With a starting price of $59,999, the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is a performance car bargain. However, this low price will only available for the first model year. After that, the Stingray will get a price increase for the 2021 model year. It isn't clear yet how much it will increase by, but a senior source from GM has told MotorTrend Chevrolet will lose money on any C8 Corvette sold under $80,000.

Don't worry, the 2021 Corvette Stingray won't cost $20,000 more. It will remain relatively affordable, but is it viable for Chevrolet to keep selling the Corvette with a low starting price or will there be a price jump if demand is high?

"It'll depend on how people content it," Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors, told MotorTrend.

"What I think is really important is Chevrolet is a home for Corvette and Chevrolet is American, and it's value, it's ingenuity. I think all of that is captured." The CEO added that the Corvette "represents all that Chevrolet means, and part of that is, I think, that it is obtainable. So I think we will work really hard to make sure that we always live true to the Chevrolet brand, which is American, it's value, it's ingenuity."

Last month, we waved goodbye to the C7 Corvette. Chevrolet could have kept it on sale as an affordable model and positioned the mid-engine C8 Corvette as a more expensive premium offering to reduces the losses, but this option was never under consideration. "I think as we looked at it, we stepped back, and I think Tadge [Juechter, Corvette chief engineer] probably said it best when he said we had really taken the C7, that architecture style, as far as we could go without going to mid-engine," Barra explained.

"So it was time, and it was a huge investment, but it was something we really believed in. We believed it was important for the Chevrolet brand, for the Corvette franchise itself." With the launch of the new Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Mustang has turned into a sub-brand. Will Chevrolet do the same with the Corvette?

Analysts believe a Corvette sub-brand could be worth billions, but Barra fears this could change people's perception of the brand. "I think you have to be really careful because you have to understand what makes the brand the brand," Barra said. "So I'm not going to say never, but I think if General Motors were to ever do anything, we would assess it very, very carefully. Corvette means something so special to so many people. It must be managed carefully because it is so important to its long-term success that it lives up to the name."