Today, fans of Chevrolet’s Corvette and EVs in general received good news in the form of an announcement from GM’s president, Mark Reuss. The company officially has electron-fueled Corvettes in the works: “We are here today to tell you about an electrified Corvette that’s coming first, and then a fully electric Corvette after that,” Reuss told CNBC. “We will have an electrified Corvette next year, so this is coming very quick,” Reuss added, in terms of the timeframe. Meanwhile, he was cagier about when the totally electric supercar would come out. “More to come on that,” Reuss said. Reuss also publicized the news on LinkedIn today, noting that the pure EV model of the Corvette will be Ultium-based. Ultium is the branding that GM uses for its modular system of pouch-style lithium-ion batteries that power its electric vehicles; GM also recently said it would partner with Honda to make an EV that costs less than $30,000 and will also use the Ultium platform. An electric Corvette is something that President Biden—then a candidate—talked about in August of 2020. “I believe that we can own the 21st-century market again, by moving to electric vehicles,” he said in a video posted to Twitter. “And by the way, they tell me—and I’m looking forward, if it’s true, to driving one—that they’re making an electric Corvette that can go 200 miles an hour.” At the time, Popular Science got behind the wheel of an electric Corvette made not by Chevy, but by a company called Genovation Cars, whose modified electric vehicle cost $750,000. But the new vehicle from Chevrolet will not be a modification from a third-party, of course—it will be a new ride straight from the original manufacturer. While it’s unclear precisely what the “electrified” version due next year will entail, expect a hybrid of some kind, with the fully-electric vehicle coming out at some point in the future. Watch a teaser video, below:
