Nissan Leaf, Power Anxiety

After the initial fun of driving around in a car that hums, you start trying to figure how it will work into your real life.

* Power anxiety dominates every drive. Turn the car on, look at the gauge showing how many klicks before the car goes dead.

* Every trip, you check the gauge to see what you have left - it slips away very fast.

I drove the car around Scarborough for about 4 hours on Saturday, then plugged it in for the afternoon. It had about 50 km left, but I was getting more anxious. You start paying attention to all those little dashes around the city. They add up.

After 3 days of doing regular errands, mostly in the east end, I did find myself wondering how to cut back on the drives. Some were a waste or could have been grouped together to save gas, but I was in a hurry, so I burned the fuel to save time.

It gets you thinking about how to do things different or atleast the cost of your choices.

It also feels like you have have this giant, imaginary chord connecting your car to the house (or more accurately, the power plug) as you can't get too far from the source of power.

Ed Cassavoy
Senior Editor, Special Sections