The hotly anticipated 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is slated to start shipping to dealers in late 2019, though there's potential for disruptions due to the UAW strike that started last month and affects the Bowling Green Assembly Plant in Kentucky where the car is to be built.
The Detroit Free Press reported on Monday that the strike action will cause a delay in the start of production and the planned launch of the car, citing two people familiar with General Motors' production plans.
The people said the last of the previous-generation C7 Corvettes still need to be built and then the plant will need to be retooled for the new C8 Corvette. They also said that while some C8s could be built on time, the plant won't be able to get up to speed quickly enough to fill all orders on time.
Chevrolet Corvette production at Bowling Green Assembly plant
When contacted by Motor Authority, GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said it was still too early to determine whether the new Corvette will be delayed by the strike action, reiterating that the new Corvette in coupe form begins production in late 2019 and the convertible is set to follow near the end of the first quarter of 2020.
“It’s too early to speculate on potential production timing impacts on any of our vehicles due to the UAW work stoppage," he said.
We'll remind you that the Chevy has been accepting pre-orders on the new Corvette since the July reveal and that demand has been hot. And the first year of production tends to be among the busiest for the Corvette. For example, sales of the C7 in the United States and Canada topped 35,000 units in its first full year on the market compared to about 20,000 units in 2018. It's why GM plans to add a second shift at Bowling Green for the C8.
