Photo: Chevrolet
If GM was to apply the same marketing tactics as Tesla, it would probably solve the high demand problem by hiking the mid-engine sports car's price significantly. After all, if so many people want it, it must be a little underpriced, so why not increase the profit margin?
Well, because Chevrolet sells its cars through dealerships, it can't actually control the final price of its vehicles, and sure enough, some of its dealerships have indeed raised the price of the few C8s they had in stock. The only thing GM can do about it, though, is to ramp up production so the new Corvette stops being this extremely hot commodity that's so hard to come by.
To be fair, Chevrolet has been playing catch up with the demand for the C8 from the very moment it opened the registers for the new model. The production scheduled for the first year was booked almost instantly, with last year's ongoing pandemic canceling any chances for GM to make up the lost ground.
Talking to GM Authority, Tony Johnson, the marketing director for Chevrolet cars and crossovers, revealed that the company is going out of its way to make up for the somewhat enviable situation it finds itself in. Asked whether the carmaker is keeping up with demand for the C8, Tony said "no, not even close. We have more orders than we can handle."
The statement is a bit misleading because it leaves the impression it's all about demand, when in fact, given everything that's going on, it's hard to tell how much of this situation is caused just by the sheer quality and competitivity of the new Corvette or by other factors such as the parts shortage the entire automotive industry is more or less dealing with.
Either way, one thing is certain: GM has every reason not to lag behind on the orders received for the Corvette, so it's doing everything it can to reduce that gap, if not eliminate it entirely. “We’re working on meeting that demand," Tony said. "We know there’s a lot of customers who really, really are excited to get their hands on a Corvette.”
Bear in mind that Chevrolet has only released the plain vanilla version of the C8, with the truly exciting versions still to come. Once your Z06s and your ZR1s arrive, the only way for the demand to go is up, so GM would better get its act together fast and find a way not to delay the launch of the more exciting Corvettes, or there'll be riots.
To be fair, Chevrolet has been playing catch up with the demand for the C8 from the very moment it opened the registers for the new model. The production scheduled for the first year was booked almost instantly, with last year's ongoing pandemic canceling any chances for GM to make up the lost ground.
Talking to GM Authority, Tony Johnson, the marketing director for Chevrolet cars and crossovers, revealed that the company is going out of its way to make up for the somewhat enviable situation it finds itself in. Asked whether the carmaker is keeping up with demand for the C8, Tony said "no, not even close. We have more orders than we can handle."
The statement is a bit misleading because it leaves the impression it's all about demand, when in fact, given everything that's going on, it's hard to tell how much of this situation is caused just by the sheer quality and competitivity of the new Corvette or by other factors such as the parts shortage the entire automotive industry is more or less dealing with.
Either way, one thing is certain: GM has every reason not to lag behind on the orders received for the Corvette, so it's doing everything it can to reduce that gap, if not eliminate it entirely. “We’re working on meeting that demand," Tony said. "We know there’s a lot of customers who really, really are excited to get their hands on a Corvette.”
Bear in mind that Chevrolet has only released the plain vanilla version of the C8, with the truly exciting versions still to come. Once your Z06s and your ZR1s arrive, the only way for the demand to go is up, so GM would better get its act together fast and find a way not to delay the launch of the more exciting Corvettes, or there'll be riots.
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