E-Ray Q&A: Chief Engineer Juechter on the first hybrid Corvette supercar

Posted by Talbot Payne on January 20, 2023

Milford — The Chevrolet Corvette’s first chief engineer, Zora Arkus-Duntov, is rightly proclaimed “The Father of the Corvette” for establishing the sports car as a performance icon in the 1950s. But the ‘Vette’s fifth chief engineer in 70 years, Tadge Juechter, will be remembered as the man who brought Arkus-Duntov’s ultimate dream to reality: a mid-engine Corvette.

Executive Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter and his new toy, the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray.

Arkus-Duntov pushed the mid-engine idea — prized for its balance and rear-wheel-drive grip — throughout his 1953-1975 tenure at General Motors with multiple prototypes beginning with the 1960 CERV I. Juechter finally got a mid-engine Corvette approved for the 2020 model year — in part by arguing that the midship architecture would finally birth an all-wheel-drive Corvette to compete against similar AWD exotics from European manufacturers like Porsche and Lamborghini.

The 2024 Corvette E-Ray, unveiled Tuesday with a 160-horsepower electric motor driving the front wheels and a good ol’ 495-horsepower V-8 driving the rears, is the culmination of that vision. The Detroit News sat down with Juechter at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds to talk about his latest toy.

TDN: The E-Ray is the third model of the eighth-generation Corvette C8 after the standard Stingray and Z06. Tadge, tell us about it.

Juechter: It’s a different mission than the Z06. Even though it is similarly priced, it represents a different value proposition. We’ve long heard from customers they really want AWD to make it a three-or-even-four-season car. We weren’t able to do that with front-engine architecture, but with mid-engine architecture, that freed up space to enable us to do it.

Starting at the inception of the C8, we thought an electrified front axle was the way to go. It’s compact, and gives us a lot of efficiency. It’s independent of GM’s commitment to zero-emissions. We thought this would be a good idea and pleasing to customers. And it brings a new, higher-level of thinking to the Corvette. The Z06 is mission specific: it’s focused on the track experience, whereas the E-Ray is an all-arounder.

The 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray is a grand touring model to complement the performance Z06. With all-wheel-drive, the E-Ray is suited for all-season driving.

We like to say the Z06 is the scalpel — a sharp instrument for a specific purpose. E-Ray is more of a Swiss Army knife — it’s good at all sorts of things. It’s capable on track, but a great daily driver, and it’s great in inclement weather. (It’s) a car for anyone who wants an all-around daily driver.

TDN: Other manufacturers have done hybrid, all-wheel-drive, mid-engine sports cars. There’s the $1 million Porsche 918 and $170,000 Acura NSX that just went out of production in Ohio. How do you make this thing for just $105,000?

You see the same kind of material usage you’ve seen on Corvettes — composites like the battery cover is carbon fiber; our magnesium for the front-drive unit is probably the lightest in the industry; it only weighs a little over 80 pounds. This for a 160-horsepower motor.

Corvette’s value proposition is part of our history. Just because we are going electrified, we don’t feel like we can charge an arm and leg for that. We want to keep it a car that’s reasonably accessible. It’s not inexpensive, but we feel like we are giving you a really good value.

The E-Ray is a little less expensive than the Z06, but it’s got the battery pack, front-drive unit and carbon ceramic brakes standard. We think we are starting down the electrified road in a very appealing way. Being light is very, very important. Batteries and drive units tend to be heavy — this car is less than 300 pounds heavier than a Z06, which shares its proportion and size.

TDN: How heavy is it?

About 3,700 pounds dry weight. Heavy for a Corvette, but very light for an electrified vehicle. So we tried to keep it as elemental as we could — only use the technology in a way that enhances the driving experience. It does happen to enhance the efficiency as well, but we didn’t want to burden the car with so much wiring that we lost the basic element: the ride and handling, track capability, responsiveness. We didn’t want the car to feel more sluggish. We put the heaviest part of the unit, the battery, right at the center of gravity. Low, in the tunnel. So you still get that beautiful turn-in that you get from our mid-engine cars. We didn’t want to lose that.

The drive-unit is pushed rearward in the front — almost in the tunnel — so we’re not putting a lot of extra weight on the nose. So it still drives and feels like a C8.

TDN: You still have a full frunk. How did you package that?

Juechter: Everyone thought we would have to give up the front trunk. We didn’t want to do that. As an all-around vehicle, you want to be able to take this car cross-country. It’s available in coupe and convertible. You put the top down and you don’t lose any trunk space. We wanted to preserve the front and rear cargo for the customer, so you don’t have to leave anything at home. The frunk is almost exactly the same as the Stingray.

The frunk in the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray maintains the same volume despite the addition of a front motor.

TDN: You also kept the pushrod, 6.2-liter V-8 in back like the Stingray.

The small block V-8 has been a part of the Corvette legacy since 1955 and we actually wanted to use electrification to enhance what people love about that small block. So you get all the sound and character — we don’t take anything away from that. However, we tell people this is a 6.2-liter, almost-500 horsepower small block, but the way this car drives is like an 8-liter small block with almost 650 horsepower. Except it has none of the downsides — you don’t feel the weight, you don’t lose the efficiency. This car gets fuel efficiency as good or better than a Stingray even though it has all the exotic proportions — (13.5-inch wide) rear tires. So you would think a car with this kind of looks, presence and performance would be a gas guzzler and it’s not.

TDN: I’ve been out here four-wheel drifting on Black Lake (the 67-acre asphalt testing pad at GM’s Proving Grounds) with your performance engineer Aaron Link. How do you tell E-Ray apart from a Z06?

There are some subtle differences. This car comes standard with more of a monochrome look, so fewer of the carbon accents pieces like you would find on a Z06. But the bodywork is the same as the Z06. Everybody loves it. We have unique badging, unique forged wheels. Because the outboard exhaust is ideal for the small-block V-8, we retain that. That is quite distinct from the Z06.

You'll be able to tell the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray from the Z06 by the E-Ray's corner-mounted quad pipes (the Z06's pipes are center-mounted).

TDN: That’s because of the different engines?

Yes. The (5.5-liter, overhead-cam V-8 in the) Z06 really cried out for a different solution. We didn’t think we’d have two different solutions, but as we got into the hardware — and listened to the car — we realized we needed a unique solution. One good thing that came out of COVID is that it gave us down time — when the plants were shut down and we were working from home. We still had people coming into the Milford Proving Grounds trying to architect the exhaust and figure out what was the ideal exhaust for this engine. So there was a little pause in the program and we took advantage.

TDN: Let’s talk about the interior. Google Automotive Services is now running the infotainment system, and you’re doing something different with the drive modes.

We wanted to give people other feature functionality with the electric motor. Anybody who has driven a Corvette knows that when you start it, it’s not a subtle thing. The engines are very expressive, very powerful. They have a relatively open exhaust. So they are noisy, but there are times when you don’t want to wake your neighbors when you go into work early.

The driver-focused cockpit of the 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray includes a Z-Mode button on the steering wheel, a new Stealth Mode screen, and a Charge+ button on the side console for max battery regen.

So we thought: why not use the electric ability to be a neighborhood exit feature? We’ve had Stealth modes on Corvettes before, which tone down the noise — but we never went completely silent. So in this case, there is a mode where — before you start the car — you can actually put it in Stealth Mode and it will run on battery power alone.

You can back the car out, run a few miles, get out on the highway, and then when you step on the gas — or exceed 45 mph — the internal combustion engine will light off and you’re back to regular performance hybrid operation. We think a lot of people will really appreciate that feature.

TDN: Thanks, Tadge.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

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