Due to the current situation of the Coronavirus pandemic bringing the world economy to a standstill, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette might not be as commonly produced as you’d expect. With the company beginning the production of the vehicle way back since February in its Kentucky factory, there have been grim making the year seemingly unpredicatble.
And with transportation industry one of the most hit during the pandemic as a result of the shelter-in-place measures to further enhance social distancing measures, that brought a halt to high purchases as many businesses were closed down and jobs were lost in millions.
Since January, report has it that the automaker had planned to cut 2020 production by 20% in order to make up for the working days it lost during the strike as well as being able to offset the time it spent on tracking down internal issues with the car. With that, dealer allocations were slashed, though executives mostly wanted to prevent stores from building an inventory.
But then Corvette started shipping out and customers were taking delivery but the launching of the car had to come to a pause as General Motors, the parent company was shutting down operations in its North American factories which is a measure to fight the spread of the COVID-19 disease. The last Corvette was built ton March 20th according to reports and there have since been no words as to when operation will be restarted.
According to Bowling Green plant manager, Kai Spandle made it known in an interview that about 2,700 examples of the 2020 Corvette were built back between the month of February 3rd till March 20th. Another spokesperson from Chevrolet told Autoblog that GM will continue to build Corvette Stingrays when the plant resumes production. With that, the total number of 2020 Corvettes might get to increase even though there might not be any exponential increase which places the 2020 model as a rare production model in the history of Corvette.
For context, Chevrolet sold 10,261 units of the Corvette during the 1960 model year, 17,316 for the 1970 model year, and a whopping 40,614 in the 1980 model year. Sales for the 1990, 2000, and 2010 model years totaled 23,464, 33,682, and 12,194, respectively. And, 34,822 seventh-generation cars were made during the 2019 model year, including 2,953 ZR1 models powered by a 755-horsepower V8 engine.
General Motors in turn is now reopening its North American factories even though there is nothing yet known about the commencement of production of the mid-engine sport car. A document was leaked online in March just two days right before the company closed its factory confirming that the company has stopped taking orders for the 2020 model but starts selling the 2021 model by late May which is a month earlier than initial plans.
“Further information will be forthcoming from Chevrolet regarding the handling of sold 2020 model year [cars] that we will be unable to accept, and the creation of a replacement 2021 model year sold order,” the company told its dealers. This suggests customers waiting for a 2020 Corvette may end up with a 2021 model instead.
The parent company, GM had announced initially that the production of the 2021 Corvette won’t start until September 1st which will give Bowling Green factory enough time to add up more 2020 models to the line before switching up tot he next year’s model. Meanwhile all these aren’t for sure as the pandemic had made everything uncertain right now.
