Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray (2025) | Reviews

Published on October 1, 2025

Introduction to the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

If you still think of the Corvette as a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports car powered by a big V8 engine, as it was for seven generations stretching back to 1953, then you could be in for a bit of a surprise. Not only is the ‘C8’ iteration – launched in 2020 – the brand’s first mid-engined supercar, but now there’s an ‘E-Ray’ model, combining all-wheel drive and hybrid power for the first time in a Corvette.

And because of the traction advantages of four-wheel drive, the E-Ray even outperforms the mighty 646hp Corvette Z06 in the 0-100km/h stakes, with the potential to record a 2.9-second benchmark sprint. That makes this the fastest-accelerating road-going factory ‘Vette in history. With all these pioneering claims-to-fame under its belt, we headed to the English midlands to try the C8 Corvette E-Ray for ourselves. Is it an electrifying hit or the experiential equivalent of an untimely power cut?

Pros & cons of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

Pros: Astounding speed, wonderful noise, adept chassis, refinement

Cons: Not coming here officially, cabin will annoy some

Exterior & design of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

• Dramatic styling reflects mid-engined layout
• E-Ray marked out by subtle exterior badging
• Uses widebody shell like Z06

Few cars make as much visual impact as the C8 Corvette. Its format, which sees the 6.2-litre V8 sitting in the middle of the car instead of the front of it as in previous Corvettes, means that the passenger compartment is shoved forward and the tail of the vehicle is elongated. In that sense, the Chevy is now more like an old Honda NSX or Pagani Zonda than it is any of its more traditional rivals, and the dramatic change to this angular, fighter-jet-like styling is perhaps a step too far for some – ‘Vette traditionalists, most likely.

But once you get used to it, the Corvette is a remarkably handsome thing. That it even excels in the specification of this E-Ray – finished in demure ‘Sea Wolf’ grey and wearing a smaller rear spoiler than two of its stablemates sitting alongside, demanding your attention in either bright blue or searing yellow and equipped with towering spoilers on their rear decks – is testament to the brilliant penmanship of the design team.

By the way, the only significant exterior giveaway to this car’s part-electric nature are discreet ‘E-Ray’ badges down near the sills, just in front of the rear wheels.

The E-Ray has a ‘widebody’ frame like the Corvette Z06, which makes it 90mm broader across the beam than the Stingray. This is to accommodate the E-Ray’s goliath 345-section rear tyres and the widebody is most easily identified by the larger air intakes sitting behind the doors of the Corvette.

The Corvette E-Ray’s dimensions are:

Length: 4,734mm
Width: 2,024mm (including mirrors)
Height: 1,237mm
Wheelbase: 2,722mm

The example in the pictures also had lots of expensive carbon-fibre addenda bolted to it, principally for the ground effect kit, the door mirrors’ caps and the removable roof panel.

But the most obvious lightweight items are the carbon wheels, which reduce unsprung mass to the tune of about 12kg, yet they’re essential if you want the 2.9-seconds-to-100km/h sprint time from the E-Ray. Otherwise, you’ll be looking at something tardy, like three seconds on the button. Tsk.

Interior, practicality, tech & comfort of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

• Striking layout with bespoke switchgear
• Runway strip of buttons requires familiarisation
• Spacious for two people, but seats too high

As you step into the Corvette’s bespoke cabin, you’re greeted with a great sense of theatre thanks to the wrapround central console. It won’t be to all tastes, because the strange strip of buttons running up the passenger-side edge of it isn’t the most sensible of layouts, while certain items – like the hazard-warning switch and the control for disabling the lane-keeping assistance system – are mounted up on the header rail.

However, material quality is generally excellent, as indeed is the digital instrument cluster and the various mode-related graphical displays it summons up as you switch the car through its settings.

That readout means the steering wheel is squared off, so that you can read all parts of the cluster easily, yet we’re not too fussed by that because the Corvette’s wheel feels good to hold – especially if it has themicrofibre grips on the wheel and carbon trimmings, as seen here (and shared with the Z06).

Our main complaint is that the seats are too high-mounted in relation to the car, so you feel slightly perched on the Corvette instead of hunkered down in it. This is exacerbated with the roof in place, as headroom is limited, but otherwise the fit, finish and ergonomics of the Chevy are all superb.

Boot space, meanwhile, is rated at 355 litres by adding together the small storage area under the ‘Vette’s bonnet and the larger cargo area that’s aft of the engine, but don’t think this is a particularly practical vehicle, even going by the standards of the inherently compromised supercar class.

Performance of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

• Massive speed by hybrid-assisted V8
• Glorious noise – yet could be louder
• Chassis is a proper jewel

It might be a cliché to say “one thing the Corvette didn’t need was more power”, but it really didn’t. Drive the Stingray, capable of 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds and able to knock on the door of 300km/h flat out, and the last thing you’ll accuse it of being is slow. Yet the E-Ray really does enhance the experience with its electric amplification of the V8.

As it has four-wheel drive, you can access the monumental power of the E-Ray with effortless ease, even on bumpy tarmac, and the drivetrain’s responses are immediate. There are no turbos to work around here, the Corvette instead building power and speed in a linear, intensifying fashion as it rises to a crescendo at 6,450rpm.

That latter figure shows this is not a V8 that zings out to high revs, but it sounds tremendous and totally befitting for a Corvette; a clever added touch is that, there’s a high-pitched note overlaying the E-Ray’s voice that is redolent of a supercharger, rather than hybrid gear.

If there was any criticism of the noise of this hybrid Corvette, it’s only that we reckon it could even be a bit louder to listen to for the lucky so-and-sos sitting in the C8’s cabin.

What’s most amazing about the E-Ray, and indeed all C8s, is that the switch to the mid-engined layout has worked wonders for the dynamics. This is no rough-and-ready American car that’s comprehensively outmanoeuvred by its supposedly more sophisticated European rivals. No; instead, what it feels like is a more dramatic Transatlantic take on the departed and much-missed Audi R8.

The Corvette is supple and comfortable and quiet at low revs and part-throttle openings, so it works for the boring day-to-day duties like getting around town or cruising along a motorway, but when you want to take it by the scruff of the neck then it’s surprisingly approachable and phenomenally talented.

Aided by well-weighted steering with a good degree of feel, mega carbon-fibre brakes, a quick-shifting eight-speed, dual-clutch gearbox by Tremec, and a prevailing impression of balance and grip at odds with the front-engined Corvettes of yore, the E-Ray is blessed with a super-eager front end that’s a joy to get turned into the apex of a corner, while the sense of some well-judged throttle adjustability is never too far away from the driver.

It’s not an oversteer hero or something that feels like it will snap easily, but by the same token it’s not boringly foursquare and simple-to-drive either. It’s just a delight – and the E-Ray doesn’t really suffer dynamically, compared to the lighter, rear-driven Stingray, in terms of its front wheels being driven by the electric motor alongside the back tyres powered by the V8. Quite stunning stuff from the chassis gurus behind this hybrid Corvette.

Running costs of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

• Hybrid isn’t going to make this affordable to run
• Only runs on electric power for short bursts
• Stealth Mode helps with quiet getaways

If you’ve seen the word ‘hybrid’ and suddenly thought this will make a remarkably cheap-to-run vehicle here in Ireland, think again. In essence, the E-Ray gear is there to boost the V8’s potency. The CO2 emissions rating of this car still places it in the highest tax bracket going in Ireland, and while Chevrolet claims the E-Ray can run on electric power alone for up to 8km, we didn’t experience it switching the V8 engine off that much at all.

Which we liked, from the aspect of the noise the car made, but which won’t make the Corvette particularly easy on your wallet.

There is, though, a feature called Stealth Mode, which allows you to set off under full electric power. To activate it, you need the doors of the car shut, your seatbelt on, and then to press the start button – but not with your foot on the brake, so that the engine remains dormant. Then you rotate the drive-mode collar to the left until the display on the instrument cluster shows up Stealth Mode.

With all that done, you can whirr off in near-complete silence, a truly odd sensation in a car called a Corvette. But as soon as the torque requirement (i.e., you put your foot down a bit too much or hit a certain road speed, supposedly as much as 70km/h) climbs, then the 6.2-litre V8 fires into life and Stealth Mode is once again only accessible by following the process above.

Irish pricing & rivals of the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

• Unlikely to come here officially
• Would be costly to import from the UK
• Rarity value will play in its favour

Due to restricted numbers and its highly specialised nature, there’s not much chance the C8 Corvette – E-Ray or otherwise – is going to come to Ireland through official channels. That will appeal to some deep-pocketed folks here, though, because you’re highly unlikely to see many ‘Vettes on the roads of Ireland as a result.

The Chevy is on sale in our next-nearest right-hand-drive market of the UK, where it’s pretty much a six-figure car in all specifications. It could end up being close to €400,000 here if imported from England, for example.

Verdict – should you buy the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray?

If you can get hold of one somehow, there’s absolutely no reason to avoid this Chevrolet halo model. The Corvette E-Ray is a quite brilliant high-end performance machine, with fabulous on-road manners, the sort of speed and soundtrack that buyers demand at this level of the market, and a novelty factor that something like a Porsche 911 can only dream about. There are only a few minor foibles with it, but otherwise there’s much to adore about this latest entrant into the Corvette’s long-running legend.

FAQs about the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray

Is the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray a plug-in hybrid?

No, it charges its battery up using the V8 petrol engine and energy recuperation from slowing down, with no capability for owners to plug it into the mains. Theoretically, Chevy says it can do up to 8km on electric power alone, but figure on less than that distance in reality.