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.
“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.”
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.
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