Do These Spy Shots Hide an ‘Electrifying’ Corvette Secret?
Autoblog spotted a camouflaged Corvette with what appears to be a large outlet-style plug sticking out of the hood.
If you are familiar with the rumors that the ZR1 C8 Corvette is coming with an AWD electric-assist/hybrid setup, then this shouldn’t be all that shocking to you. With the massive shift in platform design coming from the C8 as it is, it’s no surprise that Chevy wants to further push the envelope with electric power. These spy shots seem to shed a more positive light on the likelihood of that monstrous 900 horsepower partial electric beast.
Autoblog reports this Corvette test mule was spotted driving around with what looks like a plug and some sort of big kill switch sticking out of the hood. While there has been no official Chevy confirmation of what this thing is, it’s a lot of fun to speculate!
The first thought that comes to mind is that this is a testbed for the rumored hybrid ZR1. However, there are no rumors of it being a plug-in hybrid. Though that’s the thing about rumors, you don’t get all the facts and specifics with them. What you can’t deny, though, is that this car exists. Maybe the ZR1 will be a plug-in car. However, there is also speculation that this car is not at all a testbed for the ZR1. This could be something entirely different.
GM President Mark Reuss stated that the C8 Corvette would fit into their “0-0-0” strategy, which is their effort toward zero emissions, zero crashes, and zero congestion. Could the near future bring us a Corvette with less displacement or even fewer cylinders? It seems blasphemous, but the C8 is already a monumental forward step for Chevy.
Autoblog reports that the spy photographer claims it sounded like this particular C8 had a V6 in it. Though, as they also point out, that’s not exactly a lot to base our expectations on.
As an article on our sister site Corvette Forum points out, one Autoblog commenter suggests that it may only be a quick and easy jump starting point for this test mule. It seems the possible uses for this mule are endless.
While we can’t stress enough that there is no confirmation on any of this speculation, we can tell you we are very excited to see it. The rumors of an electric-assisted C8 seemed so far away just days ago, but now it feels like they’re only days away from reality. We are certainly going to keep our eyes open because this test mule is likely to bring some fantastic technology to the already incredible C8 platform.
To see the spy shots, visit Autoblog.
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