The Corvette's “godfather” is retiring from competition: electric vehicles, derivative models and a high-performance SUV

DETROIT — Tadge Juechter's first taste of Corvette in action General Motors The goal was to see if enough Americans could afford a new high-performance model of the famous sports car, known as the ZR1, in 1985.

Nearly 40 years later, not only are there enough people around to afford such a vehicle, but GM's new 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 represents something of a coup de grace for Juechter, who retired Wednesday after roughly 47 years with the Detroit automaker.

The so-called “godfather” of the modern Corvette retired about a week after helping to unveil the new 2025 Corvette ZR1, the most powerful and fastest version of the car ever produced.

“One thing all the great Corvettes of the past years and decades have in common is you. Your knowledge, your skills, your hard work, your passion,” GM President Mark Reuss told Juechter when he unveiled the car. “Thank you for making Corvette the glorious American sports car that it continues to be. Thank you for making our company better.”

Reuss announced last month that all 2025 and later Corvettes will feature a silhouette profile of Juechter's head etched into the window locations and on the front tunnel reinforcement panel beneath each Corvette.

CNBC interviewed Juechter, 67, before his retirement, and he discussed his career and the Corvette business, including plans for an all-electric version and the potential to spin off the brand and create an SUV.

GM has said an all-electric Corvette will be launched, but has not given a timeframe. Last year, the automaker introduced a hybrid version of the car called the E-Ray.

Juechter wasn't willing to reveal any details about an upcoming Corvette EV, but he believes the E-Ray proves that GM can successfully electrify the Corvette.

“Electrification can be a great addition to cars. I embrace efficiency… We're passionate about efficiency in everything we do,” he said. “Efficiency also makes for a good sports car. So I think electrification is just another technology and we need to find a way to use it in a way that resonates with our customers.

“E-Ray is the first step. We're thinking long-term, you know, decades ahead. Yes, General Motors is committed to 100% electrification and our job as engineers is to figure out how to get there. We're business people too. We have to take our customers with us.”

Juechter said there has been a “natural pushback” toward electrified Corvettes from the sports car fan base.

“We hope that maybe the E-Ray will help them understand that this electrification issue is not so bad,” he said.

Wall Street analysts have said GM could better leverage the Corvette brand by expanding models and, to some extent, sales. In late 2019, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said a Corvette sub-brand could be worth between $7 billion and $12 billion.

This has raised questions about whether it would be better for Corvette to be separated from its parent company, GM.

But Juechter doesn't necessarily think that's the way forward.

“I don't know if we need to spin off. I mean, Corvette is the heart of Chevrolet. It's a purely business strategy. If you have this brand equity, you can keep it in-house or you can choose to try to monetize it and take it out.

“General Motors historically hasn't done that. We value our important franchises, and this is a really important franchise,” he said.

As for leveraging the brand for future products like an SUV, something that has been under consideration for several years, that's a bit different, Juechter said, declining to confirm that there are any such plans or considerations.

“How to leverage that. That's a question for the future. You see the models we're launching. We're leveraging this mid-engine architecture to the max. And, you know, I've made no secret that I'm also working on electric vehicles and trying to bring some of the performance spirit into the EV space. How that will be applied in the future and how it will be branded, that's a story for another day,” he said.

The concept of a performance car brand producing an SUV or crossover would have been blasphemy years ago, but several brands like Porsche, Lamborghini and even Ferrari have done so as consumer preference has shifted away from the traditional car model.

Juechter has been a part of four distinct generations of Corvette, from the fourth-generation ZR1 to the new eighth-generation mid-engine sports car.

The first Corvette he purchased was the sixth-generation 2006 Corvette Z06.

“It's hard to pick a favourite. It's like saying who your favourite child is. Actually, it's harder than saying who your favourite child is. I'm not going to talk about parenthood anyway, but we put our heart and soul into each of these cars and they all have something special.

“I don't know. I can't pick one. If you force me to pick one, I'd say money talks. I bought that Z06. I invested my own money in that car… That car was very special to me,” Juechter said.

Juechter said he wasn't planning on buying the Corvette, but he saw a “fully loaded” one rolling off the production line at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and said he had to have it.

He has since sold that car and last year purchased an eighth-generation Corvette Stingray convertible as a “retirement car,” since he won't be receiving any free Corvettes to test drive.

“I've never been a convertible guy, but it's my and my wife's touring car, like an off-road touring car. I'm not going to use it on track. It's going to be my daily driver,” he said. “If you only have a daily driver, a cruiser, a Stingray is pretty good.”