How An Electric Corvette Can Come To Market
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Earlier in the week, GM dropped a new teaser video showing the upcoming Corvette E-Ray accelerating hard on snow, giving us a peek at the onboard all-wheel drive system in action. Critically, GM President Mark Reuss confirmed that The General would offer a “fully electric, Ultium-based Corvette in the future.” Unfortunately, this simply raises more questions – what form will this new electric Corvette take? And when can we expect to see it?
For the moment, there’s a lot of speculation flying around the web, but let’s start with the facts. First off, GM has already announced that it will no longer sell internal-combustion-powered passenger vehicles by 2035, so an electric Corvette is already a foregone conclusion. With that in mind, let’s examine the possible scenarios of what such a model could look like.
Electric Corvette C8
As GM Authority has covered previously, a fully electric powertrain was not part of the initial product plan for the C8 Corvette. As such, an electric Corvette C8 is highly unlikely, unless of course GM changed its mind. If that’s the case, engineers must now figure out a way to stuff Ultium batteries and Ultium drive motors into the C8 architecture, a project that would be both complex and costly.
Moreover, GM’s Ultium batteries and motors were never designed to be shoehorned into an existing platform. Rather, GM’s overarching approach to vehicle electrification has been in the creation of new EV-dedicated platforms, such as BEV3, which underpins models like the Cadillac Lyriq, and BT1, which underpins models like the GMC Hummer EV. These new EV-centric architectures enable GM to turn a profit on electric vehicles, as they were developed and planned from the ground up to do exactly that.
By contrast, the full electrification of the C8 platform would entail stuffing the engine bay with batteries, which is less than ideal. Alternatively, batteries could be mounted up front and in the rear. However, the battery pack would not be mounted the passenger cell. All of this would be difficult to engineer without impacting the Corvette C8’s ride and handling.
Furthermore, massaging the Corvette C8 platform into a full EV wouldn’t necessarily offer too many benefits in terms of performance, at least compared to the lineup as it stands now. After all, the Stingray can already sprint to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds, while the Z06 C8 is estimated to complete the test in 2.6 seconds, and the upcoming Zora C8 around the 2-second mark. Given the heft of batteries, it’s unlikely an electrified Corvette C8 would keep up.
There’s even more to throw against this idea. The Corvette C8 is produced exclusively at the GM Bowling Green plant in Kentucky, a facility that already requires adaptation to fit hybrid components for the upcoming E-Ray and Zora variants, while a fully electric Corvette C8 would require further retooling. And that’s a lot of work for a relatively small plant that’s already struggling to fulfill demand.
In our humble opinion, a fully electric Corvette C8 is the least likely scenario here.
Corvette C9 rendering courtesy of LeYan Bai, via Instagram
Electric Corvette C9
Another possibility is the introduction of a fully electric Corvette for the next-gen C9, which is still several years away. Nevertheless, a model like this would be fully engineered to incorporate Ultium components right from the get-go. Incidentally, GM has said that an electric Corvette “would follow,” the E-Ray, but declined to specify a timeframe. As such, a new C9 model could possibly offer both electric and ICE powertrains, although we’re just speculating at this point.
GM Authority Corvette crossover rendering
A Completely Different Model With A Corvette Badge
The third scenario would take a page out of the Ford playbook, specifically what the Blue Oval brand did with the Mustang in creating the Mach-E. Rumors of a fully electric Corvette crossover have been swirling for a while now, as has the rumor that GM is working on a family of Corvette products. That said, creation of a new electric Corvette crossover to rival the Mustang Mach-E sounds like a bad idea, given the Corvette is marketed as a more upscale and costly vehicle than the Mustang. Instead, the Chevy Camaro would be the better match to morph into a Mustang Mach-E competitor, at least logically.
Still, we could see an electric Corvette crossover to rival the current crop of luxury brand, performance-oriented utility vehicles, such as the Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin DBX, something which would ride on BEV3 and incorporate all the usual GM Ultium technology expected.
We’ll keep our ear to the ground and relay anything of note. Until then, make sure to subscribe to GM Authority for more mid-engine Corvette news, Corvette C8 news, Corvette news, Chevrolet news, and 24/7 GM news coverage.
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“we’re just speculating at this point.”!!!
Just get a Koenigsegg Regera and be done with it. LOL
GM Killed The Electric Car…
Yep, absolutely did everything in GM’s power to prevent EVs. Now, GM CEO Mary Barra says GM is the EV leader. Of course that’s as believable as when she said GM only ‘Confirmed’ that GM had Killed 13 Americans; Ms Barra knew they had Killed over 125.
So after having Killed the EV, GM wants you to believe they’ve resurrected the EV.
It’s blurred out, but the electric Vette might be in the background in the Hummer development doc. You can see a white Targa top coupe of some kind.
The EV Corvette will have to come very soon, as the market and politics are currently demanding 100% EV vehicles even if the raw materials are no longer available.
When the EV Corvette and a new “EV-SAV-Corvette” come then this will probably be very interesting. With the EV Corvette, a new very flat front and side line should be developed for very good aerodynamics as very little drag! The next “EV-SAV-Corvette” should also be developed with the battery layout in the floor similar to the Chevrolet SAV kit because it is state-of-the-art and competitors such as Porsche and Mercedes-Benz will use identical technology.
The EV Corvette will certainly have to come with a mid-engine layout so that, as with the next EV Ferrari, the “mid-engine driving experience” can be offered to the customer due to the “battery mass”. Incidentally, the Lotus Elise Tesla EV was also built in this way and as you know, it worked!
And then I wish all Corvette owners and fans a nice ICE time …
Notice how all the ” I hate electric” folks avoid talking about how they compare- just an emotional response to things that are changing. You know, Detroit gives not one sh*t what 60 year Olds think about new vehicles. They saw brands die when they are perceived as old man’s cars… and have been trying to get the average age of buyers down for decades. No matter how hard it is to deal with electrical distribution issues, the main advantage of electric is the efficiency of the motors- well over double the eff of heat engines (30 vs 95) All these bone heads ignore that once you find away to efficiently get electricity to the batteries, ICE engines are dead. ICE is BAD for efficiency when low speed torque is required. The ICE vettes of today will get smoked by permanent magnet motors with modern drives ( vector, variable freq, etc..). The ICE corvette of 2022 is a dead man walking performance wise…
Couldn’t have said it better Duffer… Once EV is perfected and you can go 400-700 miles on a charge and the price comes down then ICE will be old tech… remember before Henry Ford made the Model T cheap cars where very expensive and not everybody owned one and even then people were still afraid of buying an ICE powered car! No one is forcing anything on anyone Biden will be out of office by the time EV tech becomes big time even if he does two terms. We can’t keep the strangle hold on oil forever the Games thst are played with the price of gas is ridiculous I agree that ICE vehicles are running much clearer let’s see where all this goes!
Duffer: Its the “Mark Twain” Principle:
I Love Progress; Its CHANGE that I don’t Like !
Wow sounds like CHEVYMAN was dropped on his head when he was a baby or molested by his uncle maybe found out his wife is a carpet muncher a lot of anger issues.
No anger here Don I am just not into selfish stupidity… We as a country should care about the future generations in this country I have a two year old son now I know the air we breathe will never ever be 100 percent clean but a little bit cleaner would be nice he and other children in the future can choose to buy ICE or EV? This one or the other won’t work people have to have choices… But please don’t be a 78 year old stumbling block.
Don, WTF? We were attempting to discuss the technical issues regarding electric versus gas engines. How does respondent’s childhood issue speculation come into play? Might be OK if it was remotely funny. What a douche canoe.
I hope the next Adminstration gets rid of the $7,500 EV welfare credit. No subsidies for any vehicles. Tax payers shouldn’t have to subsidize EVs. If EVs are so great, then let the compet without the welfare credit.
Agreed. If it works… buy it.