GM will be adding 400 hourly jobs at their Kentucky factory in preparation for the arrival of the mid-engine Corvette.
We finally have a date. On July 18th, General Motors will take the cover off the mid-engine Corvette and reveal the most hotly anticipated vehicle of this generation. Years in the making, the mid-engine Corvette is expected to boast incredible performance and be more than a match for its European competition.
But it’s been a rough development process for the C8 Corvette. Issues with the car’s electrical architecture and chassis were rumored to have pushed back production until the end of the year and forced GM to miss the New York Auto Show as their expected reveal date.
Now we have our first official confirmation from GM that production is about to begin for their troubled mid-engine supercar.
Last week, GM announced plans to hire 400 additional hourly workers at their assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This adds a second shift to the factory’s workforce which will now total over 1,300 people.
“The Corvette’s iconic status owes so much to the men and women of Bowling Green, where it has been built exclusively for almost 40 years,” said GM CEO Mary Barra. “This is the workforce that can deliver a next-generation Corvette worthy of both its historic past and an equally exciting future, and today’s announcement gets us one step closer to its reveal on July 18.”
Since 2011, GM has invested over $900 million into Bowling Green, adding a “new body shop, increased engine capacity, new paint shop, a new Performance Build Center, and additional plant upgrades." One of those upgrades was an enormous solar array bigger than anything that Toyota or Ford have in Kentucky.
GM didn’t provide us with any specifics on when those 400 workers would be hired or when production would officially begin, but it looks like production will start a little sooner than winter of this year. Hopefully there aren’t any more delays and GM can get the C8-generation Corvette out on time.
We’ll learn more in July when the mid-engine Corvette makes its official debut.
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