It's movie time

June 06, 2025Newsletter Archives

I’m giving two enthusiastic thumbs up to a pair of cool new General Motors videos that you really need to see, both offering deep insights into the amazing work of our domestic assembly plants.

Let’s start with a nifty little clip about building the engine for the mighty 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, the most powerful Corvette ever built, offering 1,064 horsepower from a twin-turbo V8, with a GM-estimated zero-to-60 time of 2.3 seconds* and a racetrack top speed of 233 mph. 

My colleague Bob Sorokanich recently had a chance buckle into the passenger seat of a ZR1 in a speed run at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin; afterward he described the experience this way: “I entered the ZR1 thinking I knew what fast was. I got out in a state of perspiring disarray. Simply put, the 2025 Corvette ZR1 accelerates, brakes, and corners like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.”

The 2025 Corvette ZR1 is based on the same mid-engine platform shared as today’s Corvette Stingray, E-Ray, and Z06. But the ZR1 gets a twin-turbo 5.5-liter flat-plane-crank V8 – each engine bearing the signature of the Performance Build Center specialist who assembled it by hand. It’s a stunning combination of sophisticated technology and manufacturing expertise. You’ll definitely want to watch our new video about creating that engine at our Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky.  

And why not make it a double feature?

We’ve also got a new video for you featuring Kurt Kelty, who runs GM’s EV battery business, getting hands on experience building batteries at Factory ZERO, our electric vehicle assembly plant straddling the Detroit and Hamtramck border in Michigan, where we build the GMC HUMMER EV, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, and Cadillac ESCALADE IQ**. Kurt is a world-class battery expert, but this was his first opportunity to test out his skills on the line, working in a section of the plant called the RESS, an acronym for Rechargeable Energy Storage System, where battery cells are placed into packs ahead of installation into our EVs. 

"The best part of this experience was going through each function and experiencing what our team members face every day,” Kelty says. “Little things that you might not think are a big deal can be a showstopper for a battery pack. It gave me renewed respect for our operators and what they do on the line.”

Time to make some popcorn. 

-- Eric Savitz, editor-in-chief, GM News