The Detroit Free Press has a GM spokesman Kevin Kelly admitting they are going to have to push their 2020 C8 Orders (over 20,000) to 2021 offering all those new C8 Corvette owners first dibs on the 2021 version. Since rolling out a few 2,700 C8s in February because of the UAW strike delay.
One person at the plant said they are building about 60-90 C8s per day with only less than half of the workers with one shift vs. two shifts.
If this is true and let’s take a conservative 50 cars per day as of June, 2020 that would mean about 1000 C8s per month with 6 months until November when they would switch to 2021 that could mean about 5-6k more 2020 C8s hit the market making the 2020 C8 Corvette a limited 8-9k run and a collectors item.
Out of the 2,700 C8s that already hit the market the only way you can get them is by paying a mark up if you didn’t already order one and get passed the 3000 production status. Some C8s we have seen sell for over 150k!
Per Kevin Kelly and Tadge Juechter with General Motors
“We are not going to build all of the 2020 orders,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said, adding that GM would work with affected customers and dealers to offer a 2021 option.
“We’ve had an enormous demand for this vehicle and we had that work stoppage and we have suppliers trying to come up to speed too,” Kelly told the Free Press. “The plant is still coming up from COVID. We still haven’t brought up the second shift yet, so we’re still ramping up.”
We are unaware of any production target misses and are attaining the production output set for the team at Bowling Green as we continue to ramp up after the COVID-19 shutdown.”
“There are issues across the board with suppliers and it’s not just the Corvette. You don’t just bring both shifts back up when the production was down. You have to ramp up. We’re ramping up as we get the suppliers online and everyone online.”
“We initially said we would start taking 2021 Corvette orders at the end of this month (May) but, again, due to the plant being down for two months, we’re adjusting that timing to late July,” Tadge Juechter, executive chief engineer for the Corvette, said at the event.
Here are the highlights Tadge Juechter, executive chief engineer for the Corvette shared at the May 29 event:
- GM will continue to build the 2020 Corvette Stingray through the fall, an extension of what it had originally planned.
- The extension will help ensure that GM builds most — not all — of the 2020 Corvette orders it received.
- GM declined to specify the exact number of 2020 models it will build or how many will be coupes versus convertibles.
- GM will start building the convertible this summer, but declined to provide specific dates because the plant just came back up.
2021 Corvette C8 Pricing
The good news is the C8 Corvette produced in 2021 will not have the base $59k price raised as they were anticipating since Covid and the UAW strike have ruined the most anticipated Corvette GM and Chevrolet has ever built.
For more information visit Detroit Free Press for more information
C8 Production Update from a Customer with an early order
Also here is a video from a customer that ordered a C8 Corvette and his C8 Corvette Production Order with Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine, TX.
He is at 3000 code status but he decided to move his order to the Z06 which is coming out late 2021 as the 2022 C8 Corvette Z06. His dealership is getting C8s now from production and they are expecting 20 more as of this video.