GM: New CAFE regulations could make supercars an ‘endangered species’

December 20, 2007June 5, 2012 Omar Rana

It’s been a pretty crazy week in the automotive industry. Congress has passed the new energy bill, President Bush signed it into law yesterday and GM unveiled the most anticipated sports car of the year from Detroit. What does all this mean?

Well the new CAFE 35 calls for a 40 percent increase to fuel-economy, making the standard 35mpg by 2020. According to Corvette’s chief engineer, the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 may be the last high-performance car coming out of Detroit, since others may now be endangered to ever see the light of day due to strict federal fuel-economy regulations.

“High-performance vehicles such as this may actually be legislated out of existence,” Tadge Juechter said at the launch of the ZR1.

Juechter said that in order to sell one Chevrolet supercar, GM would need to offset it with cars that get 45 mpg.

“It could really be an endangered species,” he said.

The 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 broke cover yesterday. The car will be powered by the new LS9 supercharged 6.2L V8 engine, which engineers are still messing around with to hit a target of 620 horsepower and approximately 595 lb.-ft. of torque.

Pricing for the ZR1 is expected to be around $100,000 when it goes on sale next summer.

2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 Gallery: