Chevrolet Hopes 2014 Corvette Will Spark Brand Boost

By Jeff Bennett and Joseph B. White

DETROIT—General Motors Co. on Sunday took the wraps off a seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette sports car that the company hopes will become the poster child for a 2013 product blitz designed to buff GM’s top-selling Chevrolet line.

Chief Executive Dan Akerson and North America chief Mark Reuss have presided over GM’s return to record profitability in its home market but haven’t been able to halt a market share slide. The auto maker finished last year with just 17.9% of U.S. car and light truck sales, the lowest level since the 1930s, amid a paucity of new models.

“We squandered the market position we had in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s,” Mr. Akerson said. “Now we have to get it back.”

Putting Chevrolet back on car shopping lists in America and overseas is the linchpin of GM’s strategy. Chevrolet accounts for 70% of the auto maker’s vehicle sales in the U.S.

The 2014 Corvette will carry the “Stingray” name for the first time since the 1970s—harking back to a classic generation of the car that inspired many of today’s target customers—Baby Boomers in their 50s, when they were in their teens.

The entry level 2014 Corvette will have a 450-horsepower, V-8, a 0-60 time below four seconds, and will use lightweight materials, including carbon fiber in the roof and aluminum in the frame, to deliver better fuel economy than the departing model’s 25 miles per gallon in highway driving.

“We want to reinforce the fact that it is a halo product and tie it closely to the Chevrolet brand,” said Chevy vice president for marketing Chris Perry.

The new Corvette will also offer options designed to help drivers perform better when racing the car on a track, including software that will automatically match the engine’s speed to the gear that the driver wants to select.

The car’s interior also is getting what GM officials describe as a significant upgrade, responding to complaints from owners of the sixth-generation car that the quality of materials and styling in the car didn’t match its price, or the sophistication of rival European sports cars.

GM hasn’t announced prices for the new Corvette. The current model starts at just under $50,000.

With the U.S. Treasury preparing to sell its remaining GM shares during the coming year, Mr. Akerson is under pressure to rev up sales and profit in the U.S., particularly since Mr. Akerson says GM’s European operations aren’t likely to generate profit until the middle of this decade.