A hypercar reimagining of an American classic
GM’s UK design team recently teased a reimagining of the Chevrolet Corvette as an EV hypercar with traditionally svelte lines and a heavy nod to the Corvette’s past. Inspired by the aviation industry, this concept car is being teased ahead of the launch of the current-generation Corvette in the UK and across Europe. While the current Corvette is great, we’d give just about anything for this concept car.
It also won’t be the last Corvette concept we see. GM says this concept is part of a “global design project” that will see routine teasers like this throughout 2025. The automaker’s design teams “regularly work on conceptual design studies that are intended to drive ideation, innovation, and collaboration across the company.” The design team’s new home in the UK, located in Royal Leamington Spa (20 miles from Birmingham, England, to be precise), is an investment GM is making in the region, where it plans to scale its Cadillac electric vehicle business.
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The Chevrolet Corvette concept we didn’t know we wanted is here
Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design at General Motors, challenged the UK team to decide what the Corvette could be if they started with a blank page. It was part of a global design effort at GM, dubbed the Corvette creative study, where its various global design teams submitted their designs. “It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette’s historic DNA,” says Julian Thomson, head of the UK design form.
With a structural “spar” running the length of the vehicle and across the top of the car, the team paid homage to the Corvette’s iconic Stingray split rear window on both the front and rear of the vehicle. Though this spar interrupts the front windshield, Simcoe says the spine allows for more visibility where we typically find A and B pillars in a traditional vehicle.
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The car can also be seen as a representation of the crossroads that the team imagines the Corvette to be at. Though futuristic, the top is a heavy nod to Corvettes past and present with a futuristic bent; the bottom half of the car is future-facing and loaded with interesting new technical elements. This futuristic Corvette hypercar would have its EV battery technology built into the body and air intake elements positioned ahead of the front and rear wheels, keeping the vehicle grounded without the need for wings or spoilers.
If that’s not cool enough for you already, it sports gullwing doors and “dorsal fins” that would deploy automatically on the track to assist with cornering. The center spar running down the center of the front windshield would also have an “augmented display,” though GM didn’t provide much detail on what that might entail. We’re also big fans of the front facade, where the air intakes on either side embolden the vehicle with an even more ray-like appearance.
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Final thoughts
Unfortunately, the car isn’t headed for production, so we may never get to drive anything like it. We wish that weren’t the case, as even if this were a showcase vehicle for hosted ride-alongs with a professional driver, it would be a real-world attention grabber for GM at events. Maybe if we ask nicely enough, GM will consider making it a reality in some manner.