Did you Know….

  • The Bowling Green Assembly Plant is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It sits on 250 acres of land, located directly off Interstate I-65.
  • This is the only place in the world where the Chevrolet Corvette and the Cadillac XLR are produced.
  • corvette: a fast, lightly armed warship, smaller than a destroyer, often armed for antisubmarine operations.
  • Our plant is approx. one million sq. ft., or the equivalent of 22 football fields.
  • Approximately 1,000 total are employed at The Bowling Green Assembly Plant. There are approximately 850 hourly employees.
  • The Bowling Green plant assembles more than 35,000 Chevrolet Corvettes and 4,000 Cadillac XLRs per year.
  • Production each day ranges from 150 – 170 Corvettes and approximately 8 XLRs are produced a day.
  • There are 430 suppliers and 2,800 parts used to build the vehicles. Seventy-seven percent of the car is made in the USA and Canada.
  • The Assembly plant hosts more than 50,000 enthusiasts each year.
  • From start to finish each Corvette spends approximately 36 hours winding seven miles of conveyor systems in the plant.
  • In the paint department body panels spend ten hours winding two miles on a conveyor system.
  • Body panels receive three coats of paint: primer, color and clear coat. The paint is manufactured by DuPont.
  • Corvette and XLR body panels are composite fiberglass, except for the front and rear bumpers, which are urethane.
  • Production runs one shift, Monday through Friday, from 6:12 a.m. until 2:42 p.m. Overtime is added when necessary.
  • The Cadillac XLR is built on a separate line from the Corvette. They share the same frame and both use fiberglass body panels.
  • The original front emblem logo on the Corvettes that made the trade show circuit featured a checkered flag and an American flag crossed, later Chevrolet was alerted to the fact that it is illegal to use an American flag on a trademark and the logo was changed.
  • As revolutionary that the Corvette was when introduced in 1953, the only part or component included in its manufacturing that was not already available in other Chevrolet models was the fiberglass body.
  • Manual transmission was listed as an option on the 1954 Chevrolet Corvette, but no model was ordered, manufactured, or delivered that year with a manual transmission.
  • The 1958 Chevrolet Corvette was the first ‘Vette with factory installed seat belts.
  • The first year that an AM/FM radio was offered as an option in a Corvette was 1968.
  • The 1963 through 1967 Corvettes were known as “Sting Rays”. The model name disappeared in 1968, but returned in 1969 only to be spelled as one word, “Stingray”
  • The last Corvette manufactured to run on the old style “leaded” fuel was produced in 1974.
  • The most Chevrolet Corvettes ever manufactured in one year was over 53,807 in 1979.
  • The first Corvette produced with windshield wipers that clear water in the same direction instead of opposing directions was made in 1997.
  • In 2005, Chevrolet manufactured Corvettes without the famous pop-up headlights for the first time since 1962.
  • The Chevrolet Corvette has been one of the most popular American made sportscars for decades, and with good reason. From its high performance design that delivers amazing on-road results to the always innovative thinking that brings new options and developments with almost every new model, the Corvette has set itself up to remain the standard by which all other American sportscars will be judged by in the future.