2015 Corvette Z06’s Fuel Economy Rating is 23 MPG Highway and 13 MPG City

Many were impressed when the EPA rated the fuel economy for the 2015 Corvette Stingray with the 8-Speed Automatic Transmission at 29 MPG Highway so naturally we’ve been waiting to see where the new Corvette Z06 would come in. After all, the 8-speed automatic was made specifically for the new 650 horsepower super car.

Although it has yet to be confirmed by GM, the official EPA fuel economy ratings for the new 2015 Corvette Z06 have been published on the U.S. Department of Energy’s FuelEconomy.gov website. The entry shows that the 2015 Corvette Z06 with the new 8-speed automatic transmission will get 23 MPG on the highway and 13 MPG in the city for a combined rating 16 MPG.

The fuel economy rating for the supercharged 650 horsepower Z06 was pretty much in line with expectations.

The supercharged 2013 Corvette ZR1 with 638 horsepower achieved a 21 MPG highway and 14 MPG city for 17 MPG combined. The C7 Z06 squeezes those two extra highway MPGs from the LT4’s fuel saving technologies which include variable valve timing, direct injection, and the addition of “Eco-Mode” which shuts off four of the eight cylinders.

The 2015 Corvette Stingray is also listed on the FuelEconomy.gov website and that confirms that the Stingray with the 7-speed manual transmission is rated at 29 Highway and 17 City for a combined 21 MPG while the 8-speed automatic Stingray is rated at 29 Highway and 16 City for a combined 20 MPG.

The government website lists only the Z06 equipped the new 8-speed automatic so we might see either similar or a slight uptick in the highway and combined MPG ratings when the 7-speed manual Corvette Z06 is evaluated.

Now for the bad news.

The Corvette Z06’s combined rating of 16 MPG puts the 650-horsepower sports car into the gas guzzler category. We’ve checked with several dealers and although it has yet to be confirmed officially by the Corvette Team, we are hearing that a $1,300 gas guzzler tax will be assigned to the car. We have reached out to Corvette Marketing Manager Todd Christensen for confirmation and will report back as soon as we know more.

Unknown at this point is what will happen with the current in-system orders for the Corvette Z06 with the manual transmission which are now being built if they are also classified as a gas guzzler. We assume it will be as the 2013 ZR1 with the 6-speed manual transmission was also classified as a gas guzzler. Will these orders be price protected or does the government’s mandated tax will mean that the gas guzzler tax will have to be collected before the car can be delivered to its new owners? These are all unknowns at this point which hinge on when the manual transmission cars will officially be rated.

We doubt that the gas guzzler tax will cause serious buyers of the 2015 Corvette Z06 to turn away from buying the new 650 horsepower sportscar but it’s too bad that interested buyers are only finding out now about the tax.

Source:
FuelEconomy.gov

Related:
2015 Corvette Stingray’s Eight-Speed Automatic is Faster and Gets 29 MPG Highway
A Closer Look at the 8-Speed Automatic for the 2015 Corvette Z06
The First Retail 2015 Corvette Z06 Has been Built and Other Corvette Production News