Chevrolet has admitted that it is taking a bit of a gamble selling the C8 Corvette in right-hand drive configuration, without knowing just how much demand there will be for the car in markets like Australia.
While taking part in the Autoline After Hours podcast in December, Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter admitted that designing the C8 to support a right-hand drive configuration wasn’t easy, particularly as the car manufacturer had to ensure it would remain affordable. Making things even more challenging was the fact the C8’s interior is asymmetrical.
“If you look at most people who do right- and left-hand-drive, they have plainer interiors, which makes it easier; door trims can be the same, the IP is perfectly symmetrical,” Juechter said. “You’ve seen how bespoke ours looks, so we had to come up with some very clever ways, honestly, some clever tooling solutions – it’s going to be relatively low-volume because there are relatively few markets outside America.”
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Juechter added that Chevrolet isn’t totally sure of how well the car will sell in Australia.
“We’ve never sold the car in Australia; we know we have passionate fans there, but we really don’t have a great sense of what the volume’s going to be,” he said. “So we had to look at new ways of tooling parts to do the exact part as a mirror image to get to right-hand-drive and do it as a reasonable business case. We’re taking a little bit of a bet there. We’re dipping our toe in the water for right-hand-drive, and we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully, it takes off.”
Other right-hand drive markets like Japan and the UK will also receive the mid-engine Corvette.
It is understood that all new Corvettes sold in Australia will be free of any Chevrolet branding and come standard with the Z51 Performance Package and 3LT interior trim. Local prices could start at a touch over AU$150,000, or roughly US$101,500.