And Corvette purists won't like how GM plans to do it.
In recent years, there’s been a fair amount of speculation that General Motors would break off Corvette into a standalone brand; it has far more of a premium resonance than Chevrolet. Now, according to a Car and Driver report, that process is underway. An anonymous source from GM’s tech center — whose words sound far more official PR-like than human — confirmed plans to launch the Corvette brand in 2025.
The report says Corvette’s traditional sports car lineup will continue with the E-Ray, ZR1 and Zora C8 variants. Corvette will produce an eventual electric sports car on the Ultium platform. Corvette — conforming with the previous reporting — will also launch two new Corvette-branded EVs starting in 2025, a four-door liftback coupe (also known as a sedan) to take on the likes of the Porsche Taycan — and a premium crossover.
Traditionalists will lament the broadening of the Corvette nameplate. But as with the Ford Mustang Mach E, that sentiment seems likely to fade after the initial yelling. And as with the new Mustang, having more practical Corvette vehicles should free up Corvette to take a more traditionalist approach to the sports car (even if the mid-engine C8 did away with several Corvette traditions).
The challenge for the new Corvette brand will be defining and differentiating the new Ultium platform vehicles as Corvettes; Cadillac will be producing premium, potentially sporty EVs as well. Doing so will require tangible differences not just (purportedly not worked over) rhetorical flourishes like the new Corvette EVs being “copies of nothing” and “encapsulated emotional purity.”
According to the report, Corvette will try to do that with tech, with features like advanced battery packaging and charging capability and tweaks for better driving dynamics, such as multi-mode four-wheel steering, torque vectoring, a brake-by-wire system and efficient, high-revving electric motors. How many of those features are Corvette-exclusive remains to be seen.
Keyword: Corvette Will Become Its Own Brand, Add Sedan and SUV Models by 2025, Report Says