2026 Chevy Corvette Interior Review: Here’s Why It’s Much Better Now

One must always continue to work on oneself because incremental improvement is a valued trait—for both people and the cars we drive. Chevy got a lot right the first time around with the C8 Corvette, but the interior, though quite radical in style, was more than a bit busy and unintuitive. That’s largely no more. The 2026 Chevy Corvette comes to us refreshed, rejuvenated, and with a cabin layout that’s now cleaner and more simplified than before.

Yes, that means bigger and more screens, but now the buttons are easier to reach, and toggles for high-use functions have been moved to more optimal positions. All in all, the interior looks and feels airier and far less annoying to use.

As a programming note, Chevy announced the discontinuation of the Corvette E-Ray after it loaned one to us and before this review was published. This doesn’t materially impact the contents of our review, however, as Corvette interiors are largely shared across all models.

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Infotainment

3 Screens Now

Screens, if you can’t beat ’em, you can learn to live with ’em, and now the Corvette has three. Just in time, too, because the old setup was starting to feel exactly that: old. The outgoing central infotainment screen was rather small, low-res, and had a bunch of unused real estate.

The new, 12.7-inch infotainment screen still angles toward the driver, but it now fills the entire shelf it sits upon. Its colors are varied and bright, and the screen itself is slick to use. Even better, a physical volume knob remains.

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Over to the left is the new 14.0-inch driver instrument panel and information display, and to the left of that is something completely new—a third screen for displaying auxiliary but still important information. At 6.6 inches, this screen can be customized to show things such as trip mileage, the Corvette’s Performance Traction Management, and engine output. You can tap on or off the lane keep and stop/start functions here, as well.

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We dislike it when secondary information is hidden behind a convoluted maze of menus, so we appreciated the functions Chevy chose to make available on the left-hand screen. And the fixed functions on the bottom only added to the convenience factor.

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Climate Control

Today, it’s always a toss-up between an automaker keeping physical climate buttons (very good) or relegating the task to a touchscreen (very bad). The C8 first appeared with that striking spine of buttons down its central cabin ridge, but in retrospect, we think everyone can agree it was fiddly to use and looked too busy.

Fortunately, Chevy did the objectively correct thing and moved all the climate buttons to where they naturally should be, which is below the central dashboard vent. Functions like the heated and ventilated seats are now controlled via the touchscreen, but temperature adjustments, auto, power on/off, fan speed, and window defoggers are all grouped in the same place.

Curiously, the buttons for adjusting the temperature and fan speed are single-use, meaning if you want to lower the temperature, you need to hit a separate button instead. If there was one button for both lowering and raising functions, it could have freed up three buttons and perhaps gotten the seat heating/ventilation their own buttons! But as it stands, the existing layout is quite good, and we’re just nitpicking.

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Tech

Infotainment UI

As with other cars in the General Motors portfolio, the Corvette now offers full Google integration that includes Maps and the App store. There are still wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, however, if that’s what you prefer. These hooked up seamlessly every time we got into the car.

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Additional Charge Pad

Also new to the C8 is an additional wireless charging pad located where the old drive mode selector used to be. Now the drive mode wheel has been changed to a toggle that lives behind the gear selector button. This is a way better use of the space, since the only place for your phone before was between the two seats, effectively turning your phone into an inaccessible rear passenger. That’s how far back and out of the way it was.

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The rear charger remains, but the extra front console charger is a massive improvement. It even features a rubbery lip that holds your phone in place, though you might find this leaves some streaks on the screen that need to be rubbed away.

Digital Rearview Camera Remains

As with before, the C8 benefits from a digital rearview mirror. Typically, this isn’t something I enjoy using because it messes with my depth perception, but rear visibility out of the C8 is so poor that you need it. The footage is clear enough, and you especially need it at night because the window partition between you and the engine compartment becomes very reflective and difficult to see through with the naked eye.

Stealth and Shuttle Mode

Because it’s a hybrid, the E-Ray comes with Stealth and Shuttle modes you can activate before firing up the car. Both allow you to start up the Corvette in battery-only, front-drive mode, but Stealth mode is for creeping out of your garage and down the driveway without disturbing anyone. The engine will turn on when you go over 45 mph or if the battery depletes. Shuttle mode keeps the car in EV only mode for low speeds, theoretically so you can move it around a storage facility or paddock. The engine will not turn on unless you turn the car back off.

The modes are also condition dependent. During our review, outside temps wavered in the 30s, so sometimes the car deemed it too cold to even offer Stealth and Shuttle. When they were available, though, we could see how they’d be extremely handy for specific use cases.

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Seating and Ergonomics

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New Passenger Grab Handle

Now that the climate buttons have moved off the central cabin spine, designers showed restraint and kept it blank. In fact, they removed even more material by cutting a hole in the spine to make a passenger grab handle. We don’t know what it is about that little triangle of negative space, but it does quite a lot to open up the cabin that much more. Perhaps the light coming through combines with the minimalism of the newly empty spine for less forbidding visual exhaustion.

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Passenger Experience

While the driver gets the full C8 experience, we can’t say the same for the passenger. That was the case in the old cabin, and it’s the case here, too. Drop into the passenger seat of any C8, and you’ll find all the controls angled so aggressively away from you that you’d swear they were giving you the cold shoulder. You even have to reach over the spine to access the cupholders. And if you want to change your own climate, that’s an even further reach.

We get it, the Corvette is a driver’s car, so everything in the cockpit-like cabin faces the driver to optimize command and control. But we haven’t experienced such second-class-citizen passenger treatment in a while. You get used to it, but it’s still annoying.

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Seat Comfort

In true everyday supercar fashion, the C8’s seats remain supportive yet comfortable over long distances. Some may find the bolstering too cloistering over time, but we settled in and relaxed easily. The seats can also rise high enough so shorter passengers can see over the car’s hood, which is good because as was already mentioned, rear visibility is essentially nil.

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Cabin Materials

3LZ Trim

The test car came equipped with the top-of-the-line 3LZ trim and an additional carbon-fiber interior trim pack. That meant quilted leathers and carbon-fiber accents throughout, including a carbon-fiber bezel around the displays. They certainly brought a verifiably upmarket feel to the cabin, especially when paired with the striking and new for 2026 Santorini Blue interior color scheme.

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The 3LZ pack also brings cupholders with real aluminum, which is fine? Good for the drinks, we suppose? But mostly, we’re happy with the redesign, which gets rid of the cover flap and leaves the cupholders exposed and not bunched together like before.

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Trunk(s)

Two Trunks, Double the Practicality

The mid-engined C8 arrived with two trunks, one in the front and one in the rear, and that hasn’t changed with this refresh. The E-Ray has marginally less front trunk space than non-hybrid Corvettes, and it’s absolutely not noticeable in day-to-day usage.

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The test car came with a removable roof panel, which stores tidily in the rear trunk, but of course that also makes that trunk basically unusable for anything else. You can remove and store the roof panel on your own, but it’s much easier to do with two people. Trust us on this one. It doesn’t make you any less of an independent woman if you struggle on your own, and no, I don’t need to be lifting heavier at the gym.

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Convenience in Mind

Maybe it was the blue seats and seat belts. Maybe it was all the carbon fiber. Maybe it was the fact that it was a mid-engined Corvette that bellowed on cold start-ups and made us feel things. Here, prodigious power and performance come together with a luxurious and quality cabin. Even without the 3LZ trim, though, it’s quite plain the C8’s refreshed interior has convenience and innovation in mind.

It’s easy for an automaker to rest on its laurels after launching a beloved and award-winning model and descend into complacency. We’re happy this wasn’t a trap Chevy fell into. The result is a Corvette that should be able to maintain its lead at the head of the affordable supercar pack from now on and into the beyond.