Volt a letdown for lead foot

Drivers with a lead foot will feel let down by the Chevy Volt.

I did.

Some might say I’m annoyingly aggressive behind a wheel.

On Queen Street, whenever possible (read: safe), I will try to beat a streetcar through the intersection.

Not in this car.

I couldn’t get a head start against a Chrysler Fifth Avenue when a red light turned green on the Bayview Extension.

It was almost as frustrating to stop as it was to speed up. There was a crunchiness to the braking; like it slowed in phases, not on my foot’s command.

I liked some things about the Volt.

The headroom. I’m 5”10 and didn’t feel a bit cramped. The quiet. If it weren’t for the electronic dash
display, I wouldn’t know the car was on. Actually made me feel a little more Zen than I do in my SUV.

If I wasn’t running late for an appointment, I might have laid back and enjoyed the drive.

— Diana Zlomislic

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

 

I couldn't tell if the car was on or off

As one of two Toronto Star employees assigned to take the Project Green electric cars to the Green Living Show last weekend, I drove the Nissan Leaf.

As I had never driven an electric car before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Right off, it felt a bit strange because it was so quiet. It was hard to tell if it was on or off.

I’m used to driving my own cars when they are very low on fuel and so I know what to expect and how far I can drive, even with the gas light on. But I was a bit unsure with the Leaf, as the videographers had been driving it around for much of the day last Friday. I didn’t know how far I would be able to go with the battery partially drained, even though the car was telling me that I would be fine.

When I arrived at the Green Living Show, in the Direct Energy Centre building at the CNE, we had to jockey the cars in and around the Star booth in order to fit them in. So I had to get in and out of the car to make sure it was positioned correctly and I was able to do all that with ease.

After I left the Direct Energy Centre, I got thinking about the car and the fact that I didn’t have to use the key to start it; I just had to push a button and it turned on. I also thought again about how quiet the car was and that it was hard to tell if the car was on or off.

Suddenly I thought: did I turn the car off? What would happen if I didn’t? Would the battery run out? If I walked away from the car with the key fob in my pocket, would it just turn off automatically? I didn’t know.

So I went back – and guess what? The car was off.

– Brian Cordingley

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.