Retiring Corvette ‘godfather’ on EVs, spinoff and a performance SUV

GM has said an all-electric Corvette is coming, but it hasn’t given a time frame. Last year, the automaker introduced a hybrid version of the car called the E-Ray.

Juechter wasn’t inclined to disclose any details of an upcoming Corvette EV, but he believes the E-Ray proves GM can successfully electrify Corvette.

“Electrification can be a wonderful contributor to cars. I embrace efficiency. … We’re passionate about efficiency in everything that we do,” he said. “Efficiency makes a good sports car, too. So, I think electrification is just another technology, and we have to figure out how to play that technology in a way that resonates with our customers.

“E-Ray is the first step. We think long term, you know, decades long term. Yes, General Motors committed to 100% electrification, and it’s our job as engineers to figure out what’s the way to get there. We’re businesspeople, too. We have to bring our customers with us.”

Juechter said there’s been some “natural push back” to electrified Corvettes from the sports car’s fan base.

“We’re hoping maybe the E-Ray warms them to maybe this electrification thing’s not so bad,” he said.

Wall Street analysts have said GM could better leverage the Corvette brand by expanding models and, to an extent, sales. In late 2019, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said a Corvette sub-brand could be worth between $7 billion and $12 billion.

That has raised questions around whether Corvette would be better spun off from parent GM.

But Juechter doesn’t necessarily believe that’s the way to go.

“I don’t know if we need to spin off. I mean, Corvette’s at the heart of Chevrolet. It’s a pure business play. If you’ve got this brand equity, you can just keep it at home or you can choose to try to monetize it and put it outside.

“General Motors historically hasn’t done that. We embrace our important franchises, and this is a really important franchise,” he said.

Regarding leveraging the brand for future products such as an SUV, which has been under consideration for several years, that’s a little different, Juechter said, declining to confirm that any such plans or considerations exist.

“How you leverage it. That’s a question for the future. You see the models we’re rolling out. We’re making the maximum of this mid-engine architecture. And, you know, I’ve made no secret I work on EVs, too, and trying to bring some of the performance spirit into the EV space. How that gets applied in the future and how it gets branded, that’s a story for another day,” he said.

The concept of a performance car brand producing a SUV or crossover would have been blasphemous years ago, but several brands such as Porsche, Lamborghini and even Ferrari have done so as consumer preference has moved away from the traditional car model.

Juechter has been a part of four separate generations of Corvette – from the fourth-generation ZR1 to the new mid-engine, eighth-generation of the sports car.

The first Corvette he purchased for himself was the sixth-generation 2006 Corvette Z06.

“It’s hard to pick a favorite. It’s like what’s your favorite child. Actually, it’s harder than who’s your favorite child. Anyway, I won’t get into parenting, but every one of these cars we pour our heart and soul into and they all have their specialness about them.

“I don’t know. I can’t pick one. If I’m forced to pick one, I say money talks. I bought that Z06. I put my own money down on that car. … That car was very special to me,” Juechter said.

Juechter said he wasn’t planning on purchasing the Corvette, but he saw a “fully decked out one” coming off the line at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and said that he had to have it.

He has since sold that car and last year purchased an eighth-generation Corvette Stingray convertible as a “retirement car,” given he won’t be getting any free Corvettes for testing.

“I’ve never been a convertible guy, but it’s my wife and my touring car — like cross-country touring car. I’m not going to track it. It’s going to be my daily driver,” he said. “If you just have a daily driver, a cruiser, a Stingray is pretty sweet.”