ERay Deposit Series #6: TPW and Assembly

ERay production has begun!

(Yes, continuous, ongoing production for regular customers — not just a couple here and there for VIPs.)

GM has indicated that there will be a slow ramp-up to full production volume, and nobody outside of GM knows what those target numbers are. There are three C8 Corvette models going down the assembly line simultaneously... the original Stingray that debuted in 2020, the Z06 which was added to the lineup for the 2023 model year, and now the 2024 ERay, as well. What percentage of each we should expect is a mystery, but luckily that's not something I really should need to care about!

Why don't I care? Well, I do care in a sense because of all the people who are in line for a C8 Corvette, and I want all of you to get the cars you want, but in the shorter term I shouldn't really need to care about getting my ERay soon so I can continue this project because by the time they get to full production volume, I should have already been testing and writing reviews about my ERay for a month or more.

I know there are people who purposely tried to get on lists such that they end up with a 2025 (or a later 2024) ERay because they wanted to avoid any first model year problems that may arise, and that's understandable. Everyone's in a different situation, and there are still some questions about how the ERay operates — e.g., engine & motor sounds in the cabin; no Stealth Mode below 50°F (10°C), or is there a good workaround; how intrusive are the new safety features that are on ALL 2024 Corvettes; is the ERay really quicker than a C8 Z06, etc. — so I'm willing to take the risk with one of the first ERay Corvettes to roll off the line and give you all the information you need to determine if you want to continue with your ERay orders. Some customers may be cross-shopping Z06 Corvettes, too. More to come on that!

They completely assembled ZERO ERay Corvettes by the end of the day on Tuesday, January 9th because a strong storm knocked out their electricity, so the assembly plant was down for some time, which interrupted their production. Since it takes about a day and a half to assemble a C8 (about three shifts), it makes sense that they didn't have enough production time to fully complete one yesterday. How much the power outage will limit the number of ERays produced in the first week is unknown to me, but as I think through the plan that I heard about originally, I doubt very much that those 20 ERays would all be completed this week anyway, even if they had not lost power.

In any case, they're going slow, and that will give them a chance to see how their processes are working out and determine if there's anything they should change. They'll look over the new ERay Corvettes carefully to make sure everything is as it should be. I'm guessing that the last thing they want is their new model — the first ever AWD Corvette — to have widespread problems right out of the gate. They're going to want to try to make sure they do everything as correctly as possible... (one would think, right?)!

As soon as I get the car, I plan to install front grill protection screens like I did on my Stingray, but it's a more difficult process on the ERay, and I'm not looking forward to doing it in an unheated garage while lying on a cement floor. A very nice guy I've never even talked with before offered to let me use his heated garage and professional lift, but he lives two states away from NH (in NY), and I'm not sure I want to drive that many miles to get there.

I'm also planning to document the grill screen installation process on YouTube in hopes of helping other Corvette enthusiasts, so that would probably turn into an extremely long day (not even sure I could do it all in a day with a drive that would take hours each way). That was a super kind offer, though, and I'm still thinking about it!

January 16, 2024 Update:

Some reports say a total of three ERay Corvettes were assembled last week, and some say several more than that. They may have been off yesterday for the MLK Day holiday, I don't know, but for sure the dedicated employees at BGA should be back at it again today.

I know people are discouraged by this slow roll-out, but that's what was planned once they finally started building them. Remember that ERay production was originally supposed to begin last year, on October 23rd?! The power outage last week wasn't planned, of course, but they've scheduled overtime to at least partially make up for that. They're also making some improvements to the assembly plant which will help increase widebody C8 Corvette (ERay and Z06) production.

For the people actually waiting for their car, it's excruciating. Obviously, I'm waiting too, and I waited for my 2021 Stingray, as well, so this isn't my first rodeo, as they say. The closer it gets to production and delivery time, the harder the waiting gets, and that's one reason why I'm doing my best to not obsess over my TPW (more on that below). As I previously wrote about, delivery order of the cars will not be exactly the same as the order in which they're produced, so I'm just trying to keep my mind busy with other important things while I wait... and plan. Maybe I'll file my tax return, and since it's snowing, I can go outside to clear my driveway, so I'll be able to get my ERay into the garage when the time comes!

A Note for Readers Outside the United States: I can see from the traffic stats provided by my web hosting company that some people have joined us here from Russia and Japan, and occasionally someone from Australia pops in. Of course, there are also lots of people from Canada, and I want to extend a warm welcome to all who visit AWDCorvette.com from across the U.S. and around the world. I don't know if (or how) any of you outside the U.S. pay taxes, but in the U.S. we have to do a bunch of calculations on our finances and fill out a complicated form. Maybe, if I do that now, it'll keep my mind off of my ERay order for a couple of days... not!

Since this is a new page, a continuation of "#5: Order Progression", and some newer visitors may not have bothered to go back and read that page, I'll quickly define TPW — especially since it appears in the title of this post. It simply means "Targeted" or "Tentative" "Production Week". TPW is date of the Monday starting the week your Corvette is scheduled to be built, and that's known because they assemble them pretty much in the order of VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). I know (or know of) the two guys with ERay VINs "022" and "023" and they hoped/expected their AWD Corvettes would be completed last week, but that didn't happen.

Despite the reports from some ERay buyers that their TPWs keep getting pushed back — into February and even to the end of March — we have no information to suggest that anything is fundamentally wrong with the ERay, which could suggest that's why there have been so many delays. Manufacturing such a complicated product, with all of the required parts suppliers and the state of the world such as it is these days, it's surprising to me that these cars exist at all.

It really is a great time to be a Corvette enthusiast. Probably, there are interesting things happening with other sportscars too; I don't really know. I'm a Corvette guy, and I believe it's the best sportscar for the money right now, so I don't pay too much attention to any of the other brands. I could never afford to pay more than three times as much for a European exotic — and then have to maintain it — but even if I could, I'm not sure they'd really fit my use case. I think (and hope) the ERay will be as perfect for me as any car could be, but I'll let you all know if it's not.

Extra Update: I'm planning to post an additional update later on this week because of the Corvette allocations due to be announced by GM. The size of that allocation may help signal how many ERays GM intends to build relatively soon, so please look for that update here at the end of the week. I should also be able to provide accurate information about how many ERay Corvettes have been assembled so far.

January 17, 2024 Surprise Update:

To celebrate today being the One Year Anniversary of when the E-Ray* was officially announced by General Motors, I updated all the banners on this website. In case you don't immediately recognize the meaning of the "655" in the logo, I wrote an explanation for that near the top of the About page. The January 17th reveal date coincides with the 70th anniversary of GM’s 1953 Motorama, the first public unveiling of the Corvette, so there's a lot of historical significance!

*That's the official spelling, but I usually spell it differently, and I discuss my reasons for that here: ERay, E-Ray, eRay, Eray... what's in a name?

Additionally, I posted an ERay "cyclone" video on the Sidebar page. It's fun and only about a minute long, so maybe you should check it out.

January 20, 2024 Update:

Well, that was unexpected. I was hoping to be able to present some good news to those of you waiting for an ERay allocation, but it was announced on Thursday (their regular allocation day) that NONE were available nationwide, for any dealership, for the month of January. In other words, none of the ERay orders that are currently waiting to be picked up by the assembly plant have moved on to that stage. For those who want more information about how the process works, I define "allocation" at the top of ERay Deposit Series #5: Order Progression.

In a way it makes sense, though, that no ERay allocations were granted when you think about it in the larger context of the production schedule for all three Corvette models. They haven't been building as many Z06 Corvettes as they're capable of recently either, and there are still lots of people who got Z06 allocations about three months ago whose cars haven't been assembled yet. There's a large backlog of widebody Corvettes waiting to be built, and even though I've been waiting even longer (September allocation here), I'm guessing they want to assemble more of the existing orders that have been "Accepted by Production Control" (Status Code 3000) before adding more to the queue.

The bad news is that means a slower production schedule for the ERay than we hoped for. The good news is that they're starting 10-hour shifts for a couple of weeks beginning next week, and there probably aren't that many more "accepted" ERay orders left to build (remember I estimated a total of about 40 ERay allocations nationwide thus far), so more allocations should be forthcoming... maybe in February. As of January 19th, about 25-28 ERay Corvettes have been assembled. That's the first two full weeks of production and also means that my new friend, a guy I met in line while waiting overnight at MacMulkin Chevrolet to place our deposits, had his ERay (VIN 022) completed on Wednesday!

January 24, 2024 Update:

Here are some things I believe we know. First, that at least 33 and probably as many as 37-38 ERay Corvettes have been assembled as of Monday, January 22nd. Second, as of January 8th, only 1 of the 13 MacMulkin allocations had gone above Status Code 3000. In other words, that's the only one of the thirteen actually being built so far, and we know that car was completed (it's my friend's 3LZ Convertible), so there are a dozen other MacMulkin orders that have been matched with an allocation that have yet to start down the production line (at least, as of two weeks ago, and I haven't heard about any others since). That points to there being at least 50 ERay allocations thus far, so my December 12th estimate of 40 may have been low — even if the three VIP cars assembled then aren't included in the total.

Thirdly, even though there are a lot of Z06 Corvettes at 3000 and above that they need to catch up on, I believe that BGA will continue to assemble ERays between today and the next allocation cycle, which happens in about 3 weeks. Now that they've begun in earnest, I can't imagine they'd abandon ERay production for three weeks to wait for more allocations in February. If they needed more orders to build, they would have granted some allocations in the January cycle, but instead, no ERay allocations came through (for the 3rd month straight). If all three of those are true, some things just aren't adding up. In fact, if they continue to complete 4-5 ERays a day, as they've been doing, they're going to end up with way more than 40-50 before the next allocation cycle in February.

There's something else I've been meaning to talk about, and this is a good time for it. I'm not saying it's related to the conundrum above, but it could be playing a part, I suppose. There's a GM option that can be added to some Corvette orders, and I'm not even sure what it's officially called, but you can see that it appears on some window stickers as CUSTOMER SELECTABLE VIN. It costs an extra $5000, and basically, it does what it says. It lets the customer choose the VIN for their car, and since Corvettes are assembled in the order of Vehicle Identification Numbers, people can potentially add the $5000 option to their order, pick a low VIN, and get one of the first cars of a new model built for them — but it's something that needs to be approved by GM and requested a long time in advance (like a year or so, I believe) — and not all Corvette dealerships participate in the program.

If, hypothetically, that custom VIN program operates outside the normal allocation system, that could explain what I'm seeing because that would mean there are additional ERay Corvettes on the production schedule that aren't accounted for publicly. I'm not saying that's the case, and I actually think there must be another explanation, but assuming they do continue to assemble ERay Corvettes for the next three weeks, where are these Status Code 3400 orders coming from? I believe they'll keep building ERays, and it'll be very interesting to see what the VINs are and when my "accepted" order is added to the mix!

I guess these are the things a person waiting a year for a car to be built thinks about, but I know it'll be worth it in the end. At least I hope so, because it'll cost about the same as two 2020 C8 Stingrays, and before buying a 2021 I'd never spent more than $28,000 for a car in my life, so to me this is a BIG purchase.

January 31, 2024 Update:

Even though ZERO ERay Corvettes were built on Friday, Monday, and yesterday, I don't want to read anything into that bad news just yet, but they've assembled a total of about 48 so far. I'm seeing reports of VINs in the 70's and 80's for TPWs of next week and the week after, so if that really happens, I guess the questions I raised in my previous post are valid. What I'd really like to know is how many ERay orders have reached at least 3000 status, including the ones that have already been built and those currently on the production line. It's obviously a lot more than anybody I know of had estimated. We'll probably never find out, but it would be interesting to know because it could help provide insight into when my ERay order will move beyond 3000 and be built. If my order doesn't move forward soon, I'll miss the chance to get a VIN below 100, and that would be disappointing.

Currently, every ERay that's been assembled for a "regular" customer is on hold for Quality Control. None of them have been delivered yet. I don't know about Rick Hendrick's ERay (VIN 001), but the window sticker was produced back on January 12th, and very often that signals the car can be sent out for delivery; however, I don't consider him a regular customer... spending $1.1 million for an ERay at auction (for charity) is not regular.

Most of my time the last week was devoted to an article I wrote about the One Year Anniversary of MacMulkin Chevrolet's ERay deposit event, and I posted that early this morning. It has new photos from those two days — starting one year ago, today — includes some very personal thoughts, and also a bit about my ERay color choice. I'm keeping this update short today because I can't think of anything else to report, but maybe you'll want to read my new article here: First ERay Deposits: A One-Year Retrospective

February 7, 2024 Update:

I know a lot of you waiting for an ERay Corvette are a bit discouraged. If you've been blessed with an allocation, you may have been waiting for a TPW for over 4 months by now. If you're waiting for an allocation to match with your order, it may have been that long or more, and you could be starting to wonder if you'll ever get one. Some people have even thought about dropping off ERay lists and buying some other car that's easier to get... possibly not even a Corvette. It's a personal decision. Everyone needs to do what's right for them, but I'm here to tell you that ERay Corvettes will be rolling off the production line in greater numbers soon. I, for one, am not willing to settle for less than what I really want.

Where else can you get a brand-new, mid-engine, all-wheel-drive sports car — a Corvette, no less; built to your specifications — that does zero to 60mph in 2.5 seconds... all that for just over $100k? You can't! Maybe not even for three times the money. It. Does. Not. Exist. Anywhere. Else. In. The. World.

No ERays were assembled for almost an entire work week, and the 75 or so that had been produced were probably in Quality Control to make sure they are good to go for delivery. Then on Monday, they assembled about 10 more — the most on any one day so far. That mimics what happened with the Corvette Z06 start-up last year, slow and steady, and now they're making 50-65 on a good day; so rest assured, everyone... it will happen with the ERay too!

February 12, 2024 Special Update:

Things are moving!

In other words, my ERay will be built sometime during the week starting two weeks from today!

February 16, 2024 Early AM Update:

Even though 2 weeks from today my ERay should be fully assembled and getting ready for delivery (along with the dozens of other completed ERays currently on the required QC hold), I want you all to know that I'll continue to post about allocations for ERay Corvettes — even after I take delivery of mine — because I'm hoping all of you will get yours soon too. This month's ERay allocations appear to be very spotty so far. Some of the largest dealers did get a small number, but many got none. However, it's my understanding that this is a two-consensus month, so more may be coming next week. I'll post more information then.

February 19, 2024 Update:

MacMulkin Chevrolet received 7 ERay allocations last week, and not many others were given out nationwide. So that's a total of 20 ERay allocations for MacMulkin (the largest Corvette dealership) so far. Not sure if there will be more coming this month or not.

Only 11 ERay Corvettes were assembled last week, but there seems to be some discrepancy about the numbers being reported, so there could have been a few more than that. The real question is... will my VIN be under 100 or not (two or three digits)? Right around 90-100 ERays have reportedly been made so far, and I thought I'd be able to learn my assigned VIN today, but they don't seem to be available yet for ERay orders being built next week. For me to have any chance of getting a two-digit VIN, they'd probably have to build very few ERays this week, and my car would need to be assembled on 2/26, rather than later in the week, so my guess is I'll be getting a three-digit VIN. I don't mind, as there are three-digit numbers I'd rather have than some with two digits — just because the number would mean something special to me... like the number of a favorite road I used to drive as a kid (maybe one I drove very fast many times). Who knows, my ERay could be built on Leap Day! That'll make it worth an extra $20k, right? lol

Fourteen window stickers have been produced, but they're mostly GM cars one way or another, and still no ERay Corvettes have been delivered. My hope is that by the time mine is assembled next week, the Quality Control hold they've all been on for about 5 weeks will be over, and all of our cars will be delivered around the same time. If it's like the Z06 roll out last year, they hold them all for about 6 weeks, in case they identify a production problem. That way, they still have the cars on hand and are able to fix them before delivery. That could work out well for me and for many of you too. My ERay may not be in the first 100 built, but I could potentially get my ERay before some of those in the first 100, and since I have this website, that'll allow me to share one of the very first customer-owned 2024 ERay Corvettes with all of you... the first all-wheel drive Corvette ever!

February 22, 2024 Update:

There were no additional allocations for any of the three Corvette models, but there is great news for some people! Just today, GM started invoicing dealerships for ERay Corvettes that have already been completed. Also, a whole bunch of window stickers are being released (it's happening right now)... so many that it will take some time for me to analyze them all and write about it. So far, though, I'm seeing at least 71 new window stickers, and one of them is my friend's #022 car that will ship to MacMulkin. There are even eight ERays in the group that are going to Canada. Shout out to my current readers in Winnipeg and Calgary!

I've also received the VIN assigned to my new ERay! It's the three-digit number of a road I've driven before that goes right through towns where I have good memories — the most impactful being a seacoast area where my late-father's favorite ocean-fishing spot is located. He passed away much too early after a long fight with one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, but I have a great photo of the two of us standing ankle-deep in the ocean with a fish I'd just caught on his fishing pole, and he looked so proud of the moment and very happy. It was just the two of us fishing together there, but we asked a stranger on the beach to snap a shot for us, and it turned out perfectly. I've had that framed photo on my bedroom dresser for decades, and my brother has a copy in his shop too. Every time I look at the VIN of my ERay, I'll think of my father. He got me started working on cars. I have an article about my father, Prince, and John Lennon here: https://www.awdcorvette.com/sidebar (I think there's even a photo of me in there with a car I owned in high school.)

Leap Day 2024 (February 29):

My custom-order 2024 Corvette ERay will be completed today!

I post that with 96% certainty because it hasn't been fully assembled yet, and sometimes "life happens," but the information comes from the most accurate source possible, which is where I learned my TPW (Targeted Production Week) date above, Shane at the National Corvette Museum. My understanding is that he has access to the same database that's used across the street at the Bowling Green Assembly plant, so it's the most up-to-date information a Corvette buyer can get, and that accuracy has been proven to me throughout the years.

There've been a couple more batches of window stickers created, so we're up to 107 so far. For those cars, invoicing and shipment to dealers soon follows. In fact, the first ERay was delivered to a dealership yesterday! I've looked at all 107 window stickers, and I see some interesting things, but I think it's likely that level of detail wouldn't be what most people want to read about. One thing I will mention, though, is that most recently I've seen more than one window sticker created for an ERay that had been built only a day or two before, so it can happen very quickly.

At least 126 ERay Corvettes have been built. We know that for sure because a window sticker exists for the car with VIN 00126; however, that does not mean that all 126 cars have window stickers. It appears that 19 of them do not, so for some reason those particular cars are lagging behind a bit. That could be for any reason — major or minor — but most likely it's just something like a minor part they're waiting for, or a small fix that's needed before the car can be sent out. Barring any major problems, it won't be long now before my Corvette ERay will be delivered to me!

Posts about the progress of my ERay order are being continued here with "#7: Shipping & Delivery"!

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It's been a long wait, and I'm sure things will get even more exciting as my delivery date approaches!

I'm looking forward to driving and testing all aspects of my new ERay for you!