Review: Corvette E-Ray

A 1.9-kWh lithium-ion battery has been packaged within the car’s already beefy central tunnel, and additional cooling has been added to manage battery temperature. There’s also new software to harmonize all the components.

The hybrid adds 160 bhp for a total system power output of 645 bhp, which is almost identical to the amount produced by the thunderous ZO6. On top of that, the more overtly aero-oriented comp-inspired car also donates its wide-body look, the previously optional carbon-ceramic brakes are standard, and the tires epically chunky: 275/30ZR-20s at the front, 345/25ZR-21s at the rear. (Specially developed all-season Michelin Pilot Sports are available.)

Riotous Design

We’re not sure the car’s visuals are quite equal to the ambition being exercised elsewhere, though. The Corvette’s design trajectory since its 1953 launch is instructive of American automotive design overall, the ’60s C2 Sting Ray and ’80s C4 iterations culturally relative high-points. The latest car is an incoherent riot of competing angles and edges, undeniably dramatic and a crowd-pleaser to judge by the reaction it generates during WIRED’s drive. But still no oil painting.

Courtesy of Corvette

It’s unrepentantly expressive inside, too. It’s easy to get in and out of, the doors opening wide, the seats more luxurious in feel and amply cushioned compared to its more minimalist rivals. The steering wheel is one of those fashionably square items, its spars oddly downcast. But the driving position is good, the view ahead helped by fairly slender A pillars. A rear-view camera mirror helps ease reversing anxiety, usually a tricky thing in a mid-engined car.

Multi-configurable instrument dials lie straight ahead, there’s a crisp Head-Up Display, and an angled touchscreen handles the infotainment. Then there’s that swooping central tunnel, the leading edge of which houses the switchgear that operates the climate control and various other functions. Fearing total ergonomic catastrophe, it’s a surprise to discover that it all actually works well in practice.

Electric Stealth

Given that the Corvette’s V-8 is totemic, the E-Ray’s principal hybrid party trick is its “stealth” mode, which does what it says: enables the car to exit your street under near-silent electric-only propulsion. Its range in this mode is barely a few miles, but still, this is briefly an electric, front-drive Corvette. What a novelty.