Chevrolet Corvette’s electric switch inevitable
The Chevrolet Corvette flagship performance model will one day go electric, according to one General Motors executive – but not until it has to.
General Motors has quietly moved away from its plans to ditch internal combustion engine-powered passenger vehicles and pickups by 2035, but it is preparing its supporters for a future of only electric vehicles.
Back in 2022, even before Chevrolet revealed the hybrid Corvette E-Ray, GM President Mark Reuss said a “fully electric” version of the nameplate would follow, though no such car has materialised in the years since.
In 2024 and 2025, two concepts - one from GM’s new UK design studio and another from its California team - have shown what the Corvette could look like in the future if it does go all-electric, providing even more freedom for its overall shape.
Now, Corvette and GM performance cars executive chief engineer, has told The Drive the Corvette will inevitably become an EV, as will the rest of its cars.
“This is why we don’t talk about future products,” Roma joked on The Drivecast.
“Mark did make that statement, you’re not wrong, and the future – as we’ve said publicly – as a company involves electrification, heavier and heavier as we go.
“The electric cars are the end game, so someday there will be an electric Corvette, and I think that’s what Mark was trying to say.
“Right now we have electrification on Corvette (Grand Sport X, which replaced the E-Ray), so some day we will announce something to the world, but I’m not going to take anything away from Mark’s statement.
“Someday we will fully electrify the Corvette, but not today.”
Stephen Ottley
Chevrolet has previously made clear both Corvette EV concepts won’t be put into production, however we’re now in fifth year of the C8 Corvette, which means it’s coming up on the limit for production of its predecessors, and a new ‘C9’ could be not too far away.
Reuss last year told the InsideEVs Podcast that the ingredients aren’t there yet to give the iconic model full battery power.
“It [a Corvette EV] can be done. We’ve shown a slew of concept cars that are electric based,” Reuss said in October 2025.
“I wouldn’t say the propulsion system was something that was true to form on those concept cars, but [it was] very interesting, allowed us to do a lot of different things, which electric vehicles do on form and design, and the aesthetic piece.
Jordan Mulach
“But I think the status of the electrified corvette is the ZR1X that I’m driving now, and that’s awesome. It’s using electricity to do the right things with a Corvette. All-wheel drive, 1200hp+, using it for power, using it for speed, using it for ride and handling, using it for traction is [a] a great use of electricity on a Corvette.
“An all-electric Corvette, to make a Corvette do what a Corvette’s supposed to do, is not something that’s easy right now. What I’m talking about is when you get into mass from a vehicle dynamics standpoint, when you get into thermal performance.
“You can make advances in those, which we have, but I’m not sure the character of the Corvette and a buyer of the Corvette is ready to be the recipient of that effort quite yet.
“Never say never, that’s why we’ve got to keep investing in technology, and R&D.”
