Figure in the tax credit of $7,500, and the fact that Chevy had in the meantime lowered the Volt's base MSRP to $35,000, and I could buy a brand new 2014 Volt for a net $27,500. Having expressly avoided owning a Chevy-or any American car, for that matter-for all my car-owning life, I wasn't expecting much.Ģ011 Chevrolet Volt, before lease return, Hudson Valley, NY, Aug 2014 īut the economics of e-cars made that price way too high. Growing more and more frustrated with Nissan, I stopped by the Chevy dealer for a perfunctory test drive. And every day I was driving by a local Chevy dealer with a Volt sitting right out front. How much longer would I have to wait for my Leaf? A month? Six months? A year? No word from Nissan. To get me through the interim period, I also put down a $99 deposit on a Nissan Leaf.īut by December 2010, when the Leaf and Volt both hit the showrooms, I was getting more and more annoyed by a total lack of communication from Nissan about when the Leaf would be available in New York state, where I lived.ĪLSO SEE: 2014 BMW i3 REx Vs Chevy Volt: Range-Extended Electric Cars Compared I'd already put down my $5,000 deposit on the Model S, but delivery was three or four years away. 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2013 Tesla Model S īack in the Dark Ages of electric cars-2009-I had dismissed the Volt as not a "real" e-car, compromised by its gasoline-powered range-extending engine.