Comparing the Volt and the Leaf

It wasn’t too surprising to hear the Chevy Volt  was initially more popular among Toronto Star staff invited to take test drives of the two Project Green vehicles. After all, the electric Volt, with its gasoline engine providing backup,promises never to leave you stranded. And it is comforting to see the dashboard display promising 500-plus kilometres before a fill-up or recharge becomes necessary.

But after back-to-back long weekends trying out both vehicles, I decided that, personally, the solely-electric Nissan Leaf was the more compelling ride, for several reasons.

First, while sports car fans will probably disagree, I found the Volt’s low-profile shape a little claustrophobic (I’m only 5-foot-5), and my 6-foot-3 husband found it downright uncomfortable. I was disconcerted by what felt to me like poor sightlines in the rear and in the front when turning corners.

The seat gave me lower back pain after 20 minutes. The dash display in the more spacious-feeling Leaf was more intuitive and the controls easier to use — ironic, since it would seem to be the more revolutionary of the two cars. And there was deeper cargo space in the Leaf’s rear hatch.

But the biggest drawback just might be that gas engine business.

The Volt starts out in full electric mode. As the charge dwindles, gas engine automatically fires up — not to run the car, like a hybrid does, but to recharge the battery. It continues to cycle on and off to keep you going for another 500 km or so.

Sounds great, right? Sure, on a long trip. But — and it’s a big but if you’re really committed to zero tailpipe emissions and cheap commuting — what if you’re routinely using the car for shorter runs? Say, my husband’s daily 90-km round trip commute.
 
The Leaf promises 160 km at full charge (though that may be closer to 120 if you’re driving at expressway speeds or, so I've heard, in more extreme temperatures). Jeff could get to work and back daily without a recharge. The Volt, however, goes into gasoline mode after less than 70 km, meaning he’d be burning at least some gas every day.

(And by the way, the Volt requests premium gas.) One of my test runs took me from home in Oakville to an appointment on Eglinton East. From there, I decided to do a little exploring on a subject I’ve edited many news stories about, by checking out the future route of the Eglinton LRT all the way to Kennedy station. Then I rolled down Kennedy and, since it was a gorgeous day, rambled east to Bluffers Park.

By the time I’d cruised through the park and was headed back toward Oakville, the gas engine had rumbled (well, quietly vibrated) to life. At trip’s end, the monitor was telling me I’d averaged 2.1 litres/100 km for the trip. Okay, that’s sterling by normal mileage standards, but it’s still using fossil fuel on a 106-km run I could have done solely on the Leaf’s battery charge. Given the two cars are similar in price, the everyday operating cost advantage definitely goes to the Leaf — at least as long as the hydro bill for an overnight charge stays dirt cheap compared with the equivalent in gasoline. But which of the cars you might prefer will ultimately depend a lot on your own driving requirements and tolerance for a little “range anxiety” on unfamiliar trips, at least until quick-charge stations become as ubiquitous as gas stations.

Doreen Martens, City Team Editor

Sure, the Leaf is cool, but can it haul all my stuff?

 

We are dedicated frugal car owners — all we really demand is economy and reliability. Oh, and enough head room for my 6-foot-3 husband. Ever since giving up the 7-seat 1993 Camry wagon our kids dubbed the Blue Moose, we’ve also been looking for small cars that can still haul lots of stuff — like our 2007 Honda Fit, with its unique flip-up backseat that lets us pack a couple of adult bikes inside. So in test-driving a Leaf, my first concern wasn’t range, but space. Could the Leaf be the family workhorse we’re looking for?

Fortunately, the SmartCar image in my head was wrong. My spouse was delighted to find he could sit up comfortably, and the two adults and a teen we drove home from a birthday party Friday night thought there was decent leg room in the backseat (made, oh-so-greenly, of recycled pop bottles). For economy buyers like us, all the bells and whistles (backup camera, satellite radio, heated steering wheel, built-in navigation, etc.) and glorious gliding silence were a treat for a couple of trips from Oakville to east-end Toronto and back. We got over “range anxiety” quickly when we figured out that, except for the occasional out-of-town run, our usual journeys are within the 140-km or so range that a full charge promises ­— even my husband’s 90-km daily round-trip commute from Oakville to Vaughan. (We averaged 5.1 km/kWh, which at off-peak hydro rates means that commute would cost about $1.15 a day.)

But the real test came Saturday, with a typical suburban big-box run. Our mission: supplies for a garden trellis and other items at Home Depot, a mirror for the powder room (home décor store), bagged dirt from a nursery, and a week’s worth of groceries. We flipped down the back seats and loaded ’er up. Nissan may cringe looking at the picture, but yup, we got a bunch of 8-foot boards into the Leaf, with Jeff riding shotgun to make sure they didn’t shoot through the navigation screen on a sudden stop, along with a couple of big bins of groceries, the mirror and the dirt, with tons of room to spare. (And yes, we brought along an old blanket to keep the Leaf as pristine as her zero emissions!) 

As other testers have noted, Leaf math can take a little getting used to. On our runs down the QEW and Gardiner, we found the kilometres ticking down faster than the car’s computer predicts, but on this sort of urban stop-and-start driving, the recaptured energy from braking really boosts that prediction. When we left, the car said we had enough charge to drive 134 km. On our return, the odometer said we’d travelled 18 km. But the car’s prediction was still 134 km! Though it was nevertheless telling us we were now four hours away from a full charge (on our wimpy 120V plug), that did take the sting out of having to drive back to Home Depot when we realized we’d left a bag of screws behind at the checkout.

Little epiphanies:

Husband: “It’s kinda dirty. Maybe we should run it through the car wash. Oh wait, I’d have to pay full price because I’m not buying gas!”

Doreen (driving on the QEW): “Whoops. I forgot to latch the plug-in door properly and now it’s flipped up. I’ll pull over at the Shell station and fix it. … Hey, if I owned this car, I’d never have to stop here again!”

Doreen Martens, City Team Editor

It was just like a 'regular' car

I TOOK THE VOLT THROUGH A CAR WASH AND I SURVIVED

When I first got into the Chevrolet Volt, I didn't know what to expect.

I pressed the start button and waited. I heard nothing. I mean nothing.

Silence. Only when I put the car in drive did I realize that the thing was on.

I started to laugh. I’m not sure if it was a funny laugh or a
nervous laugh.

To my surprise, the car had good response. It drove like a “regular”
car.

Now my thoughts were, “I'm driving an electrical car. What if it
rains? Will I be electrocuted? Can this thing go through a car wash?”

We all know that electricity and water are a bad mix. So I decided to
test it out and go through a car wash. It passed. Then on Saturday it
rained. No problem, just like a “regular” car.

Driving this car made me feel like I was doing my part in helping the
environment. No emissions. It also gave me front-door parking at a busy mall
because of the designated-hybrid-parking-only space.

Bonus.

— Nello Merante

What kind of trunk space are we talking about?

I was given the opportunity to examine the trunk space of the Nissan Leaf this weekend.

Stop #1:

I decided to take the Nissan Leaf grocery shopping at Fiesta Farms. While the trunk space seemed rather small at first, it definitely fit all my groceries. I generally like to buy a lot of groceries to last the week and my initial concern was I would have to use the back seat of the car. However, the trunk space could have fit double the amount I had in there.

Stop #2:
With the weather warming up, a friend and I decided to take the Leaf to the driving range to practice our swing. While it definitely met my grocery needs, it was a struggle to fit two golf bags in the back.

Other stops on the weekend journey included:

- A Taco Bell drive thru to celebrate Cinco de Mayo

- University of Toronto Campus to educate students about Star Project Green

Chris Salvatore
Marketing Coordinator, SMG Star Media Group