Comparison: 2011 Chevrolet Volt vs 2011 Nissan Leaf SL vs 2011 Toyota Prius III

Future Shock: Which is Best for You? The Highest-Mileage Hybrid, the Wonder Plug-in, or the 100-Percent EV?From the August, 2011 issue of Motor Trend / Photography by William Walker "History," quipped America's greatest philosopher, "doesn't repeat itself...but it does rhyme." Mark Twain died 101 years ago, just as the practice of a whistle and a snap of the reins to your buggy's horse was giving way to hand-cranking newfangled automobiles. I'm no Twain scholar, but it's easy to imagine him lowering one of those famous caterpillar eyebrows and raising the other as those nutty new contraptions clattered past his Connecticut home-rather like our contemporary bystanders in Newport Beach, California (though with much better eyebrow grooming), who stopped and pointed as we photographed a Prius test car next to our long-term Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. Those Twain-like glances are understandable, though; it's been a century since any of us has known anything but petroleum-burning propulsion.

What's brought us to this once-a-century inflection point? Pick your slogan: "Global warming is real!" "Imported oil endangers national security!" "Gas costs four bucks!" Whichever spikes their adrenaline level, people are starting to seriously ponder electric grid-assisted, or entirely grid-powered, automobiles (and creating some odd bedfellows along the way). What are the tradeoffs with living with a plug-in car? To find out, we compared the Prius I mentioned -- which, at a 50 combined mpg, is the most efficient "conventional" car in the country (hands down, in fact) -- against these two levels of electro-pluggability. If you're curious to dip a toe in the electrical current (with the other remaining in a familiar barrel of oil), there's the Volt, which hedges its 35-40-mile EV bet with a range-extending, 1.4-liter engine. Want to swan dive into the EV deep end? The only reason a Leaf needs to visit a gas station is to put air in its tires.

And, yep, for the first time ever, we've enlisted a Prius as a mere technological yardstick. The flip side is the implication that it's time to finally admit that the Prius is actually a mainstream (and even profitable) car. Supporting evidence: The Prius recently cracked the millionth-U.S.-sold milestone; its once-bizarre drivetrain is now discussed in commodity terms; and its nickel-metal-hydride batteries (originally so fretted about) are trying to outlive the cars they're mounted in. It's "effectively" conventional, too, in the sense that if you're oblivious to what's going under the Prius' snout, it doesn't matter. Just fill 'er-up with gas like any other car. (No need to search for any of those "exotic" diesel stations, even.) Motor Trend Rating:

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