2020 Corvette convertible sales defied the pandemic

There aren’t many winners of 2020, but the C8 Corvette appears to be on the short list. GM sold more Corvettes in 2020 than it did in 2019, according to a recent report by CarBuzz.

The first 2020 Corvette didn’t roll off the assembly line until February 3, 2020, due to a production delay caused by the UAW strike. Then, in March, COVID-19 forced the closure of all American automotive production facilities as a countermeasure to slow the spread of the virus. The Bowling Green plant also shut down for a week in October, 2020, because of a supply-chain logistics wrinkle. The last year of front-engine Corvette production was likewise unusual, though to a lesser degree: The last front-engine Vette rolled off the line on November 14, 2019.

Now, CarBuzz reports that 2020 Corvette sales outpaced those of 2019 by 20.2 percent. C8 convertibles, in particular, account for some of that growth.

Harlan Charles, the product marketing manager for the Corvette, told CarBuzz that sales of convertible models have nearly doubled between the two generations. Between 2014–19, the C7’s tenure, convertibles represented 20 percent of Corvette sales. For the 2020 model year, that number hovers somewhere between 35 and 40 percent.

It’s worth pointing out that the 2020 model year was the first time that Chevrolet offered a hardtop convertible option for the Corvette. Add to that the hype of a long-awaited mid-engine platform, and the jump in convertible sales seems reasonable.

Back in April of 2020, the convertible seemed like the most vulnerable model in the C8 range. Clearly, the open-air C8 has made up for lost time.