The only difference? There was no noise

I was charged (if you’ll pardon the pun) with driving the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt electric cars on loan to the Star over to the Direct Energy Centre last weekend for the Green Living Show.

I drove both cars – the Volt over and the Leaf back. I felt a sense of security in the Volt because I knew there was gas to fall back on.

Both cars were very easy to drive but they were disconcerting because you don’t hear anything. Also, pedestrians don’t hear you coming so the first thing I asked was where the horn was. Otherwise they drive like a normal car.

I purposely slammed on the brakes in both to see how they felt and they felt fine.

At the Green Living Show on Friday afternoon, I plugged the Leaf into a 110-volt plug, thinking it would be charged up that night. Then I read the manual and found that it would take 21 hours to charge (on a 110-volt charge) and so had to go back Saturday night to unplug it and found it was fully charged.

For city driving, manoeuvreability of both cars is great. The Volt has great space; the Leaf is a little tighter, particularly if there are people in the back seat.

Both cars had great pickup and no way was I not keeping up with the flow of traffic. As I said, they were like normal cars except there was no noise.

— Cathy King