Corvette Bucked a Sports Cars Decline. Can It Thrive in an E.V. Era?

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Sales of sports cars have been steadily declining for about three decades, but there has been one exception to that trend. The Chevrolet Corvette has recently stormed back to near-record popularity. Like the company that makes it, General Motors, the Corvette must now slalom around a trickier obstacle: transitioning to an electrified lineup, even as most sports-car buyers insist they have no interest in switching from gas pumps to plugs. G.M. sold 53,785 of the eighth-generation Corvettes, or C8s, worldwide last year, just 22 shy of its top sales year in 1979. Americans bought about 34,000 of those, including Stingray coupes that start from $66,000, nearly twice as many Corvettes as they bought in 2019. The car’s revival has been driven by a change that may not seem a big deal to the average commuter. After seven decades as a classic front-engine two-seater, Chevrolet moved its V-8 behind the passengers, a midengine design typically associated with supercars from Ferrari or Lamborghini. Engineers at G.M. chose the $250,000 Ferrari 458 Italia as a target in performance and technology.