2026 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray | UK Review

The electrified C8 has been gently overhauled for 2026 - does that make it better, or worse?

By Nic Cackett / Saturday, 5 September 2026 / Loading comments

Full disclosure: I haven’t driven the 2025 Corvette. In the normal run of things, this would be a problem. Detailed updates to powertrain and chassis are hard to assess without a meaningful baseline - and my last go was in the old front-engined C7, which is about as relevant to the mid-engined C8 as Goose is to Top Gun 2. Happily, thanks to Chevrolet’s priorities this time around, which focus almost exclusively on the interior layout of the MY2026 Corvette, this proved less consequential than it otherwise might. So if you’re after a lively breakdown of the E-Ray’s handling and performance, you might want to return to Matt B’s review from last year. If you want to know about the reorganisation of the switchgear, read on.

Here at least, two things are certain. The 2026 version is better than the 2025 for reasons we’ll come onto (his nibbs helpfully confirmed these suspicions in person); and - in case you were left in any doubt whatsoever - the very latest C8 is dramatically better than the C7 that Chevrolet put to bed in 2019. Sure, that car was as analogue as a tyre swing and could still be specced with a seven-speed manual, but at the time the fit and finish trailed the European competition like Plymouth Argyle trails Real Madrid. It was loud and likeably brash; sophisticated it was not.

Of course, the previous C8 was also a step up from its aged predecessor - not least because it featured a steering wheel on the correct side for the first time - but you hardly had to be the Lieutenant Columbo of cars to notice that its interior originated from a time before 2020. PH is no great admirer of screens, though it is fair to assume that anyone forking out at least £158k for a hybrid V8 supercar is expecting a suitably modern degree of functionality. Hence Chevrolet’s decision to jettison two modestly sized displays and go 12.7 inches, 14 inches and 6.6 inches on new infotainment, instrument cluster and auxiliary touchscreens, respectively.

If that sounds headache-inducing, it isn’t. Or not compared with the pixel overload occurring elsewhere, at any rate. The infotainment display simply fills out much the same space it occupied previously, and looks better for it. This encompasses all the features you’d expect - not least new and improved Connected Services and the always welcome appearance of Google Maps (alongside Gemini, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay). There are car-specific elements, too, but you’re saved from endlessly negotiating submenus by the dinky auxiliary screen that now flanks the opposite side of the instrument binnacle.

At first sight, this appears to be one of those readouts you could do without, and certainly not everything contained within is going to set your world alight. But because a) it is within convenient reach, and b) is designed to be thumb-swipeable like a phone, you do find yourself playing with it. Which is handy because the lane assist shortcut is located here, as are the Performance Traction Management options - familiar from before but newly updated with a PTM Pro setting for 2026.

You activate the latter with a new button located below. This is another theme for 2026 that’s easy to appreciate: the improved positioning of physical controls. Previously, many of these were located in a single flowing spine on the centre console, which probably seemed like a great design coup on paper, but with fully 17 icons in a row, it must’ve been like trying to find the Red Dragon tile after someone kicked your Mahjong set down the stairs. Little wonder Chevrolet has given up on the wow-factor approach and migrated a condensed selection (basically the HVAC switchgear) to a horizontal strip below the infotainment - i.e. where you’d conventionally expect to find them.

The other upside to this decision is that it frees up the space for a proper grab handle, which your passenger might welcome. Or else you can grasp it yourself, should your left hand miss the reassuring presence of a gear lever. That’s when you’re not alternating between drive modes via a remodelled (and much easier-to-use, I’m told) toggle on the centre console, or sliding your phone onto a new wireless charging pad - one so convenient it even features a soft-lined housing to keep it from achieving flight like a laptop during turbulence.

This makes a lot of sense, as do the cup holders now liberated from a previously pointless cover. Flamboyance, admittedly, is still in short supply - there’s nothing really to marvel at here, and you might downright dislike the flat-top steering wheel and parts bin indicator stalks. Nevertheless, because the Corvette is now laid out in a thoughtful, ergonomically pleasing fashion, and is very comfortable to sit in and see out of anyway, you do start to gel with it. And gelling with a 644hp supercar to the point where you could imagine using it every day, even for monotonous tasks, is no given. Least of all is it a given in a Corvette, when your reference point is a left-hand-drive banana yellow C7 that seemed to be mostly bonnet and BDE.

Yes, it helps to find the steering wheel on the right - and the fact that the C8, now available in spectacular Roswell Green Metallic, conforms to European expectations of what a mid-engined supercar ought to look like does it no harm either. I’d wager that precious few passerby knew they were looking at the very latest Corvette during our time with the E-Ray - but look they did, often with something approaching glee. And for the most part, you drive it with the same sunny outlook. With the front axle doing its thing at low revs, this is not a supercar that immediately demands much of you. The electrical assistance, capped at 122lb ft of torque, is unobtrusive yet obviously present in the way the model sluices forward.

While the small block 6.2-litre V8 is always providing the meat of the performance (beyond Stealth mode), perhaps for some there will be too little gristle in its lowdown imperturbability; too little shock and awe for a lineage that includes LS7 pant-wetters. But this is a symptom of spending too long in the shallow end; the E-Ray is sufficiently engaging and easygoing, and endowed with so much accelerator pedal travel, that you can drive very swiftly everywhere without ever properly touching the sides. The C8 may lack the final, nth-degree crispness of say, a McLaren - and the front end’s sensitivity to abrupt camber changes remains an obvious issue - but there is more than enough composure in its magnetorheological dampers to figure out a B-road on the fly.

Rest assured, though, go looking for more and the E-Ray can rattle the headboard with the best of them. Just locate any stretch of reliably smooth asphalt that gives good vanishing point, and by the time you've finished fully extending your right leg, you’ll know why Chevrolet thinks the carbon-wheeled example a sub-3-second car. And why it righteously persists with pushrods, too. Sure, this doesn’t mean the eight-speed transmission is peerless, nor the steering exactly GT3-like, but the snarl and scandalous speedometer reading work their own kind of inimitable charm, as does the comforting thought of a driven front axle if the next corner is slow and the road damp.

Which isn’t to say the E-Ray ever feels anything less than rear-driven, nor overpowered: quite the opposite, it feels exactly like a very well sorted and pleasantly usable mid-engined supercar - and because there is no juggling of power sources in the driveline, its Corvette-ness is less corrupted by its hybrid status than it is enhanced. Unclip the targa lid and stow it in the boot (a one-man job), and the fringe-buffeting squall makes everything seem rosier still. Whether it’s quite rosy enough to justify the UK-specific asking price is another matter - yet it says much about the 2026 C8’s credibility that this is a subjective topic rather than an objective no-brainer. Or to put it another way, the C7 was no real-world match for any stripe of senior 911; but if tomorrow you offered me a choice of 992 Carrera 4 GTS or the very latest E-Ray, I would genuinely have to sit down and think about it. Talk about progress.

SPECIFICATION | 2025 CHEVROLET CORVETTE E-RAY 3LZ

Engine: 6,207cc V8, 1.9kWh battery, electric front motor
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch, rear-wheel drive (combustion), front-wheel drive (electric)
Power (hp): 644 (482 combustion plus 162hp electric)
Torque (lb ft): 574 (452 combustion plus 122 electric)
0-62mph: 2.9 seconds (with carbon wheels)
Top speed: 180mph
Weight: 1,907kg-1,919kg (coupe, ‘mass in running order’)
MPG: 22.4
CO2: 289g/km
Price: £158,720 (as standard; price as tested £180,498.44 comprised of Roswell Green Metallic for £868.04, Jet Black Nappa leather with seating surfaces and steering wheel in perforated suede microfibre for £724.86, Competition Sport bucket seats for £724.86, Yellow seatbelts for £286.36, Carbon fibre interior trim – cluster surround, console/door switch plates for £1,091.76, Stealth aluminium interior trim, dark finish for £438.49, Visible carbon fibre roof panel with body-colour surround for £1,342.33, Visible carbon fibre wheels: 20 x 10.0J (front) / 21 x 13.0 J (rear) for £7,884.72, Edge Yellow-painted brake calipers for £437.50, Visible carbon fibre ground effects – splitter, rockers, spoilers for £3,255.29, Carbon Flash accents package – rear spoiler, outside mirrors for £1,091.76)