diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4924d12a3..3e80ac4ed 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ PROJECT_DIR := $(shell dirname $(abspath $(lastword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
 # The path to the E2E manifest file. It can be overridden by setting the
 # E2E_MANIFEST_PATH environment variable. Note that HF_TOKEN must be set when using the GPU-based manifest.
 E2E_MANIFEST_PATH ?= config/manifests/vllm/sim-deployment.yaml
+# E2E_IMAGE specifies the image to be used when running e2e tests using make test-e2e.
+# it defaults to current image tag, but can be overwritten to test specific tags, releases, etc.
+E2E_IMAGE ?= $(IMAGE_TAG)
 # E2E_USE_KIND is a flag used in test-e2e target. when set to true it will load the e2e image into the kind cluster.
 # it is possible though to run e2e tests against clusters other than kind. in such a case, it is the user's responsibility to load
 # the image into the cluster.
@@ -142,7 +145,7 @@ test-integration: ## Run integration tests.
 
 .PHONY: test-e2e
 test-e2e: ## Run end-to-end tests against an existing Kubernetes cluster.
-	MANIFEST_PATH=$(PROJECT_DIR)/$(E2E_MANIFEST_PATH) E2E_IMAGE=$(IMAGE_TAG) USE_KIND=$(E2E_USE_KIND) ./hack/test-e2e.sh
+	MANIFEST_PATH=$(PROJECT_DIR)/$(E2E_MANIFEST_PATH) E2E_IMAGE=$(E2E_IMAGE) USE_KIND=$(E2E_USE_KIND) ./hack/test-e2e.sh
 
 .PHONY: lint
 lint: golangci-lint ## Run golangci-lint linter