First impressions of the 2024 Chevy Corvette E-Ray: a classic sports car with an electric jolt

The Corvette only needed 70 years to find a tiny space for an electric motor. The eighth-generation sports car’s new E-Ray is the first hybrid model and the first to have all-wheel drive.

Chevy chose to introduce its customers to battery-powered propulsion gradually with the E-Ray rather than going fully electric from the start. Customers who buy sports cars can be picky, favoring a V-8 engine’s rumblings and loud exhaust noise. Similar feelings of existential dread may have been sparked by an all-electric Corvette as they were when Ford decided to apply the pony logo to the Mustang Mach-E.

Of course, this is on purpose. With the E-Ray, Corvette is expected to enter a new era that will include an all-electric model later this year. Chevy is leading the charge with electric versions of the Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox as GM pushes forward with its goal of selling only electric vehicles by the year 2040.