General Motors won’t pull the plug on the combustion-powered Corvette anytime soon, but a separate version with a plug (pun intended) and no gas engine is still in the cards. The only question is when. According to the man in charge of engineering the iconic American sports car, battery power will eventually become part of its future.

Tony Roma, GM's executive chief engineer for Corvette and Performance Cars, recently reaffirmed the company's commitment to a fully electric Corvette. Speaking on The Drivecast, he acknowledged that an EV is inevitable, even if the bowtie-emblazoned company isn't ready to spill the beans on its development timeline.

'The electric cars are the end game, so someday there will be an electric Corvette, and I think that’s what Mark was trying to say.'

He was referring to comments GM President Mark Reuss made in 2022, when the executive announced plans for an electric Corvette alongside the then-upcoming E-Ray. More than four years later, however, the battery-powered sports car still hasn't materialized. Roma isn't backing away from the idea, but he also isn't putting a date on the calendar. “Someday we will fully electrify Corvette. But not today,” he added. In other words, the electric Corvette is still happening, but don't hold your breath waiting for it to arrive at a Chevy dealership.

When Reuss first teased an electric Corvette, speculation quickly turned to whether the car could arrive during the current C8 generation. That hasn't happened, and with the mid-engine sports car now well into its life cycle, the next-generation C9 seems like a more plausible candidate.

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