Jake Groves is CAR’s News Editor, and has been part of the CAR team since April 2017.
Mid-engined. Flat-plane. And now electrified?! Is there ANYTHING about the C8-generation Corvette – in all its variants – that is traditionally Corvette-like? Turns out… no.What’s new? The C8-generation Corvette has been out for a few years already, having very quickly become the least Corvette-like generation since the car’s inception – if we’re judging the previous seven iterations.
It’s mid-engined now and even has a version in the ZO6 that uses a McLaren/Ferrari-like flat-plane crank V8. With this E-Ray, it’s the first time that electrical assistance has been thrown into the mix. Corvette engineers could see the writing on the wall regarding electrification when developing this generation, knowing it would become part of the powertrain mix. ‘Looking back almost 10 years ago, we knew electrification would become a bigger thing, as has become for other cars around us in the Supercar Paddock,’ Tony Roma, the Corvette’s chief engineer, tells me at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed. ‘When we started C8, we architected the car for the electric elements of the powertrain to be in the central tunnel, which is part of the reason this car feels incredibly solid.’ You can get Corvettes in right-hand drive, too, with select dealers around the UK acting as dealer centres. At the time of writing, there’s one in Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and Shrewsbury. All UK Corvettes come with a three-year/100,000-mile warranty.Interestingly, Chevrolet has decided not to shout too loudly about the E-Ray variant. Unlike other electrified cars, there aren’t any overly aerodynamic wheel designs, blanked-off vents or coloured trimmings designed to show off its electrical assistance, for example – just a small ‘E-Ray’ badge on the side sills and precious little else. Even the combustion engine remains unchanged from the ‘basic’ Corvette Stingray: GM’s LT2 ‘small block’ 6.2-litre V8, meaning 475bhp and 452lb ft is sent to the rear wheels. But it’s then supplemented by a 1.9kWh battery pack and 160bhp electric motor driving the fronts. Corvette claims a combined system output of 632bhp, good for a 2.9sec 0-62mph sprint and a 180mph top speed. Base E-Ray models start from £153,400 with a range of options available to them, even if they come fresh out of the box remarkably well equipped anyway with performance car engineering like carbon ceramic brakes thrown in at the cost of entry. The most noticeable of the options are the optional carbon wheels at £9460 a set – but they specifically enable that lofty top speed.Roma bills the E-Ray as a much more usable version of the Corvette. Nothing encapsulates that more than the addition of a new Stealth mode – effectively a much cooler name for what is actually just an engine-off start procedure. It’s flawed, though; we tried to use it for the first time on a very hot day, not realising that when you turn the air con on, Stealth Mode disengages and that burly V8 barks to life. There is also Shuttle mode that allows engine off movement, but Chevy weirdly limits it to 15mph and claims it’s not for public roads. What I can say is that the E-Ray certainly has plenty of grip and stance. One of the car’s best qualities is how it holds the road, with impressive body control and a suppleness to the ride that some European rivals can barely dream of – even on the UK’s tremendously scarred tarmac. Even in sport mode, the MagneRide adaptive damper set-up is pliant and forgiving over our coarse roads and yet can control the E-Ray impressively well when you want to get aggressive. Which is when you’ll be opening the taps. You can’t deny the E-Ray’s power benefits; having 632bhp available is pretty exciting, cleverly modulated by the E-Ray’s long-travel accelerator pedal. Out on a good road and in Sport mode, I had initially wondered where a lot of the available oomph was. But that was before I realised just how long the throttle travel was. The E-Ray wants you to commit when engaging all its available power, meaning you really do have to put your whole foot down if you really do want all of it. When you do, an explosive surge that never really lets up is the result; the V8 snarling in a chorus with a whining electric motor. It’s quite a lot to take in. But… something’s missing. Despite being hurled into the sunset at quite a pace, I’m not really getting a lot of visceral thrill out of the experience. The issue is that the powertrain feels a little disjointed. The numb steering makes you feel one step removed from everything going on and that impressively tuned suspension smothers the road a little too well. Gearshifts are impeccably smooth, with the e-motor filling in torque gaps, but that means there’s less feeling of progression as the speed builds. It doesn’t help that the paddles are plasticky, too. It means that, while you’d expect your 600-plus horsepower supercar to translate sensations by the seat of your pants or fingertip tingles, the E-Ray seems to tell you what’s going on via telegram.Inside, the ‘Vette’s rather wacky vertical column of buttons remains for this 2025 model year. The general court of public opinion disagrees with me – so much so that Chevrolet is removing them in a 2026 update. The infotainment screen is a bit 2010s – to the point I think I’ve used it on an old Vauxhall Insignia – but it’s almost like the Corvette’s design team have spent much longer developing and designing the very intricate and detailed instrument cluster. Visibility is also rather sports car-like, particularly looking out of the rear window – to the point GM has included a digital rear view mirror. You’ll be using the side mirrors a lot, too; E-Rays use the ‘widebody’ specification for a better stance and grip and it really is wide with a capital W – particularly on cosy UK country village streets. Frankly, I’ve never used the side mirrors in a car more than in the E-Ray, nervous not to kerb the optional £9,460 carbon wheels fitted to our test car that enable that 180mph top speed. We’d also avoid the optional ‘Competition’ seats if you can – the seat base’s side bolsters are so punishingly firm and tight that they’re clearly only designed for slim-hipped racing drivers and literally no one else besides. What was that about the E-Ray being more usable?The E-Ray arguably sits side by side with the ZO6 in terms of what Corvettes you can buy in right-hand drive. The ZO6 is a much more raw, borderline track-focused beast by comparison but offers scintillating thrills. The Stingray is about £40k cheaper than the E-Ray, but it feels like the better value car. Looking outward, the E-Ray is flanked by a range of European competition in many price categories. Up in the clouds are ones like the. It’s now gone hybrid, too, with a similar non-plug-in setup to the Chevrolet. At around £136k basic – or around similar money as the Corvette E-Ray if you so much as breathe on the options list – it’ll be tough to win folks over.It seems, then, that chasing usability and making the Corvette a more rounded vehicle actually makes it a lesser one. I was fortunate enough to try both a ZO6 and a regular Stingray back-to-back with the E-Ray and I came away thinking the electrified ‘Vette was the weakest of the three. By comparison, the ZO6 is raw, unforgiving and fierce. But, more importantly, the Stingray felt much more engaging, lighter on its toes and much more relaxed. Don’t get me wrong: the E-Ray is bombastically quick, rides like a dream and gives you the confidence to exploit all that power. But it feels disjointed. If it were my money, I’d still choose the Stingray.Chevrolet Corvette C7 ZR1 review: the ultimate swansong Jake has been an automotive journalist since 2015, joining CAR as Staff Writer in 2017. With a decade of car news and reviews writing under his belt, he became CAR's Deputy News Editor in 2020 and then News Editor in 2025. Jake's day-to-day role includes co-ordinating CAR's news content across its print, digital and social media channels. When he's not out interviewing an executive, driving a new car for review or on a photoshoot for a CAR feature, he's usually found geeking out on the latest video game, buying yet another pair of wildly-coloured trainers or figuring out where he can put another car-shaped Lego set in his already-full house.
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