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• Chevrolet will introduce its first Corvette SUV later this year, according to reports.
• However, contrary to earlier speculation, the model won’t be electric at first.
• It’s expected the ICE=engine Corvette SUV will launch commercially in 2024 as a 2025 model.
• The electric variant would follow later.
Chevrolet is apparently still on track with its project to develop the Corvette name as a sub-brand, notably with the introduction of a Corvette SUV. But rumours that the first Corvette SUV and Corvette sedan models would be all-electric appear to have been, as they say, premature.
As per a new report by Car and Driver, the first Corvette SUV will come with an internal combustion engine. The model will be designed based not on the automaker’s Ultium EV platform, but rather on the same rear-wheel-drive Alpha platform that underpins Cadillac’s CT4 and CT5 Blackwing performance models, as well as Chevrolet’s Camaro.
Speculation also points to the model getting four distinct powertrains. The base engine would be a 4-cylinder turbo (300 hp). Then would come a twin-turbo V6 engine (300 hp also); a 6.2L V8 (400 hp); and finally that same V8 but supercharged (682 hp).
Car and Driver even provides an estimated starting price for the base-model, 4-cylinder Corvette SUV: $60,000 USD, or just under $79,000 CAD.
The outlet also predicts a first presentation of the Corvette SUV will likely happen before the end of this year. If that’s correct, the logical timeline would see the first Corvette SUV be a 2025 model, arriving at dealers sometime in the latter part of 2024.
The electric Corvette SUV and four-door Corvette sedans would follow in its wake, arriving to do battle with the likes of the Audi e-tron GT and Porsche Taycan. For these models, we can expect an 800-volt architecture and 350-kW charging capacity.
Stay tuned.