Manoli Katakis 
Yesterday’s General Motors Q2 2019 earnings call was much of the same narrative as it’s been. In that it was yet another session going over Cruise Automation robo taxis, pickup truck and SUV sales, the Chinese market, and electric vehicles. In short, if you’ve listened to a GM earnings call in the past two years, you’ve listened to them all. However, this particular call touched on the 2020 C8 Corvette Stingray, as well as GM’s new Global B electronics architecture, which the C8 will feature. And GM CEO Mary Barra herself tipped analysts and listeners on the capabilities of Global B, which will allow for several types of over the air updates, including chassis control upgrades.
Drawing the lines, that means the 2020 Corvette Stingray will be capable of OTA chassis control updates. This could be huge for expanding the bandwidth of how the new supercar can behave on the street and track.
Further details remain unavailable at this time. However, the General Motors Global B electronics architecture but also to have the capacity and capability for things like Super Cruise, autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles. Global B will control various electronic components of a vehicle, featuring over 100 modules that communicate through encrypted messaging. These components will also include the latest in active safety technology, high capacity for connectivity.
Fortifying the capabilities of Global B is a cybersecurity system that promises to be beyond the likes of any other system on the market today. The dark side of it is that the C8 Corvette will be a tuning company’s worst nightmare when it comes to accessing the ECU to unlock more horsepower. MC&T was the first to report on the difficulties the tuning industry will face when it comes to upgrading the C8 back in May.
The 2020 C8 Corvette Stingray will launch in Q4 2019 and will come standard with 490 horsepower on tap, which can be upgraded to 495 horsepower via the Z51 package. The price of the first-ever production mid-engine Corvette will be around $60,000.
