2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Coupe with ZTK Performance Package.
DETROIT — Tadge Juechter got his first taste of a Corvette while working at Automobile Corporation was to study whether enough Americans could afford the automaker’s new high-performance sports car, called the ZR1, in 1985.
Nearly 40 years later, not only are there enough people who can afford such a car, but GM New 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is seen as a blow to Juechter, who retired on Wednesday after nearly 47 years with the Detroit automaker.
The the so-called “godfather” of the modern Corvette has been retired about a week after helping introduce the new 2025 Corvette ZR1 — the most powerful and fastest version of the car ever produced.
“The one thing all the great Corvettes of recent years and decades have had in common is you. Your knowledge, your skill, your hard work and your passion,” GM Chairman Mark Reuss “Thank you for making Corvette the great American sports car it is,” Juechter said when unveiling the car. “Thank you for making our company better.”
GM President Mark Reuss (left) on stage with Tadge Juechter, Corvette’s retiring executive chief engineer, during the unveiling of the 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 on July 25, 2024.
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Last month, Reuss announced that all 2025 and later Corvettes will feature Juechter’s head silhouette engraved in the window position and the front tunnel reinforcement plate underneath each Corvette.
CNBC interviewed Juechter, 67, before his retirement to discuss his career and the Corvette business, including plans for an all-electric version and the potential for the brand to spin off into an SUV.
Corvette Electric Car
GM has said an all-electric Corvette is coming, but hasn’t given a specific time frame. Last year, the automaker introduced a hybrid version of the car called the E-Ray.
Juechter didn’t want to reveal any details about the upcoming Corvette EV, but he believes the E-Ray proves GM can successfully electrify the Corvette.
“Electrification can be a great contributor to cars. I’m all for efficiency. … We’re passionate about efficiency in everything we do,” he said. “Efficiency also makes a good sports car. So I think electrification is just another technology and we have to figure out how to use that technology in a way that resonates with our customers.”
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray Hybrid Sports Car
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“E-Ray is the first step. We’re thinking long term, you know, decades long term. Yes, General Motors is committed to 100% electrification, and it’s our job as engineers to figure out how to get there. We’re also business people. We have to bring customers along.”
Juechter said there has been some “natural pushback” to an electric Corvette from the sports car’s fan base.
“We hope that the E-Ray can warm them up so that maybe this electrification isn’t so bad,” he said.
Corvette spinoff and SUV
Wall Street analysts say GM could make better use of the Corvette brand by expanding its model lineup and, to some extent, its sales. In late 2019, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said a Corvette sub-brand could be worth $7 billion to $12 billion.
That has raised the question of whether Corvette should be spun off from parent company GM.
But Juechter doesn’t necessarily believe that’s the way to go.
“I don’t know if we need to split up. I mean, Corvette is the heart of Chevrolet. This is a pure business play. If you have that brand value, you can keep it in-house or you can choose to monetize it and take it outside.
“General Motors has never done this before. We’re taking our key franchises and this is a really important franchise,” he said.
Tadge Juechter, Corvette’s retiring executive chief engineer, at the unveiling of the 2025 Chevy Corvette ZR1 on July 25, 2024.
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Juechter said that it was a little different when it came to leveraging the brand for future products like SUVs, which have been under consideration for years, but declined to confirm any such plans or considerations.
“How do you leverage that? That’s a question for the future. You see the models we’re launching. We’re taking full advantage of this mid-engine architecture. And, you know, I’ve made no secret that I’m also working on EVs and trying to bring some of the performance spirit into the EV space. How that applies in the future and how it’s branded, that’s a story for another day,” he said.
The concept of a performance car brand making an SUV or crossover would have been considered blasphemous years ago, but some brands like Porsche, Lamborghini and even Ferrari have done so as consumer preferences have moved away from traditional sedans.
Corvette favorite
Juechter has been involved in four different generations of Corvette – from the fourth-generation ZR1 to the new, eighth-generation mid-engine sports car.
The first Corvette he bought for himself was a 2006 sixth-generation Corvette Z06.
“It’s hard to pick a favorite. It’s like choosing a favorite child. Actually, it’s harder than choosing a favorite child. Anyway, I’m not talking about parenting, but each car we put our heart and soul into and they all have their own special qualities.
“I don’t know. I can’t pick one. If I had to pick one, I would say money talks. I bought that Z06. I paid for that car out of my own pocket. … That car is very special to me,” Juechter said.
Juechter said he had no intention of buying a Corvette, but he saw a “fully equipped car” coming off the Corvette production line in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and said he had to buy it.
Chevrolet Corvette 2020
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He has since sold that car and last year bought an eighth-generation Corvette Stingray convertible as a “retirement car,” since he wouldn’t get any free Corvettes to test.
“I’ve never been a convertible guy, but it’s my wife and I’s touring car—like a cross-country car. I’m not going to track it. It’s going to be my daily driver,” he says. “If you’re just going to have a daily driver, a cruiser, the Stingray is a pretty great option.”
