Confirmed: Hybrid and all-electric Corvettes coming soon

In a tweet earlier today, Chevrolet announced that a hybrid version of the Corvette will be available “as early as next year,” with a fully-electric model to follow sometime in the future.

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I'm sorry, but you'll never convince me that electric motors are the answer, I've driven a couple and I just think they're boring, soulless machines 

I know they aren't saying it, but this surely means the end of the ICE-powered Corvette in the next decade or so. I'm not anti-EV at all, but if you can't feel a pang of sadness over that, you're not a true gearhead.

You can be a true gearhead and not mourn for ICE-powered Corvettes. Just like how it's possible to be a gearhead and accept cars that don't have manual transmissions or carburetors or a timing advance lever on the steering wheel.

I wonder how much the C8 packaging was designed around a future hybrid variant. I can see that being more acceptable to "cars have to make noises to have soul!"crowd, but you've got extra parts to slip into a car that doesn't have a lot of unused space to begin with. At least with a full electric you get to take some bits out.

Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:

I know they aren't saying it, but this surely means the end of the ICE-powered Corvette in the next decade or so. I'm not anti-EV at all, but if you can't feel a pang of sadness over that, you're not a true gearhead.

Agreed. EVs are definitely the way of the future if you care about getting maximum performance. From a business, performance, and social perspective, I couldn't imagine anything else. But that doesn't mean that I don't feel inexplicably upset about it when you're talking about a Corvette. 

Oh, there's a video embedded in the story, I missed that. Clear shot of front wheelspin and muted engine noise. So the hybrid system will likely be on the front wheels, and there may be all sorts of interesting torque vectoring tricks on the table thanks to that.

Once you've got the front electrified, you just yank out the ICE and drop in a big motor in the back while running the battery pack through that massive center tunnel. 

Keith Tanner said:

You can be a true gearhead and not mourn for ICE-powered Corvettes. Just like how it's possible to be a gearhead and accept cars that don't have manual transmissions or carburetors or a timing advance lever on the steering wheel.

Well, I still haven't really accepted that Vettes don't have manuals anymore. 

Carbs and manual timing advance are one thing, taking away an internal combustion engine is something else. It's the soul of a car, especially a sports or enthusiast car. The sound and feel and vibrations and the way it builds power are all a massive part of the sports car experience. I love running my Boxster through the gears just to hear that flat six howl. Engines are a major part of the personality of a car. 

Again, I'm not anti-EV. I think they are well on their way to being better at every objective measure than ICE engines. But being a car enthusiast means embracing the subjective, and while I know why it's happening, subjectively a Corvette without a Chevy V8 in it makes me a little sad.

I already decided that I'm going to buy the electric sports car that Honda announced a week or so back, so I'm fully here for the electric corvette.  

I for one welcome our new 4 door suv Corvette overlords

I'm a little torn on this. EVs are the future, and they'll outperform any ICE around while being much more efficient. I'll certainly miss the sound of the V8, but I guess that's a small price to pay for improved performance and efficiency.

Noises and smells and vibrations are fun for sure. It's why I like my classic Mini without a Honda engine swap, and the fact that the Targa Miata is propelled primarily by noise very much amuses me. But while they're part of the personality of a car that has them, they're not a necessary part of the driving experience. Take them away and there's a different personality exposed, like a family sedan what will accelerate so violently you feel like you've been punched in the chest, a low center of gravity that makes a car feel much more nimble than it should be and torque vectoring that makes the car respond to the steering wheel extremely quickly. Amusingly, the way an EV "builds power" is basically the holy grail for ICE designers and they'll jump through all sorts of hoops to get it. A high compression big displacement V8 is probably as close as you can get other than the noise and vibration aspect. So other than the soundtrack, a full EV Corvette may not be that changed.

GM has publicly stated that it will stop using gasoline and diesel to power light duty vehicles by 2035 (hydrogen is still on the table but it's unlikely to ever be more than a technology demonstrator or a niche fuel for very specific applications). So unless it's like Ford's statement that they will "stop making cars (except for the Mustang, we'll totally keep making that one)" and the Corvette gets a waiver and the only ICE in the fleet, there is an all-electric Corvette coming.

TheTallOne17 said:

I for one welcome our new 4 door suv Corvette overlords

Yea all I can think from the headline is Mustang Mach E.

They finally made an attractive corvette again after almost 40 years, don't turn it into a crossover thing. 

Which would win in a cross country race? The ICE 'vette or the electric?

I look forward to awesome EV's. They will eventually far outstrip the current ICE vehicles.

I think that's still a little ways off. The first versions of a new, incoming technology will pretty much always be inferior to the final versions of the outgoing technology they are replacing. Like the shift from steam power to ICE.

I don't think it's going to be too long until they really figure it out.

So, I'm not really excited about this Corvette, because it's still trying to be recognizeable as a 'Corvette' in the current landscape. I think we need to see a complete paradigm shift in vehicle design of electric vehicle designed around the needs of electric vehicles, rather than still trying to look like what we expect of vehicle built around an ICE.

BA5 said:

I already decided that I'm going to buy the electric sports car that Honda announced a week or so back, so I'm fully here for the electric corvette.  

do you have details on this?  

Some tracks are not allowing electric cars on the track (most citing safety; fire suppression challenges; outright performance causing risks; etc.)  With the rapid shift towards electric performance cars, how will tracks manage this moving forward?  IMHO; electric cars are really exciting alternative, indoor electric go-karts are proof that electric in motorsport is fun and the impact to the surrounding area where environmental concerns (noise, smell, etc. more than car emissions) Electric can represent relief for tracks (i.e. laguna seca) that is challenged with those issues.  

As for the corvette moving to electric and/or Hybrid; other than the inevitable weight increase i don't see too much of a reason not to like this idea.  

jimgood said:

Which would win in a cross country race? The ICE 'vette or the electric?

Which would win in an autocross or a hillclimb? Which would win in a tractor pull? :)

There's no reason this would have to look like a crossover any more than the Taycan does.

And just for fun, I pulled weights for Taycan vs Panamera because they're both similarly sized sedans (Taycan is about 2" shorter) from the same manufacturer but one is a ground-up EV.

Taycan ranges from 4600 lbs (RWD, small  79 kWh battery ) to 4744 lbs (RWD, big 93 kWh battery) to 4949 lbs (AWD, big battery).  
Panamera ranges from 4222 lbs (base model) to 4500 lbs (AWD turbo) to 5000 lbs (AWD turbo hybrid).

So - AWD is a slightly bigger weight penalty on an ICE (no surprise there). Bigger batteries have an effect on weight (well, yeah). And hybrids aren't necessarily any lighter than full on BEVs.

Keith Tanner said:

jimgood said:

Which would win in a cross country race? The ICE 'vette or the electric?

Which would win in an autocross or a hillclimb? Which would win in a tractor pull? :)

There's no reason this would have to look like a crossover any more than the Taycan does.

in an autocross, it depends on which one I'm driving...  in which case the other car will win (and since i'm so bad at autocross the other car could be a miata on 3 cylinders and all season tires)

ClearWaterMS said:

Some tracks are not allowing electric cars on the track (most citing safety; fire suppression challenges; outright performance causing risks; etc.)  With the rapid shift towards electric performance cars, how will tracks manage this moving forward?  IMHO; electric cars are really exciting alternative, indoor electric go-karts are proof that electric in motorsport is fun and the impact to the surrounding area where environmental concerns (noise, smell, etc. more than car emissions) Electric can represent relief for tracks (i.e. laguna seca) that is challenged with those issues.  

Solveable problems are solveable.

An amateur team ran an all-electric car to completion of the 25-Hours of Thunderhill. They engineered a method of pit-stop switching out batteries.

Now let's see some professional and factory teams tackle this problem, and we should see some really interesting vehicles coming out.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

The problem here is that both the Taycan and Panamera are complete abominations. Both are big, heavy, heinously ugly, 4-door, cash cow compromises. Like the Mustang Mach-E. I think some here are worried that's the fate of the Corvette as society goes down the EV path. I am sure Chevy will keep the Corvette proper sports car, regardless of drivetrain. Just like how Porsche will also very likely keep the 911 a proper sports car, even once it's an EV. They will both also sell some crossover BS to the  masses.

It doesn't really matter how much of an abomination the two Porsches are, they're a decent direct comparison between similar cars that were engineered as a full electric versus a full ICE. If you've got a more palatable comparison, we can use that instead. I was mostly looking at what the effects were in terms of mass. Take the rest of the vehicle as a constant.

One really interesting stat that came out of there is that increasing the capacity of the battery by 1 kWh adds 10.3 lbs. You can very clearly scale cost and weight vs range and performance by playing with that.

Good times to un-invest in jorts and New Balance shoes.  I would like to see a team Joest (during the Audi heyday) and Ganassi solve the battery swap issue in sports car, might give people that hate things like FE (which is a joke) more hope in the future of racing and car culture.

The Mach E wearing the Mustang name is simply a way to market the new Ford electric CUV. It's not the result of making a Mustang fully electric, but it sure has messed up people's idea of what an electric car has to be. Thanks, marketing team.

Last night, I mentioned to my dad that I'll be driving the new Nissan Z later this week. His immediate reply: Is it gas or electric? 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I get what you're saying, and agree. Just trying to explain the worry some folks have every time they hear "heritage nameplate + EV news". I'm not worried about the future of EV sports cars. But I am still waiting on a proper one to be made again (Tesla Roadster being the first and only so far).