Chevrolet offers the Corvette in all sorts of flavors. Rear-wheel drive with zero electrification, all-wheel drive with electric motors, going from 535 horsepower all the way to a mind-blowing 1,250 horsepower. General Motors has one more variant in the pipeline, and that’s an electric Corvette.
Before you panic, you must know that the arrival of an electric Corvette will by no means affect the lineup with internal combustion engines. V8s are obviously here to stay. So, yes, an all-electric Chevrolet Corvette is officially still in the pipeline, but it is not coming anytime soon. We have been hearing this for at least a decade.
General Motors’ Executive Chief Engineer for Corvette and Performance Cars, Tony Roma, clarified that while fully electric vehicles are “the end game,” a zero-tailpipe-emission Corvette is inevitable. However, the auto giant has no immediate timeline for its release.
“Someday, we will fully electrify Corvette. But not today,” Roma concluded. While GM originally teased an electric model back in 2015, the automaker anticipated the EV meltdown and decided to stick to V8s with or without electric assistance rather than rushing headfirst into an all-electric lineup.
Photo: Chevrolet
Now, GM President Mark Reuss confirmed for CNBC the arrival of another electrified Chevrolet Corvette next year, followed by an electric version of the sports car. However, he hasn’t disclosed any timeline for its arrival. As for the electrified Corvette, we will live to see if it will be a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid.
For the moment, the only electrified Corvettes are the Grand Sport X, which replaced the outgoing E-Ray, and the ZR1X hypercar, rocking totally distinct setups and totally different amounts of power, but both sporting all-wheel drive.
The Grand Sport X received the new 6.7-liter LS6 naturally aspirated engine and a permanent-magnet electric motor mounted on the front axle. Together they produce 721 horsepower (731 metric horsepower) and 665 pound-feet (902 Newton meters) of torque.
Those are enough to make it rocket from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 kph) in 2.4 seconds, run the quarter mile in 10.4 seconds wth a trap speed of 129.2 mph and max out at 190 mph (306 kph). An eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission sends power to the ground through all four corners. Customers can get all those for a starting price of $110,000.
Photo: Chevrolet
In the meantime, the other electrified Corvette, the almighty ZR1X, sits at the top of the lineup with a starting price of $227,800. It is the most expensive production Corvette ever built, but also the most powerful of them.
That is because the 5.5-liter twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank LT7 V8 works alongside the front-axle permanent-magnet electric for a combined output of 1,250 horsepower (1,267 metric horsepower) and 973 pound-feet (1,320 Newton meters) of torque.
Those are the figures that make it flash from zero to hero (0 to 60 mph or 0 to 97 kph) in just 1.68 seconds on a fully prepped drag strip surface (1.89 seconds with no preparation), run the quarter mile in 8.67 seconds and top out at 233 mph (375 kph).
To make sense in this lineup, an electric Corvette should be close to that sort of performance. In the meantime, General Motors is well aware that another $200,000 Corvette wouldn’t exactly sell like hotcakes.
