There has been a fair amount of speculation over the last year or two about what GM is going to do in future with the Corvette and its powertrains. But none of the speculation goes as far as where a company called Genovation Cars is going with the iconic sports car, and it will be revealed to the world in all its glory at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas later this month.
Last year, the company from Maryland in the United States unveiled its first-generation GXE, which stands for Genovation Extreme Electric and was an electric car that used a C6 Chevy Corvette Z06 as its donor car. That model replaced the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 with a pair of electric motors, which together produced around 600 horsepower and 600 lb.-ft. of torque. The GXE went on to set a land-speed record for a street-legal EV with a top speed of 205.6 mph, as well as an electric car record for a standing mile.
Now the company is ramping things up considerably with a new second-generation of the GXE, which this time uses a C7 Corvette Grand Sport as its donor vehicle. It's being estimated that the twin electric motor setup in this one will be good for something like 800 horsepower and 700 lb.-ft. of torque, which should translate into a 0 to 60 mph time of less than three seconds and top speed somewhere north of 220 mph.
The new car even addresses practicality concerns by increasing the battery capacity from the original 44 kWh to 60 kWh, which could deliver a range as good as 150 miles on a full charge, but only as long as you drive it conservatively.
Genovation only plans to build 75 examples of the second-generation GXE, which goes some way towards justifying the staggering $750,000 asking price for each car. The manufacturer is confident of selling out the limited run that's expected to start being delivered to customers at the end of next year, and it plans to use the profits to fund the development of more affordable EVs.
