2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray Review: Absurd Value, Absurdly Cool

Before you even get on the road—hell, even before you get in it—it’s 2024 Chevrolet The Corvette E-Ray feels special. This generation of Corvette has garnered its fair share of aesthetic detractors, and especially in photos, some of the proportions really do look questionable. But you cannot deny it personally, it is a presence.

That decidedly exotic, near-European aura was already evident in the regular Stingray, but it’s even stronger with the E-Ray because there’s so much going on under the skin. The Stingray’s 6.2-liter V8 is mated to an electric front axle, resulting in not only the first hybrid Corvette, but also the first-ever all-wheel-drive Vette, and currently the fastest version of Chevy’s American sports car. built so far (GM isn’t currently disclosing those stats for the upcoming ZR1).

That’s right, folks: tech reserved for seven-figure, neo-obtanium hypercars just 10 years ago can now be had starting at $106,595. And it’s not a simple LT2-duct-to-aa-Volt-motor job either. There’s some proper engineering going on, and the Corvette team deserves their credit for packaging the E-Ray hybrid system in a way that doesn’t interfere with the passenger or cargo compartment.

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Dense packaging

Let’s talk style for a second. What is essentially a Z06 body has a more aggressive front lower fascia. The body-color finish, including the side wishbones, visually set it apart from other Corvette variants. The wide, but sculpted surfaces and proportions of the mid-engine cockpit make it truly exotic and truly supercar-like.

Reach for the door and you almost expect it to open upwards. But they don’t, but that’s okay because there’s a lot of exotica inside the Corvette. Potentially unpopular opinion: I like the square steering wheel. It looks and feels extremely cool, making the car feel like a LaFerrari or something, and for me it doesn’t detract from its functionality as a steering wheel at all. In addition, warmed up carbon fiber is and always will be a luxuriously neat automotive touchpoint, that’s just a fact.

The rest of the cabin also feels cool. Even compared to other cars of its ilk, the Corvette is cramped inside – that’s not the right word –fitted space. As a five-eighth Asian male with a slight BMI, the unstable slide and feeling like I’m wearing the car instead of sitting in it is a seriously cool feeling, but I can’t imagine the Big Corvette Boys would be very comfortable in there very a long time.

There’s a long list of performance car interiors that claim to draw inspiration from fighter jets, but the C8’s cabin is perhaps the most inclined to that motif. The dash wraps around you, and the screens—with Lockheed Martin-esque font—are angled so that they seem to serve only the driver. The shift paddles, heavy-duty drive mode selector, carbon shift paddles and concept car dashboard design are all designed to make you feel like you’re on an airplane that may or may not have weapons. The long row of physical climate buttons, meanwhile, is a comically minimalist but surprisingly functional solution that still beats bringing this stuff to a touchscreen.

However, since this is a supercar from GM, there are some quirks. The seat doesn’t go down far enough, surprisingly. Screen colors look noticeably washed out. Some of the interior details, like the little plastic tabs you use to adjust the air vents, feel like they could have been lifted off a Chevy Sonic. And even after living with the E-Ray for a weekend and flipping through the relevant sections in the owner’s manual, I still have no idea how to lock the doors from the outside without the key fob, adjust the brightness of the screens, or make sense of the seat memory buttons and settings.

Get this coupe, and the Targa’s hand-removable top is easy enough to remove and store in the rear trunk (there’s also a front trunk). But driving with an open top at speeds above 50 mph results in excessive impact, and I don’t recommend it.

Electrified exotica

All that’s forgiven, though, when you crank up the E-Ray party: V8 hybrid powertrain. By now, you probably already know all the specs and facts. But as a refresher, the mid-mounted 6.2-liter LT2 V8 shared with the base Stingray makes 495 horsepower on its own and drives the rear axle. The front axle, however, is powered by a 160 hp hybrid electric motor, connected to a 1.9 kWh lithium-ion battery hidden between the seats. The total power of the system is 655 hp. and 585 lb-ft of torque, propelling the E-Ray from zero to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 183 mph.

Still, the Corvette E-Ray feels exotic, even if it’s just pulling out of a parking lot. The light, stiff, direct steering and that round cockpit instantly make you feel like you’re driving a big go-kart and carrying the V8 like a backpack. Flip the huge knurled drive mode knob into sport mode, point the E-Ray at an empty ramp, give it a big kick and the car surges forward with monstrous but steady thrust. The steering still feels precise and pleasantly physical, with the E-Ray’s nose popping and the car going where you point it with a satisfying eagerness you’d think it wouldn’t have if it was front-engined.

There’s an electronic hum from the hybrid system if you listen to it, but where, say, McLaren Arturo wears his electrification on his sleeves, E-Ray’s is more subtle. The hybrid Corvette’s hybridity is just a supporting backdrop to the big V8, not the other way around. However, I do wish the V8 sounded softer more of the time – it’s lovely when your foot is on the floor and the tach needle is nearing red, but a bit unpleasant everywhere else.

Brakes—carbon ceramic with eBoost support and Brembo four-piston monobloc calipers—are strong, but a little sensitive. They’re used to smooth street use and don’t exhibit that satisfyingly short, firm feel you get from, say, Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing sedan stablemate. Likewise, the Tremec eight-speed dual-clutch transmission shifts gears fairly quickly, but lacks the malleable snappiness of, say, Porsche‘s PDK or even a better application of ZF’s eight-speed gearbox.

Looking at some of the features of the E-Ray on paper, you might think it’s quite livable, but that hasn’t been my experience. It may have Magnetic Selective Ride Control 4.0, but even in Tour mode, the ride isn’t smooth. It may have a silent, electric-only Stealth mode, but it only works for “three to four miles” at speeds up to 45 mph. And, yes, it can have an optional front lift system to help it negotiate steep driveways, but, uh, Chevy didn’t tick that option when it spec’d it. Make no mistake, this is a supercar with a capital S built to destroy racetracks and challenge stopwatches, not to navigate city centers or cross-country.

It’s a hybrid, so I guess we should discuss fuel economy

The E-Ray’s hybridity exists largely in the name of performance, and nowhere is this more apparent than when you realize that it’s actually slightly less efficient than the non-electrified Stingray that uses the same engine. According to the EPA, it’s rated at 16 mpg city, 24 highway and 19 combined—the base Stingray matches those city and combined figures, but gets 25 mpg highway. In about 270 miles of mixed driving, I got 17 mpg in the E-Ray. Here’s how its official numbers compare to other mid-engine hybrids of this style.

Sharpness and value

The 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray looks as special to drive as it does to the subject. Yes, there are a few elements of the GM parts bin that I wish were nicer. And maybe I’d be singing a different tune if I drove it around the track, but on the street at least it’s not the dynamically perfect, fire-your-nerves car I might have hoped it would be. The brake pedal could do with better feel, and its hybrid powertrain, powerful as it is, could be louder in sound and personality. But a huge amount of performance, technology, visual theater and just it’s cool you get absurd for your money here.

However, this has always been a Corvette feature. In the electrification of the American sports car, Chevy decided not to radically change the Corvette formula, but simply to improve it. And on paper, these improvements are significant.

The Corvette E-Ray is a very impressive technical achievement. Is there room for improvement here? Of course. But it revs like a real supercar, moves like a jet plane, and looks like it could cost a million dollars. (That was just a few years ago would is.) And for just over a hundred grand, I’m not sure it’s reasonable to ask him to do anything more.

Have a tip or question for a writer about the Corvette E-Ray? You can contact him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com