DETROIT \u2014 Tadge Juechter\u2019s first \u201ctaste\u201d of Corvette working at\u00a0General Motors\u00a0was to research whether there were enough Americans who could afford a new high-performance model of the famed sports car, known as the ZR1, back in 1985.<\/p>\n
Nearly 40 years later, not only are there enough people to afford such a vehicle, but GM\u2019s\u00a0new 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1\u00a0stands as something of a coup de grace for Juechter, who retired Wednesday after roughly 47 years with the Detroit automaker.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0so-called \u201cgodfather\u201d\u00a0of the modern Corvette retired roughly a week after helping to introduce the new 2025 Corvette ZR1 \u2014 the most powerful and fastest version of the car ever produced.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing all the great Corvettes of recent years and decades have had in common is you. Your knowledge, your skills, your hard work, your passion,\u201d GM\u00a0President Mark Reuss\u00a0told Juechter when revealing the vehicle. \u201cThank you for making Corvette the glorious American sports car it remains. Thank you for making our company better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reuss announced last month that all 2025 Corvettes and beyond will feature a silhouette profile of Juechter\u2019s head etched in window locations and the front tunnel reinforcement panel beneath every Corvette\u00a0<\/p>\n
CNBC interviewed Juechter, 67, ahead of his retirement, touching on his career as well as the business of Corvette, including plans for an all-electric version and the potential of spinning off the brand and for an SUV.<\/p>\n
GM has said an all-electric Corvette is coming, but it hasn\u2019t given a time frame. Last year, the automaker introduced a hybrid version of the car called the E-Ray.<\/p>\n
Juechter wasn\u2019t inclined to disclose any details of an upcoming Corvette EV, but he believes the E-Ray proves GM can successfully electrify Corvette.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectrification can be a wonderful contributor to cars. I embrace efficiency. \u2026 We\u2019re passionate about efficiency in everything that we do,\u201d he said. \u201cEfficiency makes a good sports car, too. So, I think electrification is just another technology, and we have to figure out how to play that technology in a way that resonates with our customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cE-Ray is the first step. We think long term, you know, decades long term. Yes, General Motors committed to 100% electrification, and it\u2019s our job as engineers to figure out what\u2019s the way to get there. We\u2019re businesspeople, too. We have to bring our customers with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juechter said there\u2019s been some \u201cnatural push back\u201d to electrified Corvettes from the sports car\u2019s fan base.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping maybe the E-Ray warms them to maybe this electrification thing\u2019s not so bad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wall Street analysts have said GM could better leverage the Corvette brand by expanding models and, to an extent, sales. In late 2019, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said a Corvette sub-brand could be worth between $7 billion and $12 billion.<\/p>\n
That has raised questions around whether Corvette would be better spun off from parent GM.<\/p>\n
But Juechter doesn\u2019t necessarily believe that\u2019s the way to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if we need to spin off. I mean, Corvette\u2019s at the heart of Chevrolet. It\u2019s a pure business play. If you\u2019ve got this brand equity, you can just keep it at home or you can choose to try to monetize it and put it outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeneral Motors historically hasn\u2019t done that. We embrace our important franchises, and this is a really important franchise,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Regarding leveraging the brand for future products such as an SUV, which has been under consideration for several years, that\u2019s a little different, Juechter said, declining to confirm that any such plans or considerations exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow you leverage it. That\u2019s a question for the future. You see the models we\u2019re rolling out. We\u2019re making the maximum of this mid-engine architecture. And, you know, I\u2019ve made no secret I work on EVs, too, and trying to bring some of the performance spirit into the EV space. How that gets applied in the future and how it gets branded, that\u2019s a story for another day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The concept of a performance car brand producing a 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 moved away from the traditional car model.<\/p>\n
Juechter has been a part of four separate generations of Corvette \u2014 from the fourth-generation ZR1 to the new mid-engine, eighth-generation of the sports car.<\/p>\n
The first Corvette he purchased for himself was the sixth-generation 2006 Corvette Z06.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to pick a favorite. It\u2019s like what\u2019s your favorite child. Actually, it\u2019s harder than who\u2019s your favorite child. Anyway, I won\u2019t get into parenting, but every one of these cars we pour our heart and soul into and they all have their specialness about them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t pick one. If I\u2019m forced to pick one, I say money talks. I bought that Z06. I put my own money down on that car. \u2026 That car was very special to me,\u201d Juechter said.<\/p>\n
Juechter said he wasn\u2019t planning on purchasing the Corvette, but he saw a \u201cfully decked out one\u201d coming off the line at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and said that he had to have it.<\/p>\n
He has since sold that car and last year purchased an eighth-generation Corvette Stingray convertible as a \u201cretirement car,\u201d given he won\u2019t be getting any free Corvettes for testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been a convertible guy, but it\u2019s my wife and my touring car \u2014 like cross-country touring car. I\u2019m not going to track it. It\u2019s going to be my daily driver,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you just have a daily driver, a cruiser, a Stingray is pretty sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DETROIT \u2014 Tadge Juechter\u2019s first \u201ctaste\u201d of Corvette working at\u00a0General Motors\u00a0was to research whether there were enough Americans who could afford a new high-performance model of the famed sports car, known as the ZR1, back in 1985. Nearly 40 years later, not only are there enough people to afford such a vehicle, but GM\u2019s\u00a0new 2025 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}