All-Electric Corvette Debuts at Ridiculous Price

That dream of eco-conscious baby-boomers is finally here, friends. As of today, you can pick up the phone and place an order on a 100%, zero-emissions, honest-to-goodness electric Corvette. Such dreams often come at a hefty price, however, and this one weighs in at $750,000.

That’s right, kids. A full three-quarters of a million dollars later and Genovation will deliver a fully electric Corvette to your door. And, before you dismiss the project as pure, pie-in-the-sky, bats*** insanity, consider the following: it has a 205 MPH top speed.

Yeah. I’m not convinced, either.

For their part, Genovation does a fine job converting the latest C7 Corvette to EV status. The finished car uses improved battery management to make up to 660 horsepower and roughly 600 lb-ft of torque. That’s good for a 3-second 0-60 run. Handling-wise, the electric ‘Vette retains its 50/50 weight distribution, and the total package has a maximum cruising range of about 130 miles.

For those of you paying attention, then, we’re talking about a car that’s marginally quicker to 60 MPH than a Tesla Model S in Ludicrous mode or a refurbished Tesla Roadster. It has a higher top speed, but less than half the range of those cars, and costs enough to let you buy a Model S, a Roadster, a Model X, a few Nissan Leafs for the kids, and- while we’re blowing money- a Ferrari 488 or two.

Terrible idea, I think. Patently stupid. But this is the Corvette market we’re talking about, so they’ll probably sell out the full production run in a few hours. If they do, I’m sure Genovation will let us know. In the meantime, feel free to let us know what you think of this waste of money all-electric sports car in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Electric Corvette by Genovation – Worth the Money?

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Source | Images: Genovation, via Autoblog.

Genovation Electric Corvette Sets New Land Speed Record

Some of you may be reading this and thinking, “Yeah, that happened back in February.” You’re right. An electric Corvette from Genovation did set the record for a street legal electric car in February of this year when it was clocked 186.8 mph. But sometimes, too much of a good thing is just not enough, so they came back to the race track with an updated version of that car. On July 28, the car shattered its own previous record by cranking up to a speed of 205.6 mph. That’s a whole different warp factor, gearheads.

Genovation specializes in building electric versions of traditional high performance cars. Its GXE (which is some kind of shorthand for Genovation eXtreme Electric) is a repurposed Corvette Z06. The team removed the standard factory powertrain and crammed in two electric motors with a combined 660 horsepower and 600 ft-lbs of torque. Then it installed 44 kWh of batteries into the transmission tunnel and headed out to the race track.

For its record setting run, the car was taken to the Space Florida Shuttle Landing Facility in Kennedy Space Center, FL. The new record was certified by the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA).

On its website, Genovation pays homage to the overall goodness of the Corvette chassis. “At Genovation, we are proud to pay tribute to American engineering by using the iconic Corvette as the platform for our GXE. The race-inspired hydroformed aluminum frame and quintessential body style lend themselves perfectly to the lightweight and sustainable GXE.”

The company experimented with several different motor arrangements before deciding two motors attached to a single driveshaft gave the best performance. The race car retains the stock 6 speed transmission in order to provide the torque multiplication needed to reach the acceleration and speed goals the company had in mind. “As a daily driver, it can be left in third gear all day long,” the company says on is website.

Source: Wired

Electric Corvette sets mile record at 186.8 MPH

Genovation GXE takes on the landing strip.

When we first saw the Genovation GXE all-electric Corvette on its stand at the BatteryShow 2015, we were given some impressive specs – a three-second 0-to-60 run and a 200-mile-per-hour top speed – all made possible by over 700 electric horses spittin' out more than 600 pound-feet of torque. Turns out, it may just live up to that high-speed hype.

With Bob Simpson – project manager (and EVDrive co-founder) – riding shotgun and multi-record holder Johnny Bohmer holding the wheel and applying a heavy right foot, the battery-powered C6 Z06 hit 186.8 mph on the tarmac of the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. That run puts the GXE in the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA) record books under the heading of "Top Speed Street Legal Electric Car."

According to the press release, which you can read below, the record was set on the car's first day of testing. Its builders have confidence it's good for even more. Though they haven't said if, or where, further speed runs would occur, we can't help but think a one-on-one match up would be interesting, say, against a certain Zombie 222. Similarly fast – it reached 177.8 mph from a dead stop at the Texas Mile – it would make for a classic confrontation. Genovation vresus Blood Shed Motors; vintage pony car versus modern sportscar; DC drivetrain versus AC, the possibilities are endless.

Genovation offers its GXE for $330,000 (or $290,000, if your supply the Vette donor). It features a 6-speed manual transmission, a 44kWh battery pack and is said to be good for 150 miles on a full charge.

FLORIDA (2/29/2016) -- Genovation Cars is proud to announce a new top speed record achieved by its prototype high-performance all-electric Corvette, the Genovation eXtreme Electric or GXE. The vehicle was being tested at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds/Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, conducting research to improve vehicle performance. During the course of testing, the car broke the record for the Top Speed Street Legal Electric Car category with a speed of 186.8 mph on the date of February 23, 2016.

The record was certified by the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA). The previous record was 177 mph, set by a Finnish prototype car.

The GXE, based on a 2006 Z06 Corvette, includes a state-of-the-art battery management system, inverters, batteries and electric motors that produce in excess of 700-hp and 600 lb-ft of torque. Most GXE parts were designed and built in America.

"We are thrilled that the result of our development testing led to the setting of this record," said Genovation CEO Andrew Saul. "Based on our experience so far, we believe the car to be extremely robust as we set the record on our first day of testing. We fully expect the car to do a lot more."

Several contributors to the GXE effort have helped design and build other record-breaking electric vehicles. Major contributors include: Stafl Systems, Rinehart Motion Systems, EVDrive, AMRacing, Current Ways, Johnny Bohmer and Tony's Corvette Shop.

The Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds/Shuttle Landing Facility is one of the very few places in the world that has the capacity and infrastructure to make speed record runs like this safe. The 3-mile-long and 300-foot-wide runway at the facility was the perfect location for the GXE to break the record.

The car has a range of 130 miles during normal driving operation with a near 50/50 weight distribution and is optimized for a low center of gravity.