Overview

THE E-Ray is unlike any Corvette before it. The first hybrid Corvette, the first all-wheel-drive Corvette, and, in electric-only Stealth mode, the first front-wheel drive Corvette.

Chevrolet has taken the 6.2-litre LT2 V8, paired it with a front-mounted electric motor, and created a 488kW/806Nm performance machine that is claimed to launch from 0-100km/h in just 2.9 seconds – the quickest road-legal Corvette yet – a claim we found to be not only entirely believable but dispatched with the ruthless efficiency of an abattoir’s accountant.

The E-Ray is an intriguing mix of old-school V8 brute force and modern technology wrapped in a head-turning supercar shell – garnering way more attention during our time with it than a bright pink Porsche GT3 RS – but at half the price of cars with this wedge-like mid-engined form factor and stonking levels of performance.

It is like the Nissan GT-R all over again – and a spiritual price successor accounting for inflation at $275,000 before on-road costs including full-fruit 3LZ trim and ZER Performance Package as standard fit – similarly straddling the sportscar and supercar genres while offering a lot of car for around five grand less than Porsche’s least-expensive 911.

How does it feel on the road? It’s a blast. But the supercar-or-sportscar question is harder to answer.

Perhaps Chevrolet was right all along when describing the Corvette E-Ray as an “all-season grand touring vehicle”.

Driving Impressions

Visually, the E-Ray takes much of its design from the hardcore Corvette Z06, with flared bodywork, a wide stance and aggressive aero. Apart from subtle E-Ray badging, this is not a car that boasts about the presence of a hybrid system.

But on the road, electrically assisted all-wheel-drive tech makes it clear this is a very different beast.

Inside, the driver-focussed cabin is a mix of premium materials and some questionable switchgear choices, such as indicator stalks that feel flimsy yet require an awkward amount of force to operate, as though Chevrolet raided the GM parts bin and found something from a car destined for the airport rental fleet in developing country.

Aussie-delivered E-Rays get Nappa leather as standard, with lashings of hide, genuine carbon-fibre and Alcantara throughout the cockpit. It all looks and smells very premium but overall build quality and switchgear tactility let the side down, worst of all being the fact the light grey trim of our test vehicle was already showing signs of wear, particularly badly on the driver’s door. That’s a worry.

Given the hi-tech nature of the E-Ray’s drivetrain, the little in-dash touchscreen looks and feels pretty basic and dated, although it is packed with features once you dig into the menus – the track telemetry which can be overlaid with vision from the onboard cameras being a highlight.

However, passengers complained about the wall of climate control and other switchgear between them and the driver, which also obscured and obstructed the touchscreen when delegating navigation or playlist duties.

Interior storage is fairly minimal but far from the worst of the genre and thoughtful touches such as positioning the smartphone charging holster behind the driver is a surefire way to eliminate temptation and distraction. There is also no way your phone is escaping from there during spirited driving.

The front and rear luggage compartments are surprisingly capacious, well thought-out and of a shape that works well enough for luggage required during a two-up road trip or even the weekly grocery shop. The easily removable roof panel snicks perfectly into place behind the exposed V8 too.

Which brings us to the heart of the E-Ray, its hybrid powertrain. The 6.2-litre naturally aspirated LT2 V8 delivers 369kW and 637Nm to the rear wheels, while an electric motor on the front axle contributes another 119kW and 169Nm, fed by a 1.9kWh battery pack between the seats.

Electrification adds around 200kg over purely petrol Corvettes, the E-Ray weighing in at 1765kg.

In a straight line, the hybrid boost more than overcomes those extra kilos. Instant torque from the electric motor palpably eliminates any hesitation from the delightfully linear, naturally aspirated V8 behind the seats.

From a standstill, this combination delivers explosive acceleration. We were expecting some squirm under full power, Audi R8 V10 style, but it just hooks up and goes, putting torque to the tarmac with similar – perhaps even greater – authority as you get from a 911 Turbo.

But you never get to really enjoy the sound of that V8, which regardless of drive mode only really gets tuneful at high revs under heavy load, at which point you are soon changing gear and running out of speed limit (or road). The gearing, likely chosen to get that sub three-second benchmark dash, exacerbates this on the public road. Other than that, no criticism of the slick-and-quick eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.

On the subject of drive modes, all too often these settings can be disappointingly subtle in changing a car's feel or behaviour. But in the E-Ray the adjustment of steering and brake calibration can be quite literally heavy handed.

Track mode dials everything to the max and as such is not ideal for public roads, but I found it made the steering way too heavy and unnatural-feeling, giving the counterintuitive sensation of having to to turn more than expected for the same response as in other modes. It is a similar story with the brakes in Track mode, giving the pedal a wooden feel like that of early carbon-ceramic braking systems. It might make more sense with the kind of heat in the pads as can be achieved on a circuit.

Tour mode softens everything up, making the ride remarkably comfortable for a car of this calibre – better than many sports sedans even – and with tractable, tame power delivery. Weather mode uses many of the same settings but dials throttle and transmission back even further for negotiating slippery conditions.

Sport mode is a decent balance for well-maintained twisty roads, introducing more steering feel and a firmer suspension tune for better feedback from the road without the excessive artificial steering weight of Track mode but some of the unpleasant brake feel.

The good news is that you can dial up or down each parameter via the customisable My or Z modes, with four levels of throttle sensitivity, transmission aggression, exhaust note, suspension firmness, steering calibration and brake response. Z mode also enables tweaks to traction control. All modes also have their own instrument cluster design, which can also be selected in My or Z mode.

For getting the best out of the E-Ray on your favourite Australian country road, select Tour for suspension and brakes, Sport for throttle, transmission and steering, and Track for engine sound. Depending on the road, various combinations of Sport suspension and Tour steering seem to work better. Cluster design is more personal.

No matter the engine sound mode selected at the end of the last journey, E-Ray cold starts are loud with a light-flywheel rev flare to let bystanders know something special just fired up. Unique to the E-Ray is Stealth mode (confusingly the same name as the quietest engine setting) that requires a bit of a procedure to enable but provides neighbour-friendly silent starting and low-speed electric-only driving.

Once you’ve figured out how to enable it, Stealth mode is pretty limited, operating for up to six kilometres at speeds below 72km/h provided there is enough juice in the battery, which can be ensured using the also fiddly-to-engage Charge+ setting. It is also worth running the E-Ray in Charge+ before hitting your favourite road or during a cool-down lap at the track as it makes sure the driveline’s full performance potential is available.

But in electric-only Stealth Mode the Corvette’s air-conditioning is disabled because it is belt-driven by the engine rather than the electric direct drive type used in most hybrids. Not an issue in mild weather, but not ideal for hot climates like Australia.

Another quirk of the hybrid system is that it doesn’t disengage the petrol engine during coasting or deceleration, with little sense that any regenerative braking is in play. This comes as a surprise and might disappoint those expecting a more hybrid-like overall driving experience, but Corvette’s engineers likely arrived at this calibration with the goal of being unconfrontational to the nameplate’s rusted-on followers, instead showcasing the performance upside.

Ironically there is regular idle-stop, which in a car like this feels like stalling your engine at the traffic lights.

Fuel economy varies wildly based on driving style. Our 100km dynamic test route consumed 17.6 litres per 100km of fuel but over a longer stretch of mixed driving we averaged 13.4L/100km. Best-case scenario? We saw 8.1L/100km on the motorway in free-flowing traffic; half the V8’s cylinders will shut down under low load.

The official combined-cycle claim is 11.5L/100km, a 2.0L/100km advantage over non-hybrid variants.

Chevrolet has done an excellent job managing the added weight of the hybrid system. Despite carrying 200kg of batteries, motor and related electronics, the E-Ray still feels sharp and planted.

One surprising handling characteristic is that the E-Ray doesn’t tramline much on uneven roads, unlike many other high-performance cars with similarly wide and sticky tyres (Australian-delivered E-Ray wears Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber in 275/30/20 front and 345/25/21 rear sizes.

However, in Sport mode, I did notice a slight tendency to follow road imperfections, but nothing severe and easily addressed by tweaking suspension and steering settings.

But steering feel remains an issue. Never delivering a truly natural or connected experience, it deteriorates into increasingly goopy and unpredictable sensations the more aggressive the drive mode. At high speeds, the self-centring effect increases, making small corrections trickier.

In juxtaposition is how well the E-Ray hangs together on Australia’s degraded country roads, where for all its flaws the steering won’t tug, kick back or otherwise fight the driver and the suspension does an incredible job keeping the car composed.

McLaren has long been praised for supercars with great ride quality, and Chevrolet seems to have taken a page from the British brand’s book. For the facelift, they need to copy Lotus’ or Porsche’s homework on steering.

The braking system is another mixed bag. The carbon-ceramic brakes are immensely powerful and feel best in the prosaic Tour mode, which is a credit to Chevrolet’s default tuning but raises eyebrows over the dramatically worse experience in Sport and Track modes.

Still, for a blisteringly fast hybrid Corvette, the E-Ray remains remarkably comfortable and usable. Traction is unquestionable, grip is immense.

The E-Ray’s width is noticeable but despite restricted visibility making urban driving a bit intimidating, it’s easy to judge where the edges of the car are on fast roads, making it less confrontational than many supercars. Road noise is high on coarse-chip bitumen but that’s expected in a mid-engine performance car. It is surprisingly and pleasantly quiet on smoother roads though.

While it’s not perfect, the E-Ray is an incredibly capable performance machine. But is it a sportscar or a supercar?

Considering the potential for badge snobbery and delivering on its brief of bringing technology to the fore in the name of delivering on-paper performance and dynamic abilities to rival exotic marques at a more attainable price, the Corvette E-Ray could easily step into the garage space vacated by a Nissan GT-R – a car that fell similarly short in terms of its interior execution and purity of driving pleasure.

And most people would call the GT-R a supercar.