Is a Corvette really a Corvette without a V8? What about a Corvette with four-doors? Or even a Corvette SUV?
All those questions appear headed for a ‘yes’ with parent company General Motors planning an aggressive electric expansion for its most famous nameplate. That’s according to a report from Muscle Cars and Trucks and other US-based media outlets, which claim that Chevrolet is not only planning an electric Corvette sports car but also a sports sedan and SUV too.
We already knew an electric Corvette was coming after General Motors President, Mark Reuss, confirmed it in a LinkedIn post a few months ago, but the revelation that a sedan and SUV are coming will almost-certainly shake-up Corvette and muscle car fans.
There are seemingly two driving factors behind this major shift for the Corvette brand - means and opportunity.
GM has developed the means to offer electric cars in a variety of shapes and sizes thanks to its ‘Ultium’ EV platform. This is a scalable vehicle architecture, with batteries and electric motors that can be either shrunk or enlarged depending on the vehicle it needs to underpin.
The Ultium platform is already used for the GMC Hummer and upcoming Chevrolet Silverado EV, but a small version will slide underneath the skin of the Corvette sports car to create a new electric hero model for the brand.
The opportunity for GM and Chevrolet is to use the strength of the Corvette nameplate to usher in a new-generation of electric vehicles for a fresh start for the US auto giant. The Corvette sports sedan would give the brand a rival to the likes of the Tesla Model S, Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT, while an electric Corvette-badged SUV gives Chevy competition for the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model X and Audi e-tron.
There’s no clear timeframe for these new models but it’s believed that with the Ultium technology already ready and developed, all three could appear by 2025.
It should be noted though, that the introduction of the electric Corvettes won’t mean the petrol-powered versions will disappear overnight. Chevrolet has just introduced the new Z06 model and it’s believed a hybrid (rumoured to be called E-Ray) as well as a new high-performance flagship (either carrying the ZR1 or new Zora badge) are under development.
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