The\u00a0roadblocks, however, are formidable.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Two stand out, say experts: 1) Corvette is a Chevrolet badge,\u00a0not a separate brand like Porsche or Jaguar. And 2) GM would have to develop a longitudinal-based rear-wheel drive\/all-wheel drive platform for a performance ute.<\/p>\n
\u201cProducing a Corvette SUV assumes that GM would also have to split off Corvette as its own brand,\u201d says veteran Kelley Blue Book auto analyst Karl Brauer. \u201cYou have to first decide if Corvette is powerful enough to sustain its own brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lutz told the News in 2017 that the Corvette brand business case would be tough because it could damage GM\u2019s other premium brands like GMC and Cadillac. But in light of Cadillac’s struggles to compete as a luxury brand, his opinion evolved in the Automotive News interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s not try and take Cadillac upmarket. It has a price band of about $450 a month. That’s what it’s worth. Corvette brand has unlimited daylight on the upside,\u201d he said. \u201cTarget worldwide 20,000 to 30,000 units, and price it starting at $100,000. It has to be the stellar premium sport-utility made in the United States, and the Corvette brand could pull that off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even at 30,000 vehicles per year, though, a Corvette SUV would be a low-volume vehicle. Lutz and Wallace acknowledge that committing the millions needed for such an investment\u00a0would be a high hurdle unless another GM\u00a0vehicle could share the platform. The Porsche Cayenne, for example, shares its architecture with its VW Group sibling, the Audi Q7.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Corvette ute probably would be a stand-alone architecture (or a major modification of an existing architecture), so volume would be critical to call it a business success,\u201d Wallace says.<\/p>\n
The upside is that sport utes print money. The Lamborghini Urus outsells all other Lambos combined. The Jaguar F-Pace is easily the brand\u2019s best-seller. MotleyFool.com estimates that while generating just over 2%\u00a0of VW Group sales, the SUV-rich Porsche brand makes up an eye-popping\u00a0one-third of profits.<\/p>\n
With the mid-engine ‘Vette poised for glory,\u00a0the attraction of an\u00a0SUV line is undeniable. The key is in execution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a fine line to walk,\u201d says KBB analyst Brauer. \u201cPerformance capability is critical. If done correctly, you could sell a lot of them, no doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Car and Driver’s design sketch of a Corvette SUV.\u00a0(Photo: Alexander Stoklosa, Car and Driver) The launch of the first-ever, mid-engine Corvette is the car event of the year. With similar specs as supercars costing three times more, the $60,000 C8 promises less expensive performance for a new generation of buyers. But the eighth-generation Corvette’s debut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Car](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/08\/08\/PDTN\/c6a56053-e75e-4c03-b0d8-5bc26ed9bd0e-corvettesuv_caranddriver.JPG?crop=2801,1805,x596,y357&width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>