The Chevrolet division of General Motors dropped a bomb this week: The 2024 Chevy Corvette E-Ray:
“Exactly 70 years after the Corvette debuted at Motorama in New York City, Chevrolet has returned to introduce the first-ever electrified Corvette with all-wheel-drive and a powerful 6.2L LT2 Small Block V-8, the 2024 E-Ray.”
The specs are mostly bonkers:
-All Wheel Drive
-655 Horsepower hybrid propulsion
-0-60 in 2.5
-10.5 seconds standing quarter-mile
-495 horsepower and 470 lb-ft of torque via ICE to the rear wheels
-160 horsepower and 125 lb-ft of EV torque to the front wheels
-1.9 kWh battery pack for electric-only drive mode up to 45 mph
-MSRP: $104,295
There are a lot of bests/firsts here: First AWD Vette, first hybrid, first with carbon-ceramic brakes and all-season tires standard. The 2.5 seconds sprint to 60mph makes the E-ray the fastest Corvette ever.
The technology makes my old analog cars from the 60s and 70s feel closer to the Horse & Buggy era than they do to modern vehicles.
It was not that long ago that if you wanted to get to 60 MPH in 2.5 seconds in a sports car, you had to spend a lot of money. OK, maybe the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon would get you there that fast but it was pretty much a straight-line dragster; its $86,390 price five years ago is similar to the Vette’s price today.
The E-Ray presents a very usable sports car at prices a fraction of Ferrari’s and McLaren’s, and half of what a Porsche 911 GT3 RS costs. That’s an awful lot of go for the money.
Source: General Motors; Additional Sources: Jalopnik, Car and Driver, MotorTrend, AP
