As expected, General Motors has announced it will add a second shift and 400 jobs at its Bowling Green Assembly Plant in Kentucky to support production of the 2020 mid-engine Corvette C8.
With this announcement, the workforce at Bowling Green is set to grow to over 1,300 employees. The plant, which first opened in 1981, has produced more than 1 million Corvettes and has received more than $900 million in investments since 2011.
In a statement, GM CEO Mary Barra said Bowling Green has the right workforce to produce “a next generation Corvette worthy of both its historic past and an equally exciting future.”
The Bowling Green plant currently produces the C7 Corvette and all of its model variants. GM previously confirmed C7 Corvette production will end this summer, which put to bed rumors that the C7 Corvette and C8 Corvette would be sold alongside each other. This could also mean that the C7 will be the last front-engine Corvette.
As a small aside, GM referenced the mid-engine Corvette C8 as ‘ZERV’ in the original file name for the lead photo of this article. This has been the rumored internal codename for the supercar and is likely a reference to former Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus Duntov’s line of Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle (CERV) concepts. This name probably won’t stick for the production version, but it’s an interesting factoid nonetheless.
The official debut for the mid-engine Corvette C8 is scheduled for July 18th. There’s not much official info on the car right now, but spy shots and leaks have given us a rough idea of what to expect.
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Comments
I like pizza for eating.
Chevrolet needing to add a second manufacturing shift for production of the C8 Corvette can only mean one thing.. the car is a hit by the volume of orders they have already received.
Implies pricing is near current level, that or FE will continue on (not likely).
With the C7 days officially numbered, there is no doubt that the C8 price increase will be no more than a normal old to new Generation price increase (usually a couple of thousand at MOST) AND, BTW, the base model WILL BE named the Stingray again. GM did NOT invest $900,000 into Bowling Green to sell FEWER Corvettes than in the past. C7 pricing of even the Z06 models was up into the Viper pricing levels that limited demand for that car to less than 2000 units per year at best. To maintain the 30-40,000 annual units to maintain the OLD BG factory, GM CANNOT abandon Corvette’s demographic. In fact they are poised to significantly expand the demographic to include those snobs who think only a DOHC can be a sophisticated engine.
$900-million over 9-years. Or about $29,000 per each unit/Corvette based on 35,000 unit average per year. Based on that, the Corvette is highly subsidized, though, write offs and future production amortization would reduce those numbers.
It figures out to about $2,900 per car, not $29,000 per car.
To Vaughn May it was $900 million, not $900 thousand.
I thought the idea of continuing production of the C7 for 1 more year and adding the C8 at a premium was the better way to go? Why? I think most everyone has expected the C8 to cost more, $15-20K more. Those who will buy these cars are ready and willing to pay more for a better quality product.
Great news.
Now I wonder if Politicians will congratulate GM on making more American jobs.
Adds jobs for a niche vehicle. Cuts jobs for mainstream sedans. Go figure.
Local dealer states that they have no pricing information and are not accepting orders, as yet, on the C8.
Call your dealer and see if you can place an order on a C8 and see if you can get some pricing info if they will place an order.