Beware the Corvette E-Ray

Corvettes have always been about the democratization of exotic sports cars. Whatever the prestigious brands are doing over in Europe, the Corvette team figures out how to do nearly as well. Or, occasionally, better. For a lot less money. With the new 2024 E-Ray, Corvette takes inspiration from the Porsche 918 Spyder, the Acura NSX, the Ferrari 296, and the McLaren Artura, all of which use hybrid technology to improve performance. These hybrid supercars are complex machines, but, to some, not as complex as they could be.

This story originally appeared in Volume 20 of Road & Track.

“The convertible version of the E-Ray, with its retractable hard top, is the most complex consumer product on sale today,” says Tadge Juechter, executive chief engineer of the Corvette. It’s hard to argue with him, though a table full of journalists spends probably 20 minutes trying. “We are hearing arguments if you’ve got one,” Juechter says, “but we’ve tried ourselves and can’t think of anything on sale today with as much going on in one vehicle.”

With a gasoline engine mated to a dual-clutch gearbox, an additional electric powertrain with a high-voltage battery, all-wheel drive, a magnetically actuated adaptive suspension, and the synchronized dance of a power-folding hardtop, the E-Ray does have most every technology one could think of crammed into one car. And that’s not counting the dual LCD screens, the automatic climate control, the multistage traction-control system, and all the other goodies available on lesser Corvettes. All but the base trim also get onboard telemetry and a video recorder, as well as heated and cooled seats. Juechter just might be right.

Moreover, the E-Ray coupe starts at $106,595—only 62 percent of the list price of the 2022 NSX Type S, less than half the price of an Artura, almost a third the price of a Ferrari 296 GTB, and still just a small fraction of the way to a well-used 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder at auction. The E-Ray’s hybrid system provides 160 hp to the front wheels. It pairs with the regular Stingray’s gasoline-fueled engine to make this car the quickest-­accelerating production Corvette in history. It also has a usable, flexible all-wheel-drive system and is among the most fuel-­efficient Corvettes ever.

To hammer home the performance angle, the first thing I am told is that E-Ray has no charge port. It’s not a plug-in hybrid designed to cheat London’s congestion tax. It has, functionally, no “range” beyond leaving the length of your cul-de-sac silently in Stealth mode, so as not to activate the cold-start alarm clock. The E-Ray has a mere 1.9-kWh battery, the smallest of any hybrid sports car on the market now, wedged into the tunnel between the seats. GM says the E-Ray can drive up to 45 mph for up to five miles in Stealth mode, but I exhausted it in under two miles. Furthermore, this mode works only on start-up; you can’t go back to it once the engine fires up without parking and restarting the whole car.

The Stingray-based powertrain and the electric front drive are fully independent of each other, making the Corvette unique in this space. The Artura and the 296 have an electric motor sandwiched between engine and gearbox as a torque filler and generator, while the NSX uses two more motors to vector torque at the front. The E-Ray doesn’t indulge that sort of complication. ­Juechter’s team simplified the process by leaving the gas powertrain alone and using only a single motor with brake-based vectoring at the front, saving both money and frunk space.

The unique battery pack, relieved of “range duty,” is designed to charge and discharge as quickly as possible, rather than provide efficient propulsion. It will never go empty (under normal or even track-day operation), so there’s always all-wheel-drive functionality regardless of whether there seems to be any juice left.

Now the boilerplate stuff: 655 horsepower. About 3900 pounds. Most of the Z06’s widened bodywork, save for the rear fascia, which more closely resembles the regular Stingray’s with the “split” exhaust. Color-matched accent work, available on all Corvettes, is standard here. For grip on par with the power, the E-Ray uses the same-width tires as the Z06 but with Michelin (E-Ray spec) all-season rubber coming standard—at 345/25ZR-21, these are the widest all-season car tires ever made.

Because GM planned for the E-Ray all along, neither trunk nor passenger space is affected by the motor or the battery. That’s why even the Stingray has such a large center console compared with the more open-plan cockpits in the Ferrari and McLaren.