UAW strike delays start of 2020 Chevrolet Corvette production

As the UAW strike at GM has entered its fourth week, a Detroit Free Press report cites “two people familiar with GM’s production plans” as saying that 2020 Chevrolet Corvette production will be delayed. One said, “I know for a fact that this strike is directly going to affect” when the first C8 Corvette rolls down the line as Job One, because Chevrolet hasn’t finished filling orders for the current C7 Corvette. Whenever that happens, the Bowling Green, Ky., plant exclusively responsible for Corvette production then needs to retool for the mid-engine car. In response to the article, GM maintains that “It’s too early to speculate on production timing impacts on any of our vehicles due to the UAW work stoppage,” including the Corvette.

GM never announced timelines for the end of C7 production or the beginning of C8 production, so we can’t know yet if production will be late, and if so, by how long. The Freep wrote that the automaker had “planned to idle the plant this week and next to retool it,” which could mean three or four weeks of delay if you count back to when the strike began, but who knows. Barrett-Jackson auctioned rights to the last production C7 at the end of June, and that black Z06 still doesn’t have a public build date, so we can’t know the C7 is no more until that coupe shows up. 

The GM spokesman said the automaker planned to commence C8 assembly “in late 2019,” and a Texas dealer narrowed that down to “the first part of December.” Meanwhile, the Bowling Green Daily News wrote that additional workers planned to help with C8 Corvette production have already transferred to the plant and are on the picket lines there. Head over to the Detroit Free Press for the full story.