stability control and top ratings for front, side, rear and rollover crash protection. you may ask why, because i mean i ve driven these cars, they re very small. why did they get such great ratings? the weight helps and the weight from the batteries, the batteries of both plug-ins are heavy, more than 400 pounds, giving the small cars the weight of a mid-size or even full-size car. you get better handling and much better crash response. note as you mentioned, the leaf is fully electric and the volt is a gas plug-in hybrid. the gas engine kicks in only after you run out of the electrical charge. the batteries in terms of crash testing, people fear electronic shocks, the shut off instantly upon impact and they were really safe. the batteries did not get damaged in the tests. we re learning more about these cars and every new piece of information makes it easier to mainstream what could be a viable option to keep our carbon