-safe for the moment, while you can.
Not quite, unless the “transition” in fact refers to lowering the current standard of living (perhaps it does?).
“I’m guessing we’ll have a majority of cars sold be BEVs sometime in the early 2030s.”
Unless there is some kind of whiz bang battery tech which will allow for mass production without too many exotic materials I do not see such a thing to occur. I do see market share cracking double digits of whatever is produced but only as overall production continues to fall (maybe mid to late 2023).
“I’ve pretty much come to accept that the West is all going to burn to a crisp and the South is going to become unsurvivable outdoors in the summer.”
I’ve never spent more than two weeks at a time down South but teenage me would have already told you as such. :D
In the West I am unsure, they seem to be used to 120s in the summer unless they suddenly get humidity with that I think they’ll be fine. I do worry about water shortages in the Southwest though.
Having just lived last year through a heat wave that produced three 108-degree days and quite a few more 90+ days in Seattle, I can assure you we are not used to that. They may be down in the current desert, but not in the future deserts of northern California (soon to be like Baja is today) or the Pacific Northwest (soon to be like Big Sur is today).
The Sun-to-water device, scaled up, will at least keep people alive in the climate-changed apocalypse of the future. Meanwhile, they are blissfully watering their useless lawns like it’s 1972.
I just hope a bunch of people ahead of me in the Z06 line will jump to these instead.
Most of the electric vehicles being teased or released right now are publicity-stunt sops to a stock market that punishes car companies as “boring” while wildly rewarding Tesla and Lucid for being the “high-tech future.” Given that GM can’t come close to producing enough Corvettes to meet the demand they already have, this is clearly another.
They’ve been working on the electric & hybrid corvettes for quite a while. There were even fuse locations for the electric drivetrain that were discovered in even the first versions of the C8 if memory serves me correctly. Besides, pure ICE is a performance dead-end. The electrified Corvettes will no doubt cost more so it’s a matter of making more money from their production capacity.
“Most of the electric vehicles being teased or released right now are publicity-stunt sop”
I don’t think that’s true. Maybe I automatically ignore the ones that are probably publicity stunts. The only one that I can think of that really fits that category might be the Chrysler Airstream and maybe those low-cost Hondas. Others like the Ioniq 6 sedan are definitely happening and Polestar 5 is real. Ford Lightning debuts tomorrow. Camo’d versions of the Blazer EV have been photographed. Toyota launched bZ4x last week and I’ve already seen reviews. Supposed to be in dealerships sometime this spring.
Sure, some may be publicity stunts, but most aren’t. They’re real.
Correct the C8 was always rumored to come in an AWD hybrid configuration. Remove the frunk, insert batteries and motor. It was designed from the start to get some kind of EV assist.
So I think I’ll be keeping my C7 for quite some time, its already the last manual Corvette, now it appears to be the last fully dino-powered Corvette too. Maybe I can cash in on those that fear EVs somehow shrink your genitals.
My only grips with EV based Vette is no V8 rumble and killing its as a track car. Obviously the performance gains and not paying for gas are the benefits. As I get older my track days are becoming less and less frequent. If I continue tracking I might switch to a stripped out BRZ or similar. Tracking my C7 is a bit too hard on my old nerves, its honestly too much car for me and due to the silly prices of used cars becoming harder to justify if I had to replace it.
When I say “publicity stunt,” I don’t mean the cars aren’t being released. I mean that a lot of them aren’t seriously intended to be sold in any big numbers, like the embarrassing 100-mile Mazda CUV whatever it’s called.
As for a glut of base C8’s, there’s a guy on VW Vortex’s board who’s chronicling his hunt for a new C8. He was going to hold out for the sports model but faced a 4-year wait. He decided to settle for the base model, and as a result, now faces a 1-year wait instead.
“Given that GM can’t come close to producing enough Corvettes to meet the demand they already have”
I’m not sure that’s true. Cars.com shows plenty of Corvettes available on the ground. Other vehicles are much harder to get.
I noticed once the Z06 was announced that normal C8s suddenly starting becoming more widely available. I saw 5 new C8s at one dealer. Watching the used market C8 values are down which says a lot since this time of year the ‘Vette market tends to wake up from its winter slumber.
Past: Keep the Corvette engine in the front of the vehicle.
Current: Move the Corvette engine to the middle of the vehicle.
Future: Move the Corvette engine out of the vehicle.
” Even more interesting ” (all electric). I don’t find that interesting at all.
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