Chevy Corvette C8 plug-in hybrid caught testing in the snow

Sometimes a set of spy photos drops onto our digital desks that leave us scratching our heads trying to figure out what we’re looking at. This is not one of those times. What you’re looking at above is quite clearly a plug-in hybrid Chevy Corvette. As you can see from the images in the gallery, there’s a charging harness dangling out of an opening in the car’s front trunk along with a big red electric kill switch.

Now, even though we know exactly what this car is, that doesn’t mean we have all the salient details. For instance, beyond the fact that there’s surely an internal combustion engine mounted in the middle and at least one electric motor contributing thrust, we don’t know what the gas engine’s displacement may be or even how many cylinders that engine contains. The spy shooters who witnessed the car drive by say they thought it sounded like a V6, but that’s not a lot to go on. Speculation on an electrified Corvette in the past has also included talk of all-wheel drive with an electric motor powering the front wheels and a traditional engine sending ponies to the rear.

Back when the mid-engine C8 was first unveiled, GM President Mark Reuss suggested this latest Corvette worked into GM’s “strategy of 0-0-0: zero emissions, zero crashes, zero congestion.” Reading between those lines, we wouldn’t be surprised if a plug-in ‘Vette would be able to travel solely on electric power for short jaunts. But we’d also expect any electrification to contribute to the car’s overall acceleration, considering the Corvette’s role as GM’s high-performance flagship.