No. If you find out an EV is not for you and decide to terminate the lease there will be a very substantial early termination fee. I suggest renting for a couple weeks (or whatever) instead.
I too bought a Hybrid vehicle for my most recent change of cars - a 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid - because any car longer than 160" and wider than 72" cannot fit up my driveway and park in the garage built in 1921, and I would have no way of installing any kind of higher current charger for an EV if I street parked it (and running some huge extension cord to it would not be advisable even if I could 100% guarantee “the spot” right in front of my house, which I can’t).
Word of caution to anyone else thinking of this: temper your expectations. I’ve gotten excellent fuel efficiency with this Hybrid, but only after the battery warms up, which means a trip of at least 15 minutes to “start working” in warm weather and upwards of 25 minutes in sub-freezing weather (if you don’t have an indoor heated garage to park it in).
In other words, if your driving use, like mine, is dominated by frequent 10-15 minute trips, you’re not going to see that much difference from an ordinary car until you do the longer trips. Meanwhile, the battery powered torque/HP boost to the engine power is all in the lower speed range, so it goes from 0-10 MPH up to 40-50 MPH very quickly, but has very little passing power or ability to cruise above 70 MPH on the highway.
To answer the question in the OP - some time in the next 5-10 years, especially after my nearly grown kids have moved out and I’m not driving a family of five around any more on a regular basis, I’ll downsize to something like the electric Mini Cooper that can fit in my garage for the routine errand driving, and to run a high powered charger to it, and to keep a secondary ICE or Hybrid car for longer road trips. (Quite possibly the one I already have, a 2007 Acura TSX sedan, if it hasn’t died yet, which it may not have.)
This is a very good point, but I was not clear. I didn’t mean like try it for a few weeks, I meant we would try it for the life of the lease (2-3 years) so we could really get a good sense of how it fits into our driving lifestyle, and then decide if we really wanted to permanently switch to electric vehicles.
As soon as the market for pre-owned electric vehicles puts them in my price range, I intend to buy one, and go all electric (or plug-in electric hybrid) for the rest of my life.
It’s test drive day! I look forward to hearing your thoughts of the test drive.
We’re back from the test drive this morning - a 2020 Hyundai Kona EV Ultimate trim. Here’s my report.
PROS
- Great driving experience. I loved the smooth acceleration, the handling was responsive, the ride quality was smooth enough that I wasn’t jolted but not like floating on a cloud (which I don’t like) - good balance for me.
- It’s so quiet!
- Large screen for navigation, etc. Built in navigation system worked well.
- Control buttons and knobs are in accessible/intuitive spots.
- Lots of accessible storage for small items, like phones, cups, etc.
- Heated seats and steering wheel are nice little extras.
NEUTRAL
- Quality of interior materials is fine. Nothing outstanding, nothing terrible.
- Pushing buttons for gears is weird and would take getting used to.
CONS
- Interior feels a little cramped. Oddly, our smaller Honda Fit feels roomier inside.
- No right turn camera. Back-up camera only offers one view. (Our current car has better cameras).
- Rear cargo area is small.
- There was some kind of annoying beeping that started every time we started the car from a stop. I’m sure it’s some kind of safety feature, but it was incredibly obnoxious.
- Back window is small.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I could see myself driving it. Wife was maybe a little less enthusiastic. We’re going to test the Nissan Leaf before making any decisions.
Hah! That’s exactly what we bought. I remember years back, when we bought our first CRV, asking for car advice and someone said “Everyone who asks for advice seems to wind up buying a Honda”.
Our mileage hasn’t been extraordinary. Better than the old one, for sure, which I think was averaging 24 MPG around town, sometimes close to 28 on the highway. By contrast, several regular vehicles we’ve rented (Chevy Equinox, Dodge Caravan) have gotten considerably more than that, despite being larger vehicles. Newer tech, and both turn themselves off at stoplights.
We’re averaging just under 33 MPG overall - though it’s a small sample size; we bought the car 4 months ago and I think the odometer just turned over 2,000 miles yesterday. The “miles to empty” indicator is a fiction, since it’s based on recent usage; we did a round-trip drive to Philadelphia and it went from “plenty of gas with 50 miles left over” to “Ummmm, not making it home without refueling” over the course of the drive. I suspect there’s a sweet spot in terms of length-of-drive, outside temperature etc. that gives the ideal MPG with a hybrid; I remember my brother being very disappointed with his, until he realized that his driving pattern (winter, Chicago area, few blocks at a time) was NOT in that sweet spot.
And of course someone buying an EV or PHEV needs to remember: they are not “non-polluting” but :elsewhere-polluting", as that electricity has to be generated somewhere, and there are costs associated to that (the most visible being a higher household power bill).
Is that how the Kona implements the legally required AVAS (Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System) for an EV?
Basically, it’s an audial key - a sound trigger - for pedestrians and bicyclists to realize there’s a moving vehicle near them that isn’t producing the expected sound of a running engine (under 15 MPH).
Early Hybrids and EVs would simulate the sound of a combustion engine, but somehow that was sub-optimal because most or all manufacturers now substitute some other sound. My CR-V Hybrid makes a sound like an angelic choir (“aaaahhh!”), LOL.
Yes and no. We signed up for a “green energy” program with our electric company which uses hydro, wind and solar power.
As for electric bills, maybe because we don’t drive far routinely, but our bills didn’t change enough to notice.
In the US, some kind of noise is now required by law for EVs when driving below some speed (forget what it is, but around 15 or 18 mph). It’s because EVs are so quiet, and without the noise, blind people, or even just people not paying attention, won’t be able to tell the car is there without it. The law doesn’t specify what noise, so every manufacturer can choose their own. I expect eventually some cars will even let the driver choose what noise to make.
Yes, but ICE cars are so inefficient that even if your electricity is entirely generated by burning coal (WV, for example), EVs are still a win in terms of GHG. Most places have some mixture of fossil fuel and renewable power, and the renewable fraction is increasing as coal plants are retired, so it’s way better to drive an EV than an ICEV.
As @robardin and @dtilque say, it is the pedestrian warning thing. To make the noise go away, get deeper into the go pedal. Go faster, faster.
As typical, Tesla is several years ahead of all other EV manufacturers! Teslas equipped with warning speakers can now fart at pedestrians, or even play custom recordings.
Unfortunately my car is too old, so it doesn’t have the warning speaker. The car’s farts are limited to the interior, but they can be made to sound like they’re coming from any passenger.
I don’t have an EV yet, but I want mine to moo. Or else trumpet like an elephant. 
Truly ironic. You got a Tesla EV to eliminate emissions, yet are now disappointed it does not make external fart sounds for pedestrians and bicyclists.
If I could choose a sound for the AVAS, I’d go with a loop of snare drums like in a marching band. That would be fun.
Or the bass groove from the 1989 song “Humpty Dance” by the Digital Underground.
The interior farting is actually called “emissions testing mode.”
Since release of the external “boombox” mode people have tweeted @musk and asked on forums about a retrofit package to install the warning speaker on older hardware revisions.
No, I don’t think this was it. This was an internal beep, not an external noise. I could hear the outside pedestrian warning noise when I slowed down and it was barely noticeable from inside the car - it sounded kind of like a TIE fighter flying by, but milder. And there was a mild back-up beep warning as well - also not obnoxious. I think this was some kind of proximity warning thing, maybe? It was a loud, internal sequence of beeps that lasted for like 8 seconds. Honestly, if it’s not able to be turned off, it would be a complete deal-breaker for me. Super loud and obnoxious.
That’s quiet possible, too. My car will give me proximity warnings when I back out or pull into my garage, because of the narrow opening. It will also do it if I’m near an object in front or behind at slow speeds. It doesn’t do it if I’m merely going slow in an open area, or if I’m going fast near an object, like a jersey barrier on the highway. If you’ve not driven a car with proximity warnings before, it is definitely a change.
You should take a look at the owners manual online. There may be ways to set the sensitivity and volume. On mine, the proximity beep is a reasonable volume, and I wouldn’t call it obnoxious. The “why are you accelerating towards a stopped car” alarm is very loud and obnoxious.
Sounds like an issue with the proximity alerts, how close do you pull up to people in traffic? 
The other sounds you describe are like my 2019 Kona.
No argument there. It can also be easier for power plants to reduce emissions overall, than for millions of cars, and easier for government inspectors to mandate that the emissions standards are met.
Interesting on the noise. I hear the “angels singing” when my car is at a low speed; I always assumed it was 'just" the sound of the electric engine doing its thing. I guess that’s sort of right, except it’s an artificially-generated sound. Honestly, I doubt it’s loud enough to be heard more than a couple steps away, though. I guess it’s better than nothing, but I don’t think it’s as loud as an ICE.
How about a ghoulish voice from a horror movie loudly whispering over and over
Don’t look now; they’re right behind you! They’re right behind you!
The angelic choir can get stuck in your head, I would hate to have the ghoulish voice do the same 