General Motors has trademarked the name “E-Ray,” and with that comes the wild speculation that a fully electric Corvette might be coming.
Car and Driver’s Don Sherman, who has written about Corvettes since the C3 had chrome bumpers, says that a hybrid Corvette could keep up with the latest crop of electrified supercars from McLaren, Porsche and Ferrari.
“Hanging a motor/generator onto the rear of the differential would be the way to go,” he writes. “The added electric machine would capture normally squandered energy during deceleration and braking…then, during acceleration, this device would operate as a motor to ease the engine’s labor, yielding a slight fuel-economy improvement.”
There’d be tons of engineering required for such a feat, which would involve shoehorning an electric motor inside the Corvette’s already tight quarters. Sherman speculates that GM could do so by swapping the 6.2-liter V8 for the twin-turbo 3.6-liter V6, and with the electric motor, performance would match that of the current Stingray—if not faster.
C&D, of course, also revealed to the world that the mid-engined Corvette, dubbed the “Zora,” is also coming. Then again, the buff books have been doing this since Sammy Hagar complained about driving 55—and probably even before that.
Blasphemy? Heresy? Who knows? We’ll just wait and see for the C8.
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