Chevrolet Corvette Sales Sunk 21 Percent In the First Quarter

GM said Tuesday that its first-quarter sales for 2025 were up 17 percent compared to the same period last year, with gains among GMC, Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac. There was at least one sour note, however: Corvette sales were down significantly, or nearly 21 percent, in the quarter, a possible indication that enthusiasm for the C8 Corvette is starting to wane.

There are thousands of unsold Corvettes currently sitting on dealer lots across America, which comports with those sales numbers. Chevy said in its press release that it delivered 6,794 Corvettes in the first three months of this year, compared to 8,576 Corvettes in the same period last year.

Elsewhere in its deliveries press release, GM said that its EV sales are up 94 percent in the first quarter compared to 2024 and, “We expect GM to be again the #2 seller [of] electric vehicles in the U.S.” Buick, too, had an outstanding quarter, with deliveries up 39 percent, making it Buick’s best quarter in nearly 20 years, largely on the strength of Encore GX sales.

“GM’s sales growth outpaced every other major automaker, and the driving force is our portfolio,” Rory Harvey, a GM executive VP, said in a statement. “We’re the industry leader in trucks and affordable small SUVs, Cadillac is growing significantly in luxury, and we have the broadest portfolio of EVs in the industry.”

That latter point is a thinly-veiled shot at Tesla, which has seen sales slow in recent months because of controversial CEO Elon Musk and an aging lineup. GM, meanwhile, said that it delivered 1,956 Cadillac Escalade IQs, its new all-electric Escalade. Deliveries of the Chevy Blazer EV went from 600 in the first quarter of 2024 to 6,187 this latest quarter. Even Silverado EV deliveries increased, from 1,061 to 2,383. Overall, GM delivered 693,363 cars in the first three months of this year, an increase from 594,233, which, for a volume carmaker like GM, is what matters.

The Corvette numbers might be concerning, however, because the C8 Corvette is currently just past midlife and a new Corvette, the C9, isn’t expected for a couple of more years at least. Chevy has taken to introducing new, very powerful iterations of the Corvette like the ZR1 to pique interest, while setting various speed records in the process.

See Also

Ford to Temporarily Halt Production of F-150 Lightning Until 2025

The new Corvette ZR1 is also expensive for a Corvette, starting at $174,995, but perhaps cheap if you compare it to supercars like the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and McLaren 765LT, as Chevy does. If GM sells fewer Corvettes but more expensive Corvettes, that is probably a trade-off that it is willing to make, and maybe even the strategy. Almost everyone who wanted a C8 Corvette likely already has one anyway, so that could be GM’s only choice.