The Grand Sport is the latest variant of the C6 Corvette .
General Motors has confirmed the next generation Corvette will roll out in about two years – and the maker’s top North American executive hints it will be “completely different” from the look of the current 2-seat sports car, which has undergone mostly evolutionary changes during its nearly six-decade history.
GM will invest $131 million in the Bowling Green Assembly plant to support production of the next generation Chevy sports car, adding about 250 jobs in the process.
“This is a significant day for anyone who believes that America should build world-class, high-performance products,” said Mark Reuss, GM North America president. “Corvette has no domestic peer for performance and pedigree and stands alongside the world’s best supercars with almost 60 years of continuous heritage,” he added.
The current version of the Corvette, known to aficionados as the C6 – or sixth-generation Corvette – was launched in 2004. The project was originally planned to reach market a year earlier, to celebrate the 2-seater’s 50th anniversary, but was delayed in order to get a variety of technical issues dealt with. At the time, GM’s “car czar,” former Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, declared it critical to make the ‘Vette a true competitor to the performance cars sold by manufacturers like Porsche and Ferrari.
But while the C6 has generated plenty of praise – all the more as variants like the 638-horsepower, $111,000 ZR1 have rolled out — it still hasn’t quite garnered the reputation of those high-line competitors.
It has continued doing reasonably well in the market – even as fuel prices have soared, however – with the 4,293 Corvettes sold during the first month of this year representing a 22% jump, year-over-year. That’s still a fraction of the nameplate’s peak pace, nonetheless, Chevy selling more than 40,000 Corvettes as recently as 2007.
GM is expected to make even more dramatic changes with the new model, which Reuss suggested will be “completely different” from the current-generation Corvette.
The plant in Bowling Green is scheduled to continue building the current-generation Corvette for at least the next two model years, including the 2012 model that goes into production this summer. During this period, the investment starts to take effect, preparing the facility for the next-generation Corvette, Reuss said.
“This investment in Kentucky is among $3.4 billion made in the United States since mid-2009 to keep or create more than 9,000 jobs for American workers,” Reuss added.
Bowling Green is the exclusive manufacturer of all versions of the Chevrolet Corvette –Coupe, Convertible, Grand Sport, Z06, and ZR1.
Paul A. Eisenstein contributed to this report.