The Corvette Assembly Plant is Building Two Different Model Year Corvettes at the Same Time

With today being Thursday, we checked in with some dealership friends to find out if they received any new allocations for Corvette ordering, but all said no. We’re thinking the three-week assembly plant closure starting the week of September 28th may have caused Chevy to skip the order cycle, so we’ll check back next week as we ask our friends once again if they got any cars for the week.

While I was up a the National Corvette Museum for the Anniversary Celebration, I asked Betty in the Library and Archives if she had received the 2026 Corvette production stats yet from the Assembly Plant. Normally after the production is wrapped up, the stats go to Betty and then they are disseminated out to people like us who can’t wait to jump into the latest production numbers.

As the 2026 production ended back in May, I was very surprised when with the answer:

“Not yet,” she said. “They are still building 2026 models.”

For the first time, the Corvette Assembly Plant is building two different model year Corvettes at the same time and both model years are for customers. Can you guess why?

Exports!

Chevrolet is still building out some 2026 models that will be sold in export markets around the world while at the same time they are building 2027 Corvettes for customers in the USA and Canada.

During the Corvette Team seminar at the NCM’s Anniversary Celebration, this point also came up with Corvette vehicle chief engineer Josh Holder confirming that two model year Corvettes are being built at the same time:

“So, I think this is the first time ever for regular production that this is happening. We are building them for export markets. So all the domestic production has been converted over. We built ahead…Tonawanda [engine plant] built ahead some LT2s for us that continue production. Remember, vehicles are extremely complicated. We have to do a whole bunch of calibration work for a specific system for export vehicles, and then we have to certify that, which takes even longer, and most of it is out of our control. So that certification process, rather than just keeping our export regions dark, we are doing a period of concurrent build.”

Thanks to Josh’s comments, now we know exactly why the 2026 model year exports are still being constructed. As the 2027 Corvette Stingray has the new LS6 V8 engine, Chevrolet needs to have the new engine certified in all markets where it will be sold. But instead of just waiting for that happen, GM is still building some 2026s for export to fill that gap.

Related:
The Corvette Assembly Plant is Planning a Three Week Shutdown Due to Supplier Constraints
Happy 2027 SORP Day!
New 2027 Corvette Grand Sport has a 35% Share of All Corvettes Produced (So Far)

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