Photo: Catalin Garmacea
While people are thinking about Christmas activities more and more often these days, General Motors employees are hard at work. That's the only conclusion that can come out of GM filling a trademark request for the E-Ray nameplate last week.
The trademark was filled on December 16, as we found out thanks to automotive photographer Chris Doane. And no, we were not kidding when we said you can't draw any other conclusion than the one mentioned above.
This is the kind of info that only leads to plenty of questions. Will the Chevrolet Corvette go electric? Will it be a hybrid? When is the move going to take place? And the list can go on.
For one thing, we've learned not to expect immediate results, so we're not necessarily expecting a release for the Detroit Motor Show in January - remember when GM trademarked "Corvette Manta Ray" this summer? That's right, nothing connected to that has reached our attention yet.
The most likely version is that we'll get an all-electron-juice 'Vette, but don't hold your breath for the move taking place during the current generation's lifetime.
You see, the Corvette has always been about keeping the performance-seeking masses happy. Right now, it seems like those masses are looking for EV-powered fun times. When a carmaker as traditional as Porsche announces an all-electric development, you know drivers feel the need to use the plug.
As for the timing, since the current C7 Corvette hasn't been engineered with electrification in mind, it wouldn't be able to offer a competitive package, both in terms of performance and efficiency.
Now that Tesla has shown people they can buy extreme acceleration performance without having to deal with any of the drawbacks of supercars, you can't release an electric Corvette that gets trampled by a Model S.
Then again, Chevy could be aiming for a performance hybrid that would rival the BMW i8. Even if this is the case, we'll still probably have to wait for the next generation of the Corvette in order to get our gasoline-electric GM go-fast machine.
Which only reminds us of all the rumors talking about the mid-engined Corvette, rumors that have yet to receive a spyshot echo...
This is the kind of info that only leads to plenty of questions. Will the Chevrolet Corvette go electric? Will it be a hybrid? When is the move going to take place? And the list can go on.
For one thing, we've learned not to expect immediate results, so we're not necessarily expecting a release for the Detroit Motor Show in January - remember when GM trademarked "Corvette Manta Ray" this summer? That's right, nothing connected to that has reached our attention yet.
The most likely version is that we'll get an all-electron-juice 'Vette, but don't hold your breath for the move taking place during the current generation's lifetime.
You see, the Corvette has always been about keeping the performance-seeking masses happy. Right now, it seems like those masses are looking for EV-powered fun times. When a carmaker as traditional as Porsche announces an all-electric development, you know drivers feel the need to use the plug.
As for the timing, since the current C7 Corvette hasn't been engineered with electrification in mind, it wouldn't be able to offer a competitive package, both in terms of performance and efficiency.
Now that Tesla has shown people they can buy extreme acceleration performance without having to deal with any of the drawbacks of supercars, you can't release an electric Corvette that gets trampled by a Model S.
Then again, Chevy could be aiming for a performance hybrid that would rival the BMW i8. Even if this is the case, we'll still probably have to wait for the next generation of the Corvette in order to get our gasoline-electric GM go-fast machine.
Which only reminds us of all the rumors talking about the mid-engined Corvette, rumors that have yet to receive a spyshot echo...
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