It's lousy timing: You open a new design studio overseas to help expand into that market--just as a tariff war potentially kills access to that region. But that's the world we live in, and now GM, which has just opened its fifth design studio after what we assume were years of planning, must roll with the punches.

GM's new Advanced Design Studio outside of Birmingham, England brings their global studio tally to five. (The others are located in Detroit, Pasadena, Shanghai and Seoul.) The new 24,584-square-foot facility is staffed with over 30 designers and support staff, and they've been busy working on a project already, creating a Corvette-saluting concept whose unveiling was meant to coincide with the official studio opening.

"Our advanced design team's mandate extends well beyond creating production vehicles," said Michael Simcoe, senior VP of global design. "While they collaborate within our global design network on production and concept vehicle programs, these teams are primarily tasked with imagining what mobility could look like five, 10, and even 20 years into the future and driving innovation for GM."

The car greatly resembles the B2 stealth bomber from the front, borrowing a feature you've seen on the '63 Corvette's rear: A split window.

It might seem an odd choice, but intriguingly, it obviates the need for A-pillars (at least in renderings), providing a semi-panoramic windshield; the roof has a halo structure to compensate.

This central spine continues from front to back, splitting the car from left to right.

Interestingly, the designers also say the car is divided into two distinct halves from top to bottom:

The exterior design includes a distinctive division between the upper and lower halves of the vehicle. The upper half captures the Corvette's classic design elements, but in a futuristic manner. The lower half focuses on functional technical design, including EV battery technology embedded into the structure and aerodynamics elements designed to channel air efficiently without the need for wings or spoilers.

You might wonder why GM tasked the studio based in the UK, a land not exactly dripping with Corvette history, to pay homage to that model. As it turns out, they weren't the only ones given this homework assignment:

"As part of the Corvette creative study, we asked multiple studios to develop hypercar concepts, which we'll see more of later this year," says Simcoe. "It was important that they all pay homage to Corvette's historic DNA, but each studio brought their own unique creative interpretation to the project. That is exactly what our advanced design studio network is intended to do – push the envelope, challenge convention and imagine what could be."

There are no production plans; this is a styling exercise only. And perhaps an early test for this new studio's designers, to see how their concept work stacks up against the forthcoming deliverables from the other studios.

The UK studio is headed up by veteran designer Julian Thomson, Jaguar's former Design Director and the man who penned the Lotus Elise S1.