It was bound to happen, despite as much as some people wanted it to never happen. But, yes, General Motors is giving their Corvette the electric treatment.
GM will produce an EV Corvette alongside a fleet of traditional combustion engine models.
Interesting, GM President Mark Reuss gave no timeline about when the first EV Corvette will be here. Instead, he suggested that an ‘electrified’ model comes first, which means ‘hybrid.’
“We will have an electrified Corvette next year, so it’s coming very quick,” he said.
Reuss said a ‘fully electrified’ Corvette would follow later.
In 2020, Corvette detailed plans for a hybrid model. Dubbed the Zora, it is a 1000 horsepower sibling of the C8 Corvette, which pairs an electric motor (or two, they never said) with a 5.5-litre V8.
Reuss did say the first electrified Corvette would be all-wheel drive. However, he said nothing about powertrain specs.
The most likely situation is a hybrid Corvette will be identical in look and shape to the existing model rather than build something new from the ground up.
The E-Ray name, similar sounding to Stingray, has been trademarked by Corvette since 2015 and is rumoured to be the future name of the EV/hybrid Corvette.
And because all the best news stories include politics, it’s timely to add President Biden visited the GM factory in 2020. There, he was reportedly told some spicy details about the future Corvette.
“[GM] tell me that they’re making an electric Corvette that can go 200 mph (322 km/h).”
The 2022 model Corvette has a top speed of 205 mph.
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