The midengine Chevrolet Corvette has hit yet another production snag: a parts shortage that will halt assembly at the Bowling Green, Ky., plant this week.
General Motors paused production of the 2020 Corvette beginning Monday, spokesman Kevin Kelly said.
“Due to a temporary parts supply issue, we can confirm that Bowling Green Assembly will not run production the week of Oct. 12. 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, Oct. 19,” Kelly said in a statement.
Corvette inventory is extremely limited because most of the sports cars are preordered before they arrive at dealerships, he told Automotive News.
Corvette production at the Kentucky plant will be extended into December, Corvette Action Center reported last week, citing a letter to Chevy dealers. GM originally said that 2020 Corvette production would end in November, and that 2021 model production would begin in December.
Before the pandemic hit, Chevy had expected to build about 40,000 Corvettes in 2020. As of February, Chevy had received 45,000 preorders through its website.
Corvette Blogger, which first reported the production halt Thursday, said Chevy plans to build 20,181 Corvettes for the 2020 model year. GM declined to provide production targets.
GM said Corvette sales surged 33 percent to 6,355 deliveries during the third quarter. Year-to-date sales fell 13 percent to 12,634, GM said.
The Corvette launch had been disrupted by the 40-day UAW strike last fall, which pushed the start of production from late 2019 to February 2020. Then GM shut down North American plants for eight weeks in the spring to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, further delaying production.
Before plants closed, Bowling Green had only built 2,700 cars, Kai Spande, Corvette Assembly manager, told CNET in April.