![\"corvette](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/corvette-stays-true-to-v8-power-as-electric-future-remains-on-hold.jpg\" "\\"corvette")
<\/a><\/p>\nGeneral Motors engineering boss said brand \u201cwill not make a car just to meet that regulation\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chevrolet<\/a> Corvette will continue to be powered by a V8 engine in the long term because parent company General Motors will not rush out an electric variant \u201cjust to meet that regulation\u201d, its engineering boss told Autocar.<\/p>\n The nameplate returned to Europe with the right-hand-drive V8-powered\u00a0Stingray<\/a> in 2021 as a halo model for GM\u2019s comeback to the continent after an absence of four years. The line-up now also includes\u00a0the track-honed Z06<\/a>\u00a0and the newly released hybrid V8\u00a0E-Ray<\/a>, with the larger GM range to be bolstered by the Cadillac Optiq and Lyriq electric SUVs within the next year.<\/p>\n But speaking to Autocar at the\u00a0Goodwood\u00a0Festival of Speed<\/a>, General Motors chief performance car engineer Tony Roma said that while electric cars\u00a0<\/a>are the future, plans for a Corvette EV have yet to be officially drawn up. “We talk about what it would take to make a capable enough car, but right now it’s still science fiction,” he said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s despite GM recently revealing a fully finished, future-looking Corvette EV concept (pictured below), which was produced entirely by the firm’s Leamington Spa design studio.<\/p>\n Instead, the sports car will continue to be powered by a V8, either in naturally aspirated form (as long as the regulations allow it) or with a hybrid element, as with the E-Ray.<\/p>\n However, while rivals such as Ferrari and Lamborghini have added plug-in hybrid power to their respective ranges in the SF90, Urus and Revuelto, a PHEV Corvette is not planned, according to\u00a0Roma.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI don’t think plug-in is worth it \u2013 the mass, the cost, the complexity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, with E-Ray, we kind of went the other way. If you look at some of the criticism, and I won’t poke anybody in particular, but some of our competitors have been criticised for the games you have to play to get the car in the right mode, and which charging mode and this and that and the other.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you drive an E-Ray, you just fire it up and drive it. It’s just a hybrid. It charges the battery for you. It does everything. If you want to override and make it charge the battery faster, there’s a button for that. But other than that, that’s pretty much it, and keep it simple, keep it usable.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that if manufacturers were given \u201csome kind of credit from the regulators\u201d in order to hit a certain electric-only range, \u201cthen I would consider [PHEV] for this version of the car\u201d.<\/p>\n Looking forward, Roma said that when it does eventually come, the electric Corvette will need to be \u201cengaging\u201d instead of just fast because 0-62mph times are becoming a \u201cmeaningless metric\u201d as\u00a0\u201cevery car is incredibly fast.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, the brand will need to look at how to be different because buyers will soon drive \u201ca brutally fast [electric] sedan\u201d every day and so will \u201cwant something different\u201d.<\/p>\n Roma said: \u201cAnd so that’s our challenge \u2013 to come up with that something different, that something engaging.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you’re buying a car\u00a0like a Corvette, why are you buying it? You’re buying it because you want something special. You want to be engaged in the art of driving.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so when we can figure out how to do that, and as we put more electrification in the car, we will, but we’re not going to do an electric version of this car just to do it. That would defeat the entire purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody should just take a deep breath and relax, and we’ll get there when it’s time.\u201d<\/p>\n Roma also said\u00a0GM won’t accelerate development of an EV Corvette just so the car can stay on sale in Europe after 2035. \u201cWe will not make a car just to meet that regulation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n From 2035, all new cars sold in the European Union and the UK must emit zero emissions when driven, meaning that only electric cars will be allowed on sale. As such, to continue being sold here, Corvette must bring to market an EV.<\/p>\n \u201cI’m not gonna make an EV and put a Corvette badge\u201d if it is not worthy of the brand\u2019s \u201c70-plus years of history\u201d, said Roma \u201cNobody wants that. Sorry, I will stand firm on that. The badge means something to people.\u201d<\/p>\n A key reason for not rushing out an electric Corvette, Roma told Autocar, was that the Corvette is a global car, so when an electric Corvette is finally released, it needs to appeal to all markets.<\/p>\n Asked what needs to happen to get to that point, he said: \u201cThe things that we would need to be true \u2013 the power-to-weight ratio of the electrification components, the cost, the range. All of the things that you would need to make a car that we think would be worthy. I’m not sure you could do it, or if you could, it would be just brutally expensive.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cOur cars will be all-electric when an all-electric car is better than what we have right now. And until then, we’ll continue to do what we’re doing right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we need to figure out to get to that point is how do you get that visceral connection, that personality that you want to engage with, in an electric car.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFrankly, and I’ve driven a lot of really good electric cars, most of them don’t have that emotional connection and the computer does so much of the work. But when I want to go on a Saturday morning and go for a drive, I want to fire up [an engine] and listen to all those noises.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/corvette-stays-true-to-v8-power-as-electric-future-remains-on-hold-1.jpg\")
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