Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. News

Don’t laugh: Chevrolet might make a hybrid Corvette

Nick Jaynes
By
dont laugh chevrolet might make a hybrid corvette air flow
The Chevrolet Corvette Stingray could make for a powerful American hybrid sports car

Before you read this, ready your girlfriend with some smelling salts because you just might pass out: the C7 Corvette Stingray might just some day come in a hybrid version.

Now that you’re conscious again and have a throbbing welt on your forehead, I’ll deliver you the shocking news. In a recent interview with the LA Times, GM President Mark Reuss was asked about a future hybrid C7 Corvette.

Related Videos

“Actually, don’t laugh,” Reuss said. “I think it’s a very attractive idea, actually. I think it would be really fun to do, I think it would build capability inside our company and I think people would love it.”

Related

We’re with you. A hybrid Corvette seems as silly as a fitting a bald eagle with streamers and an ice cream truck chime. Making a hybrid of perhaps the most iconic American car of all time seems downright un-American and blasphemous. But when you think about it for more than a second, it sort of makes sense.

New GM has gone all eco-friendly since its bailout. First it rolled out the Volt and then it went down the line and made most every one of its models more efficient through turbocharging or electric or diesel versions. Why should the Corvette be any different?

In this new automotive world of ours with 1.6-liter hybrid F1 cars and hybrid Ferraris and Porsches, Chevrolet would be silly not to offer a performance hybrid C7 Corvette. It’d be especially silly since GM has most of the bits required already in its parts bin from the Chevy Volt, Spark, and Cadillac ELR development.

The standard Stingray makes 455 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque. Imagine a hybrid Corvette with a Formula 1-style KERS system onboard. Maybe even with a few electric motors and a battery pack onboard, the thing could push an extra 200+ horsepower. Heck, Chevy could even call it something cool like the Crovette Zapray.

OK. No, that’s terrible. But you get the idea.

A hybrid Corvette could be quieter, more powerful, and get better fuel economy than the regular one. You might be able to even get in on one of those nifty hybrid tax credits for buying an American hybrid sports car. Suddenly, the Fed is paying you to go fast. Now that, that’s about as American as it gets.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mercedes is finally bringing an electric van to the U.S.
Front three quarter view of the 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter electric van.

Mercedes-Benz might be known for luxury cars, but it also makes vans, and it's finally bringing an electric van to the United States.

Scheduled to start production this summer, the 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter is an all-electric version of the Sprinter full-size cargo van that's already a favorite of delivery services like FedEx and Amazon, as well as camper van converters. While the automaker has been selling electric vans in Europe since 2010, the new eSprinter is the first one aimed at the U.S. market.

Read more
‘The cars are the stars.’ How automakers are electrifying the racetrack
The number 60 Acura ARX-06 GTP race car at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Racing is the soul of the auto industry. It’s the purest expression of the engineering that makes cars possible, and the thing they were engineered to do in the first place — be driven. While it can be full of arcane rules that make government regulations and customer clinics seem like child’s play, racing is where cars are built to be cars, and where drivers are just drivers. And like the rest of the industry, the racing world is now grappling with the need for electrification.

Many automakers have built their reputations on the track, and some are hoping to sprinkle a bit of that motorsports magic dust on their plans to curb internal-combustion engines. Acura, BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche just debuted hybrid race cars in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a 24-hour race held at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway that’s one of the biggest events on the racing calendar.

Read more
Audi ActiveSphere concept is part luxury sedan, part pickup truck
Audi ActiveSphere concept car in a mountainous setting with a bike on the rear rack.

Audi unveiled the fourth and final member of its Sphere-branded series of concept cars, and the design study is unlike anything we've seen before. Called ActiveSphere, it's an electric luxury sedan with a generous amount of ground clearance that can turn into a pickup truck.

Created at the Audi Design Studio in Malibu, California, the ActiveSphere stretches approximately 196 inches long, 81 inches wide, and 63 inches tall, figures that make it about as long as the current-generation A6, 7 inches wider, and 6 inches taller. It wears a rounded exterior design characterized by thin headlights, a transparent piece of trim where you'd expect to find a grille, and a fastback-like silhouette.

Read more