Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray review: 4WD hybrid Corvette meets UK roads

A Corvette what-now?

Yep, imagine proposing this one just ten years ago: an electrified, four-wheel-drive Corvette with its engine in the middle. And its steering wheel on the right…

This is Corvette, just not as we’ve ever known it. UK sales are now channelled through five official dealers and you’ve six models to choose from, all RHD. There’s the stock Corvette Stingray, the track-ready Z06 and this new, hybridised E-Ray – each of them available with either coupe and convertible bodies.

Photography: Jonny Fleetwood

What lies beneath?

All deploy a V8 engine, of course, and all have two seats and a fairly lavish equipment list. Good job, when prices drop the C8-gen ‘Vette right in the heart of Porsche 911 territory. The base 475bhp Stingray aims directly at a Carrera from £98k and while it offers much more power for a mite less money, the hurdle of its smaller dealer network and some folks’ desire to not currently buy American might shrink its advantage.

The 637bhp, 8,600rpm Z06 has the attitude of a 911 GT3 RS and a £183k kick-off point to match, meanwhile. But it’s the piggy in the middle we have here, the £153,440 E-Ray. That places it around nine grand pricier than a similarly 4WD, hybrid-powered 911 Carrera 4 GTS. But the ‘Vette offers a huge dollop of intrigue alongside its notably higher outputs, its 635bhp peak sat right between the GTS and Porsche’s other T-Hybrid 911, the freshly invigorated Turbo S.

How’s it all generated?

The same 6.2-litre nat-asp V8 as the base Stingray sits in the middle of the E-Ray, pumping out an identical 475bhp at 6,450rpm and 452lb ft @ 4,500rpm. Plenty to get the rear axle excited, then, and with its peaks delivered at high enough revs to keep you working the eight-speed DCT ‘box hard. But unlike the Stingray, there’s a supplementary e-motor with 160bhp and 122lb ft.

It’s perched neatly over the front axle and is fed by a titchy 1.9kWh battery to ensure a) its e-range is quite small but b) you still get some useful frunk storage. The efficiency claims are 289g/km of CO2 and 22.4mpg, which are only very marginally cleaner than the Stingray.

Is there even an e-mode?

There is. Learn the correct cheat code and you’ll start the E-Ray up in Stealth mode each morning, creeping away from your house in – gasp! – a front-wheel-drive Corvette with the brake horsepower of a mid-range Golf. It’ll allow whisper-quiet running on a timid throttle up to 44mph, but breaking either of those parameters will loudly spur the big ol’ vee-eight into life. The ‘LT2’ comes with cylinder deactivation, but it’s broadly the thunderous monster you’d hope it to be. Even if it won’t rev past 7,000 in this application.

You can’t plug the battery into the mains, its power instead replenished through increasing levels via the various drive modes. This is electricity being used to boost an already quick car, not clean up its act – the parallels to Porsche’s T-Hybrid system, in both that Carrera 4 GTS and the new Turbo S, are hard to ignore.

So is power quite rear-biased?

The e-motor and engine operate exclusively upon their neighbouring axles, effectively splitting power 75:25 in favour of the rear when the powetrain is at full pelt. This may be a Corvette that favours a quiet skulk out of cars ‘n’ coffee parking lots rather than projecting sideways out of them, but it’s not suddenly become studious and sensible. It outperforms the latest Z06 in a straight line, in fact, hitting 62mph in 2.9 seconds on its way to a 180mph top speed.

There’s a trick to hooking everything together, though. With a mighty V8 still at its core, it feels churlish not to engage manual mode and flick its paddleshifters as much as possible, but when second gear hits the buffers around 50mph – and the rev limit is rather severe – you’re best sticking it in third and riding its fairly immense torque curve, the e-motor filling any gaps in the nat-asp engine’s delivery. On the road, you could use only third gear and still decree this performance comparable to a million-quid hypercar. It’s almighty.

Though most power is flung at the rear wheels (they’re 21in compared to 20s at the front), you’ll enjoy near 911 Turbo levels of traction. This is a surprisingly easy car in which to leap and start going quickly; yeah, it’s wide, but its visibility is good and your faith in the grip below never falters. It doesn’t fizz with sensation quite like a Porsche, but it still thrills and undoubtedly has many more layers that our brief drive didn’t allow the time to peel back. Not least with six different drive modes to fully explore. Thankfully, one of those is a ‘My Mode’ where you can tally all of your favourite facets together.

I see carbon, but I’m guessing it’s no lightweight.

Should we praise a supercar for weighing under two tonnes? Probably not, and yet the 1,907kg claim for an E-Ray coupe (1,944 for a cabrio) feels like it could be worse given the tech squeezed inside and the broader shoulders of the E-Ray’s wider body versus a Stingray. Though it's worth noting a 911 Carrera 4 GTS is 250kg niftier and boasts a pair of back seats…

The E-Ray never feels light, but nor does it feel quite as burly as it claims, and standard carbon-ceramic brakes – a seven grand option on the racier Z06 – help nip further away at any sensation of heft. Whether you dare spec these £9,460 carbon wheels as pothole season approaches is another matter entirely. But all told, this is a much easier car to thread down a fiddly little B-road than its width or weight might first have you fear – just beware the camber and ruts its wide front tyres love to sniff out. There’s an effortless balance beneath this mid-engined, 4WD ‘Vette, but it can take a bit of hanging onto as your pace increases.

What’s it like inside?

The fit and finish helps the C8 (largely) live up to its mighty price tag on UK shores. Useful when it’s basically half price in the States, starting at around £80k (and the entry-level Stingray from just £52k). Much of its impression of luxury comes from its screen pixels, mind, whether that’s the bright digital instrumentation, the animation-laden central touchscreen or the vibrant head-up display that comes standard on the E-Ray. While the exterior design of the car carries surprising subtlety (at least in Sea Wolf Grey), the gamified interior loudly tells a different tale. The wide-angled rear-view camera (in place of a regular mirror) helps sap most of the fear from reversing a mighty mid-engined supercar, though.

And there are lots of buttons, even if your initial impression of its packed, narrow strip of climate controls will be one of utter bewilderment. I didn’t quite fathom it in a brief spell in the car, but I’m sure you’d get the hang of it during proper ownership. Its segregation of driver and passenger is perhaps a little odd and definitely contributes to a driver-focused feeling if you’re ensconced in the car alone.

Does an e-Vette really work?

Its electrification does border on feeling like a novelty – there’s not enough e-range or flexibility to offer any green credentials (nor tax breaks) and its Stealth mode is too fiddly to activate. I doubt you’ll use that much. But this E-Ray feels more than the sum of its parts; if Corvette is to properly make it in the UK this time around, a car with this breadth might just be the way to do it.

It’s placid and polite to punt around at low speeds, and there’s tangible extra security and tenacity – with no great loss of character – when you charge harder on a damp, autumnal road. There’s more muscle than a Stingray and significantly more chance of utilising it – even if the high peak of its resulting performance limits how much you can truly exploit on road.

Still think a 4WD hybrid ‘Vette is sacrilege? Then you’d better check out what the new, 1,250bhp Corvette ZR1X can do around the Nordschleife…