Corvette Is Killing It Right Now, But Will Going Electric Kill The Corvette?

GM spent more than 50 years dithering over whether or not to make a mid-engined Corvette, and now it must be kicking itself for not being braver sooner. The C8, the first production Corvette to place a V8 behind the seats, not on front, is a sales smash, outselling the front-engined Toyota Supra 12 to one in the first half of this year.

Far from being put off by the new format, as some GM execs feared, buyers have flocked to the Corvette, and they’re younger, too. The average customer age has dropped from 64 to 55 in the past six years, the New York Times reports.

Corvette E-Ray Review: AWD And Hybrid Power Makes For A Better Vette

And another potentially polarizing Corvette shift also seems to have been well received. Fans are digging the E-Ray, which is not only the first hybrid Corvette, but also the first with all-wheel drive. 

But will those same fans be as receptive to the next logical evolution, a Corvette EV? GM hasn’t given kind of detailed schedule for the arrival of an all-electric Vette, but GM president Mark Reuss did write on LinkedIn in 2022 that there would be an electric Corvette “in the future.”

Well obviously there’s going to be a battery-powered Corvette at some point in the future; there’s no way buyers stomping their New Balance sneakers into the carpet on a 2084 Corvette, if there is such a thing, will be unleashing a rush of combustion power. But let’s say Reuss is talking about an electric Corvette in two, five or seven years time, before combustion power is outlawed. Can you see it being a success?

The E-Ray has been accepted because it’s like a regular C8, but enhanced. You still get a V8, which means you still get V8 noises, but the electric front axle’s additional torque and traction means the E-Ray’s 2.5-second zero to 60 mph (96 km/h) time is the fastest of any current C8, high-winding Z06 included. Buyers aren’t interested in the green benefits, but the performance angle is a big sell.

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If you remove the V8 from that equation though, will buyers still be convinced to purchase a Corvette EV simply based on it being faster again? And what if the first ever electric Corvette is also the first ever SUV, and built not from a Corvette platform at all, but from the same Ultium component set that’s found in the Cadillac Lyriq and Chevy Blazer EV?

Will enthusiasts accept it as a Corvette, or does it not matter because it’ll be hooking in thousands of very different people who’d never previously have considered a Corvette anyway?

Legendary Corvette chief engineer Tad Juechter, who retires this summer, described the E-Ray hybrid to the New York Times as “a great look at what the Corvette could become,” suggesting that it’s the model that could help bring buyers round to the idea of a fully-electric variant.

“Long before we announced the E-Ray, we had customers hollering at us, ‘You’d better not make an electric Corvette!’” Juechter told the NYT in a recent interview. “But the E-Ray is a perfect mechanism to not be afraid of electricity, to show it can do great stuff for you.”

The recent downturn in the EV market might mean GM is in no desperate rush to test that theory by launching a full EV Vette. And car enthusiasts in particular seem even less keen to embrace electric power than drivers looking for regular transport. It’s notable too, that while Porsche is replacing its 718 Boxster and Cayman twins with EV sports cars this fall, the iconic 911, which has just received its first hybrid drivetrain, won’t get a fully electric model until the end of the decade.

Do you think the Corvette brand will survive in an EV age and when do you think GM should introduce an all-electric model? Would you rather see an electric Corvette sports car or GM use EV tech to build a Corvette SUV? Drop a comment below and let us know.