Chevrolet has taken to describing the 2025 E-Ray as the “Swiss Army Knife of Corvettes,” which feels like a reasonably apposite moniker for a vehicle capable of tackling extended highway jaunts, weekend drag-strip exploits, and snowy-shunpike strafing runs with equal poise. When it comes to C8s, the E-Ray is the ultimate all-rounder.
But like most tools designed to acquit themselves competently in a variety of scenarios, the first electrified Vette is not a truly dominant performer in any one area. The base Stingray is lighter, more fuel efficient, and less expensive, while the Z06 has more power and pulls harder at higher speeds thanks to its superior power-to-weight ratio.
ProCharger’s new E-Ray supercharger system won’t make your car lighter or cheaper, but the bolt-on blower will definitely put it out in front of the current Corvette lineup in terms of 0-60 and quarter-mile times. Indeed, with nearly 900 horsepower flowing through all four wheels, a ProCharged E-Ray could potentially challenge the upcoming ZR1 for the title of fastest-accelerating C8.
We’ve covered the Lenexa, Kansas–firm’s performance wares in the past, most recently in the January, 2025 issue (“Under Pressure”). The car profiled in that article was a 2023 Stingray convertible, which used ProCharger’s recently released “Low Profile” system to inflate the output of its LT2 engine from 495 to more than 700 horses. Deeply impressive numbers, but not terribly surprising ones from a company that’s been tinkering with intercooled Corvette supercharging since the C4 era.
What makes the E-Ray system different, and potentially groundbreaking, is that it marries the extraordinary power-enhancing properties of forced induction with the traction-doubling effects of an electric front motor. And while you might expect the presence of that electric motor to make designing an E-Ray–specific supercharger something of a challenge, ProCharger Director of Communications and Calibrations Erik Radzins tells us that wasn’t the case. It all came down to a gimlet-eyed examination of the 2020 Stingray’s chassis layout several years back, which offered clues to the direction of future C8 models.
“When we first saw the Stingray all those years ago, it was pretty obvious it was going to get electrified down the road,” Radzins says. “The mounting-bolt locations in the tunnel, the provisions around the sides for extra coolers, and the subframe up front all gave clues of what was coming.”
Armed with that knowledge, the company took pains to design a system that could be installed on both the existing Stingray and the upcoming hybrid with only minor changes. In fact, Radzins says the only thing different about the E-Ray kit is its model-specific powertrain-control module (PCM) calibration.
As for that calibration, the ProCharger crew turned out to be pleasantly surprised by what could easily have turned out to be a daunting task. “Honestly, there was a worry at first that the front [electric motor] wouldn’t ‘play nice’ with the back [gas engine],” Radzins says. “However, those worries vanished as we started testing.”
He further notes that the programming ProCharger provides with the kit is sufficiently well sorted as to render a custom, dyno-based PCM unnecessary, something that can’t be said of many aftermarket modifications this significant in scope.
“I know the Internet always [says] there is more on the table,” Radzins says. “However, just like the OEMs aren’t leaving much ‘meat on the bone’ if you were trying to retune a stock C8, our engineers aren’t, either.
“We are already pushing the absolute limit of what the fuel system can handle, and we are tuning the cars for 91- or 93-octane fuel [depending on the kit]. Without getting into the engine, adding methanol, or race gas, there just isn’t much more to be done.”
Of course, for the truly horsepower-addled, ProCharger is happy to sell a customized “tuner” kit using whatever blower head unit and pulley is required to hit the desired dyno number. Just don’t expect to double your E-Ray’s 655-hp stock output without performing some heavy-duty upgrades to the LT2’s internal hardware.
For the rest of us, the 170- and 230-horse gains the company advertises for its HO and Stage II systems, respectively, should be more than enough to secure bragging rights anywhere short of a Top Fuel meet. Again, credit the E-Ray’s standard AWD, which reportedly facilitates post-install 0-60 times of 2.0 seconds on pump gas and the factory Michelins. That’s ZR1-level performance, from a car you can drive year-round, regardless of the weather.
Moreover, the instantly available torque provided by the car’s front electric motor should prove an excellent pairing with the ProCharger setup’s centrifugal head unit, which, unlike the Roots-type blowers used in the C7 Z06 and ZR1, builds power in concert with engine rpm. In other words, there’s no waiting around for the revs to climb or the tires to settle before things get seriously hasty.
We hope to drive a ProCharged E-Ray in the near future, which will make it possible to draw comparisons between it and the various factory and modified C8s we’ve sampled in the recent past. But given the dyno numbers involved, we have no reason to doubt Radzins’s assessment of how the car feels on the street.
“[T]he blend between the electric [motor] and the ProCharged LT2 is almost heaven,” he says. “The front tires grip and rip, while the back tires have about 10-15 percent controlled slip at launch, and then by 4,500 rpm everything is dead hooked, and heading right towards both peak torque and peak horsepower from the LT2.”
As for timed passes on a drag strip, the ProCharged E-Ray should prove similarly formidable. “Traction-limited on stock tires, a customer can expect to run bottom 10s on pump 93 from any gas station,” Radzins reports. “However, with a sticky tire like a drag radial, those numbers drop into the single digits. I think as more of these kits hit the market, and folks start playing with the cars—adding lighter exhaust systems, lighter wheels, etc.—you will see those numbers drop even further.”
Keeping Cool
One area in which the E-Ray system does diverge from ProCharger tradition is its intercooling setup, which like the ZR1, uses the air-to-water method rather than the air-to-air configuration typically employed by the company in the past. We asked Radzins about the switch.
“With the nose of the C8 having little to no area for a traditional air-to-air [cooler], and those massive side vents just begging for a heat exchanger, the decision [to use] air-to-water was pretty simple,” he says.
And while that decision did require the use of a new intake manifold with integral charge-air cooling capability, ProCharger already had one available from its existing Stingray kit. “Thankfully, we had two years of R&D with the C8 previous to the release of the E-Ray, and…the E-Ray shared the LT2 engine, so our intake and air-to-water system is a 100-percent carryover from the standard Stingray.”
If you’re considering adding a ProCharger to your own E-Ray, know that the job, while not necessarily beyond the reach of an experienced home mechanic with access to a two-port lift, is not what we would consider a “bolt-on” affair (see accompanying photos). That said, the system does meet the bolt-on criterion in the sense that it doesn’t require any permanent modifications to the car, meaning you can return the vehicle to stock at any time by simply reversing the installation process.
The blower, intake, and supporting hardware are available in a few different finishes, so you can tailor the under-hood presentation to suit your cosmetic sensibilities and usage plans. The system isn’t cheap, ranging from around $16,000-$21,000 plus installation (depending on options), but for the ultimate in all-around C8 performance and usability, the ProCharged E-Ray currently reigns supreme.
