Mid-engine Corvette team shifts to electric and autonomous cars inside GM
The Corvette's chief engineer will leave his role to help head up future projects.
The engineering hierarchy within General Motors is getting a shuffle as the automaker begins to move the talent behind the eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to its electric and autonomous vehicles program. InsideEVs first reported the internal shifts Thursday and GM confirmed the moves with Roadshow.
In a statement, Ken Morris, vice president of autonomous and electric vehicle programs, said, "General Motors is committed to an all-electric future. I'm excited to be putting the team that redefined supercar performance, design and attainability in key roles to help us integrate and execute our EVs to those same high standards."
The mid-engine Corvette's chief engineer, Ed Piatek, will leave his role and assume the title of chief engineer for future product. Other team members also head to the global product programs to help develop future electric and self-driving cars . Tadge Juechter, chief executive engineer for the Corvette program, will remain in his position, however. Piatek will actually report to Juechter amid the swaps.
The Corvette team shifts also follow former Camaro chief engineer Al Oppenheiser's move to EVs.
Typically, these moves are pretty inside baseball. Seeing so much talent moved from the performance car to EVs is notable, however. GM promised $20 billion worth of investment in electric vehicles and autonomous technology through 2025, and the automaker is clearly taking action. We've already received small hints of what's to come from a GM focused on EVs, though.
Things will really kick off with the the GMC Hummer EV pickup in 2021, followed by the Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV in 2022. A Chevy Bolt EUV will also launch next year. The newly reborn Hummer and the Lyriq ride on GM's BEV3 platform meant for future EVs and use the automaker's Ultium battery technology, capable of 400-mile ranges today, GM promises.
Moving into the future, we'll hopefully see the same level of engineering and craftsmanship found in the latest Corvette, because it's damn good.
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