If a sports car wants a career that’s measured in decades, not years, it needs to constantly learn new tricks and up its technical game.
For the Corvette and its famously restless owners, a movie montage of the past 72 years—cue the heavy-metal soundtrack—includes fuel injection, “Tri-Power” carbs, big-blocks, bigger-blocks, superchargers, turbochargers, magnetic dampers, mid-mounted engines, and flat-plane crankshafts. If that doesn’t work, there’s always a flashy Indy paint job.
But from Maranello to Motown, Stuttgart to Sant’Agata, a new power play is sweeping the sports-car globe: electrification. Not battery-stuffed EV behemoths, but hybrids like the Corvette E-Ray. Performers that still lean on tightly squeezed gasoline for reliable driving range and a (mostly) natural exhaust sound, with smallish lithium-ion batteries and electric motors for a tag team of power that doesn’t overload the scales.
As retiring Corvette chief engineer Tadge Juechter acknowledged in an interview, some Corvette loyalists remain ambivalent about electrification, or outright opposed to it. The E-Ray, Juechter says, is designed to meet fans halfway. It’s high-speed proof that electrification isn’t the death of the Corvette, but part of that ongoing evolution to ensure a long, competitive life.
Get used to it: Hybrids’ power-and-handling gains are fast becoming critical to that competitiveness. In short order, we’ve seen the gas-electric Ferrari 296 GTB, McLaren Artura, Porsche 911 Hybrid, and Lamborghini Revuelto and Temerario shake up the ranks. Juechter and his team are aiming the E-Ray at the Corvette’s trusty grand-touring crowd, the yin to the Z06’s yang.
“It’s a Swiss Army Knife, rather than a scalpel for the racetrack,” Juechter says.
But don’t think for a minute that the E-Ray is some softie. With 655 horses surging through four staggered Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, the car becomes history’s quickest Corvette (for now). The electron-enhanced version scorches 60 mph in 2.5 seconds with digital launch control, and a quarter-mile in about 10.5 seconds at 130 mph. The electrified front axle and AWD bring a palpable edge in traction, including what the development team discovered during a Michigan winter: the ability to keep cranking through rain, slush, or even snow, with no big changes to driving style. It’s the definition of an unfair fight against comparable, strictly gasoline-powered sports cars.
I took that revolutionary battle to New England and the rollicking roads of the Berkshires, where the E-Ray convertible—at a cool $129,525 in 3LZ guise—pulled another neat trick. Between the C8’s mid-engine proportions and the Z06’s wide-body design, this Corvette drew nonstop admirers in a way that a C6 or C7 rarely managed. Quibble with some of the C8’s design choices, but when this E-Ray pulls into your town, it elicits oohs and ahhs typically reserved for a European supercar. A great paint job helped, with an on-trend off-white called Ceramic Matrix Gray and a blue center racing stripe (though the Twilight Blue interior didn’t match the stripe, oddly).
The coolest part? Those admirers, including onlookers in the Capraesque hamlet of Shelburne Falls, often asked what model of sports car this was. Next came overwhelmingly positive reactions when folks learned it was America’s own Corvette.
The LT2 V-8’s barrel-chested startup was one giveaway, ready for its 6.2-liter, 495-horsepower contribution. A single electric motor sends up to 160 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque exclusively to front wheels. That’s supplied by a tiny 1.1 kilowatt-hour battery that stuffs the center tunnel between the passengers. A combined torque peak of 592 pound-feet easily tops the Z06’s 460. Top speed is 183 mph.
Despite lusty numbers, the E-Ray doesn’t initially feel appreciably stronger than a civilian-issue Stingray. During an opening spin, a driver may wonder what they’re getting for the extra money: $108,595 for the coupe, $115,595 for a convertible, both up $2,000 for 2025. Extra weight doesn’t help. At a Chevrolet-cited 4,056 pounds for the convertible, 3,890 for the coupe, the E-Ray weighs about 260 more pounds than a comparable Z06. The Corvette team tried their damnedest to trim weight. A lithium-ion 12-volt accessory battery saves 18 pounds. Optional carbon-fiber wheels cut 41 more. Encased in magnesium, the front-drive unit adds just 80 pounds.
Dial the onboard driving modes and Performance Traction Management (PTM) to racier settings, and everything changes. Suddenly, the E-Ray feels supercar-fast, including explosive passes. Think of that driven front axle as the E-Ray’s discreet butler: polite and efficient on the surface, yet willing to abet far more rambunctious behavior when called upon. The electric motor seamlessly fills power gaps both at low rpm and during gear changes for the dual-clutch, eight-speed automatic transmission. It’s obvious this Corvette is cranking on more than just premium gasoline, but not so obvious that anyone will bother asking nosy questions about the source.
Unlike an EV or iPad, there’s no need to be judicious with electricity. The petite battery is designed for ultra-rapid charging and discharging, despite never being filled directly by the gas engine. Even ripping on public roads, I couldn’t make the battery meter fall below roughly 70 percent, and two to four miles of normal driving fully recharged it. Mash the standard Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes, and the Bosch brake booster, powered by electricity versus engine vacuum, segues naturally between electric regeneration and friction braking along the pedal’s travel.
Some fans of the Vette’s internal-combustion classic rock—and they are legion—may object to the piped-in electronica soundtrack that rises and falls with the engine. The faux sound is one part digital glockenspiel, one part bone saw. Unlike many EVs, it can’t be shut off.
The other bummer is the Corvette’s “buried treasure” approach to tech that should be freely at hand. PTM settings have become easier for every C8. But the E-Ray’s launch control and associated rpm settings are so fussy and impenetrable that many drivers may not bother to use them.
The E-Ray can also run on electricity alone at speeds up to 45 mph, with Chevy claiming a range up to four miles. That near-silent Stealth mode might be useful for early a.m. driveway getaways or late-night returns, to avoid annoying neighbors with rude V-8 rumble. But the whole setup feels a bit gimmicky in operation.
First, I managed just two miles, max, on battery power alone. Another drawback is that Stealth mode won’t engage in ambient temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit—there goes half the U.S. after football season begins—or if you switch on the climate control or defroster. And you can only switch on Stealth before you start the car, via a clumsily placed console switch near the driver’s thigh. Drivers should be able to use those electric miles whenever and wherever they choose, without the need to restart.
There was nothing stealthy about the E-Ray’s howling path through the Berkshires, on some of the sweetest driving roads east of the Mississippi. It’s hard to overstate this car’s accommodating charms, melding the comfort of a stock Stingray with enough pace and roadholding to hang with a Z06 in any street situation. In these challenging mountain turns, a C8’s familiar physical cues of approaching limits became an invitation to push harder. The E-Ray seemed to whisper, “Is that all you’ve got?” as it catapulted through rocky ridges and old-growth hardwood forests.
Occasionally, those powered front wheels subtly resist steering input as they drive through corners, fighting to maintain their current path. But it’s a small price to pay for this all-wheel talent for digging out of turns or tightening a line with laughable ease. Dial up the Race 2 setting, and the E-Ray will kick out its back end under power, but always in predictable fashion. Put it this way: On the 63-mile Mohawk Trail, New England’s oldest scenic road, the E-Ray and its driver were having too much fun to enjoy the scenery. (I may remember a waterfall.)
In most ways, the E-Ray backs up its tech promise. This is surely Corvette’s best all-weather performer yet, and among the fastest in any conditions. Honestly, for all the E-Ray’s generous ways, my own heart still beats time with the Z06, all the way to 8,500 rpm. From a pure driving standpoint, that track-ready model still strikes me as the most soulful, engaging version. But as Juechter reminds us, the Corvette team is determined to keep growing the lineup—without going crazy on variants like a certain Porsche—to grow sales, lure new generations of fans, and widen the Corvette’s tent around the world. The trick, as always, is to deliver models with distinctive characters and attributes that make them deserving as standalone models.
“People are so passionate about their sports cars, and they anguish over a decision,” Juechter says. “They want to feel they’re getting a car that fits them personally.”
Is the E-Ray your perfect fit, or is a Stingray dreamy enough, and far more affordable? Perhaps you’re waiting patiently for the 233-mph ZR1, whatever its ultimate price. But I’d urge anyone considering a six-figure Corvette to give this E-Ray a brisk workout.
