So, took a longer look at the Volt, and read a bit of Leaf bashing on Volt fora, and a few things emerge...
some obvious....
--Most people who buy the Leaf or the Volt are happy with their purchase.
--The Volt costs 33% more than the Leaf, seats 4 instead of 5, and has less interior and cargo space and headroom.
--Volt drivers seem to prefer the more conventional exterior styling, more lux interior styling, sporty driving and 25% higher horsepower of the Volt.
--Volt drivers talk a LOT about this thing called 'Range Anxiety', Leaf drivers not so much. Probably selection bias.
--Both Volt and Leaf drivers love to dis the Prius, as a car that has similar price/performance, but much higher fuel costs, emissions and cost of ownership.
some less obvious....
--While the Volt battery pack and EV range is half that of the Leaf, Volt drivers will much more often run it down to 0% (or wherever the gen cuts in), whereas Leaf drivers will maintain a reserve, say, never routinely using the last 20-30%. So Volt drivers talk about 'usable EV range' being only like 50% higher for the Leaf. Seems true.
--I gather the Volt EV range meter has built in capacity/SOC reserves, since maximum EV range is not crucial to sales/use, so as the battery ages, the capacity/EV range does not appear to drop at all. In contrast the Leaf range estimator will allow you to watch the (slow) degradation of your battery with the life of the vehicle. The leaf fora are full of 'my 3 month old Leaf just lost a bar of battery capacity, but my friends 1 year old Leaf still has 12 bars, wah!'. Seems like a psychological, rather than engineering issue, but could be significant for many drivers. Volt drivers seem convinced by this that their batteries are much more durable/long-lived...but I am skeptical. The chemistry is identical.
--Volt drivers rack up slightly more EV miles/yr than Leaf drivers....I suspect this is due to different needs...folks that need to drive more buy Volts, folks that are looking for an urban runabout buy Leafs.
Bottom line:
--the vehicles fill different niches of the EV market, and don't obviously compete for buyers. Teslas are IMO a third, distinct niche.
--both vehicles had glitches on roll out 3 years ago, Volts had some fires after tests, Leafs had some battery warranty claims in Arizona heat.
--after working out the early kinks, sales of both vehicles are showing robust growth to ~25k units in the US during 2013, more expected in 2014.
--the Volt got off to an early head start sales-wise, the Leaf is currently ahead on monthly figures. I see a lot more Volts on the road....I suspect that Leafs are more unevenly distributed, e.g. are popular in some metros in CA, Atlanta, not so much in the Snow Belt, and spend less time on the freeway (the only place you really 'see' other cars).
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