Production Restarts at the Corvette Assembly Plant After Last Week’s Parts Related Shut-Down

Good news for those with a 2022 Corvette on order! The Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green restarted production Monday morning following last week’s parts-related shutdown and the two shifts combined to build 181 new Corvettes for the day. If the production counts remain strong for the next few days, we should pass over the 20,000th VIN for the model year before the end of the week.

The current constraints on the base model Stingray have spilled over to 2023 Corvette ordering with some dealers telling their customers they need to add Z51 for those who will be part of the first order cycle or be skipped. Dealers started placing pre-orders on March 24th and the first order cycle for the 2023s with allocations matched to orders begins on Thursday. The base model Stingray (non-Z51) was added to the constraint list just before the start of the final 2022 order cycle earlier in March.

We heard some cynical comments on the forums that GM is only doing this to make more money and blah, blah, blah, but the truth is that with 70% of buyers selecting Z51 in 2021, Chevy is protecting the better-selling model in which 7 of 10 buyers are selecting. The alternative to this is to spread the parts shortage across the base and Z51 models in which certain components are dropped or will require retrofitting months later. We would think that buyers would rather wait a bit longer and get their car fully equipped as they wanted it versus getting a car missing certain components and functionality and then having to live with that until the parts are available again for service departments.

It’s not an ideal situation, but it is the world we are currently living in.

As for the first 2023 Corvette Stingray allocations, our friends at the MidEngineCorvetteForum.com are calling the allocation amounts received by dealers they are privy to as “moderate” which we take to mean that most dealers got a good number to start with. The next questions are when will we see the next order cycle for the 2023 Stingray and if those allocations will be increased or decreased. That’s a wait-and-see moment that will hopefully have some better news regarding constraints for those wanting just the base Stingray.

Now that we know for certain that Z06 ordering will start later in the year, we are continually parsing Chevrolet engineers statements and written disclaimers as when that magical day will arrive. Ideally, we would see ordering in May or early June followed up with the start of production in July or August. GM has previously stated “Ordering in Spring” and availability in the Summer of 2022. Let’s hope that schedule is still in place.

That’s all we got on the ordering/production front…Join our mailing list and stay tuned to CorvetteBlogger to receive any future updates on C8 Corvette ordering and production.

Related:
Corvette Assembly Plant Will Go Idle Next Week Due to a Parts Shortage
2023 Corvette Model Year Pricing to be Announced on March 23rd
2022 Corvette Stingrays Lose Rear Park Assist Option Due to Chip Shortage