2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Coupe with ZTK Performance Package.
DETROIT — Tadge Juechter’s first “taste” of Corvette working at General Motors was to investigate whether there were enough Americans who could afford a new high-performance model of the famous sports car known as the ZR1 in 1985.
Nearly 40 years later, not only are there enough people to afford such a vehicle, but GM’s new 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is something of a coup for Juechter, who retired Wednesday after about 47 years with his automaker Detroit.
The the so-called “godfather” of the modern Corvette retired about a week after helping introduce the new 2025 Corvette ZR1 — the most powerful and fastest version of the car ever built.
“One thing that all the great Corvettes of the last few years and decades have in common is you. Your knowledge, your skill, your hard work, your passion,” said GM President Mark Reuss Juechter said when he unveiled the vehicle. “Thank you for making the Corvette the glorious American sports car it remains. Thank you for making our company better.”
GM President Mark Reuss (left) on stage with outgoing Corvette executive chief engineer Tadge Juechter at the unveiling of the 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 on July 25, 2024.
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Reuss announced last month that all 2025 and beyond Corvettes will feature a silhouette profile of Juechter’s head etched into the window locations and front tunnel bolster panel under each Corvette
CNBC interviewed Juechter, 67, before his retirement, touching on his career as well as the Corvette business, including plans for an all-electric version and the possibility of branching out from the brand for an SUV.
Electric Corvette
GM has said an all-electric Corvette is coming, but hasn’t given a time frame. Last year, the automaker introduced a hybrid version of the car called the E-Ray.
Juechter wasn’t willing to reveal details about an upcoming Corvette EV, but he believes the E-Ray proves that GM can successfully electrify the Corvette.
“Electrification can make a wonderful contribution to cars. I embrace efficiency. … We are passionate about efficiency in everything we do,” he said. “Efficiency also makes a good sports car. So I think e-mobility is just another technology and we have to figure out how to play that technology in a way that resonates with our customers.
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray Hybrid Sports Car
GM
“E-Ray is the first step. We’re thinking long-term, you know, decades long. Yes, General Motors has committed to 100% electrification, and it’s our job as engineers to figure out the way to get there. Entrepreneurs, too, have to to bring our customers with us.”
Juechter said there has been some “natural push” for electric Corvettes from the sports car’s fan base.
“We’re hoping that maybe the E-Ray will warm them up, maybe this electrification thing won’t be so bad,” he said.
Corvette spinoffs and SUVs
Wall Street analysts said GM could make better use of the Corvette brand by expanding models and, to some extent, sales. In late 2019, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said a sub-brand Corvette could be worth between $7 billion and $12 billion.
This has raised questions about whether Corvette would be better off being spun off from parent GM.
But Juechter doesn’t necessarily think that’s the way.
“I don’t know if we should part ways. I mean, the Corvette is at the heart of Chevrolet. It’s a pure business play. If you have that brand, you can just keep it at home, or you can choose to try to win it and put it outside.
“General Motors historically hasn’t done that. We embrace our important franchises, and this is a really important franchise,” he said.
Tadge Juechter, retired executive chief engineer of Corvette, during the unveiling of the 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 on July 25, 2024.
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As for leveraging the brand for future products like an SUV, which has been under consideration for several years, that’s a little different, Juechter said, declining to confirm that there are any such plans or thoughts.
“How do you take advantage of that. That’s a question for the future. You see the models that we’re launching. We’re making the most of this mid-engine architecture. And, you know, I’ve made no secret that I’m working on electric vehicles, too, and trying to bring part of the ethos of performance in the electric vehicle space, how it will be implemented in the future and how it will be branded, that is a story for another day,” he said.
The idea of a performance car brand producing an SUV or crossover would have been blasphemous years ago, but several brands such as Porsche, Lamborghini and even Ferrari have done so as consumer preference has shifted away from the traditional car model.
Favorite Corvette
Juechter has been part of four distinct generations of Corvette – from the fourth-generation ZR1 to the new mid-engined, eighth-generation sports car.
The first Corvette he bought for himself was the 2006 sixth generation Corvette Z06.
“It’s hard to pick a favorite. It’s like your favorite child. In fact, it’s harder than who your favorite child is. Anyway, I’m not going to get into parenting, but in each of these cars we pour our heart and soul and everything has its own specialness.
“I don’t know. I can’t pick one. If I’m forced to pick one, I say money talks. I bought this Z06. I put my own money into this car. … This car was very special to me,” Yechter said.
Juechter said he wasn’t planning to buy the Corvette, but he saw a “fully decked out” one coming off the line at the Corvette factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and said he had to have it.
2020 Chevrolet Corvette
GM
He’s since sold that car and last year bought an eighth-generation Corvette Stingray convertible as a “retirement car,” since he won’t be getting a free Corvette to test drive.
“I’ve never been a convertible guy, but it’s my wife and my touring car — like the cross-country touring car. I’m not going to track it. It’s going to be my daily driver,” he said. “If you just have a daily driver, a cruiser, a Stingray is pretty sweet.”
