The manufacture of an all-electric Chevrolet Corvette is underway, but a hybrid version will be released first, according to General Motors’ president.

Electric Corvette

General Motors president Mark Reuss wrote on LinkedIn that in the future, they plan to provide a completely electric and electrified, Ultium-based Corvette. He added that essentially, an electrified Corvette will be out as soon as next year, and more details will be provided at a later date. 

According to Reuss’ depiction of the “fully electric” and “electrified” Corvettes as separate models, the “electrified” model is almost definitely a hybrid, with one or more electric motors added to the existing Corvette’s V-8 engine.

Reuss also stated that cars based on General Motor’s EV-specific Ultium architecture, which appears to include the Corvette EV, will receive an energy recovery system that extracts heat from the battery pack and makes use of it to keep the cabin warm, develop charging conditions that are more efficient, and even boost acceleration. According to Reuss, this method increases the range by around 10%.

The unveiling of all-electric and hybrid Corvette models verifies what many have suspected ever since the current-generation C8 Corvette was introduced as a 2020 model. This resulted in a mid-engine configuration, making it simpler for engineers to install electric motors in the hybrid model.

Teaser video for C8 Chevrolet Corvette hybrid

President Joe Biden suggested a 200-mph electrified Corvette in a 2020 election campaign ad for candidacy. Around that period, GM purportedly began shifting Corvette engineers to electric vehicle projects, particularly the Hummer EV project, and another recent story said GM would apply the Corvette moniker to an electric SUV.

The Corvette is the most recent effort by an American automaker to greenify a popular but suboptimal nameplate. The GMC Hummer EV, like the Ford Mustang Mach-E, harnesses just enough design history while venturing somewhere new.

If we can have electric Hummers, Corvettes, and Mustangs, it appears that the opportunities for electrifying automotive icons are nearly unlimited. But are there any automobile icons that should not be converted to electric power? Should some be left behind?