C8 Corvette Faces More Production Delays
Bowling Green assembly plant plans to resume production on February 8.
Supply and demand of the Corvette C8 have sparked a buzz for Chevrolet that has buyers whipped into a frenzy. Even a lottery winner in Georgia struggled to get a new mid-engine ‘Vette before he took to the internet to plead for help in finding a dealer who could deliver. Underneath the flurry of activity, delays and work stoppages have plagued the new Corvette, and it appears another delay is underway.
A buyer sounded the alarm on corvetteforum.com, where he shared an email he received from Chevrolet about his C8: “BGAP (Bowling Green Assembly Plant) has just announced a suspension of production for the week of 2/1 due to supply chain issues. Due to recent delays and this shutdown, the new anticipated completion date of your car is 2/12. If your previously scheduled tentative appointment does not fall at least two weeks beyond this date, we will need to reschedule.”
CorvetteBlogger relayed the word from Chevrolet that the Bowling Green plant would indeed be shut down from February 1, 2021 to February 8, 2021. The GM brand confirmed:
Due to a temporary parts supply issue, we can confirm that Bowling Green Assembly will not run production the week of February 1. Our supply chain, manufacturing and engineering teams are working closely with our supply base to mitigate any further impact on production, and we expect the plant to resume normal operations on Monday, February 8.
COVID-19 has delayed production twice already – in May and November – and this one is going to set dealers back even more. GM Authority says Corvette outsold the Porsche 911, Porsche 718, Mercedes-AMG GT, Audi R8, Nissan GT-R, BMW i8, and Acura NSX, and more in Q4 2020. The site also reported the Kentucky plant is running two shifts to build the 2021 Corvette at a rate of 92-94 Corvettes per shift. Roughly, this delay will put Chevrolet about 930-940 behind.
If you're waiting for your C8 to arrive, brace yourself. This is one way to practice your patience skills, right?
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