Electric cars lookin' good at Green Living Show

Both cars are at the Green Living Show this weekend and are decked out in Project Green wraps and are lookin' swell, if I say so myself.

The Green Living Show finishes up late Sunday afternoon (it's at the Direct Energy Centre over at the CNE) and if you haven't checked it out I urge you to do so. I was over on Friday morning for the show's opening, and there are all sorts of interesting displays and presentations to take in.

Our two electric cars - a blue Nissan Leaf and a red Chevrolet Volt - are wrapped in white "skins" with green streaking and the words StarProjectGreen written on them. The Toronto Star logo as well as the Wheels and wheels.ca logos are also prominent.

They'll be returned to the Star Sunday night and plugged in, to be ready for editors and reporters to officially start the tests this coming week.

- Norris McDonald

The self-charging Chevy Volt

Take a closer look at GM's Chevrolet Volt, one of two electric cars Wheels will be testing over the next six months.

 

This blue car is actually green

Take a closer look at the Nissan Leaf, one of two electric cars we'll be test driving over the next six months.

 

Wheels launches Project Green

The Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. (Toronto Star / Pawel Dwulit)

Toronto Star Wheels is launching Project Green, a six-month examination of electric cars.

We have taken possession of two, in particular, courtesy of Nissan Canada and General Motors of Canada: an all-electric Leaf and a mostly-electric Chevrolet Volt.

Our plan is to put them through their paces over the spring, summer and early fall months in order to fully appreciate the positives and to document any negatives.

We will Tweet about them, write stories about them, and take photographs and record videos about them.

We want to emphasize that this adventure is as much yours as it is ours. We want to hear from you, our readers, about what you want to know about electric vehicles — or EVs, as they’re called.

What attracts you to them? What worries you about them? Would you buy one? Why wouldn’t you buy one? More important, what can we do with these cars that might — if you have any reservations — help to set your mind at ease about them?

Please write to us at wheels@thestar.ca with your suggestions, or leave a comment in this blog, and we’ll get right to work.

Meantime, we plan to drive both the Volt and the Leaf just about everywhere in the coming months. Reporters and photographers will take them on assignment. Editors will take them home for the evening or away on weekends.

Advertising and promotions representatives will drive them on calls, or to theatre openings and trade shows (in fact, they’ll both be on parade this weekend in the Toronto Star display area of the Green Living Show in the Direct Energy Centre at the CNE). Columnists and graphic artists will use them as their personal family vehicles for a week. Copy editors may even take one of them to the U.S. for some cross-border shopping.

You get the idea.

Stay tuned to this space as we chronicle our time with these two revolutionary vehicles.