Edition: U.S. / Global

BEHIND THE WHEEL/General Motors EV1, Toyota RAV4-EV, Honda EV Plus; Charge! Doing an Electric Commute

Published: July 26, 1998

A TURTLE icon suddenly lit up on the dashboard of my Toyota RAV4 Electric Vehicle. The car's batteries were exhausted and I had entered ''limp home mode,'' which would allow me to putter along at a reduced speed for a few miles to make it back to a charger.

But instead of slowing down, the car stalled completely on a dark street a mile from my home. Panicked, I jumped out, pushed the car to the side of the road and began scrounging for coins to call a tow truck.

But after turning the car off for a few minutes and then restarting it, the RAV4-EV moved again, though for only another block before it stalled again. It took about 15 minutes of starting and stopping, including a heart-pounding dash across busy Wilshire Boulevard, to make it back to my garage.

Running out of charge is the worst nightmare for the driver of an electric car. There are few places for recharging, and you cannot walk to a service station and buy a can of charge to get you moving again. In this case, however, as part of my effort to assess the everyday practicality of three electric vehicles, I had ignored low-battery warnings for 20 miles and deliberately run down the batteries to see what would happen.

Southern California is the nation's test-bed for electric vehicles. Spurred by a state rule that will require 10 percent of the vehicles sold in the state to be emission-free starting in 2003, manufacturers have introduced several electric models. And a network of public charging stations, which would be the gas stations of the electric age, is beginning to sprout.

I spent four weeks using electric vehicles for all of my driving, with a few exceptions for distances beyond the cars' range. In addition to the Toyota, I sampled the General Motors EV1 and the Honda EV Plus.

So far, few of these cars have been leased. (Manufacturers, worried about the batteries' longevity, are generally offering the cars for lease rather than purchase.) G.M., the first to market in December 1996, had leased just 430 through the end of June. Honda, which is making its EV available in New York this month, has leased 177 in Southern California since the car's debut in May 1997. Toyota, having decided that EV's are not suited for general consumers, is leasing the car only to fleets, but on a nationwide basis. Since November it has received orders for 382.

Besides a limited driving range that makes it difficult to visit distant suburbs, the cars are expensive. The electric RAV4, for instance, leases for $457 or sells for $42,000. It has a top speed of 78 miles an hour and can travel about 100 miles on a charge. The conventional, gasoline-powered RAV4, which sells for about $25,000, can go more than four times that far on a tank of gasoline, and at much higher speeds.

G.M.'s car leases for $399 a month for three years, a steep price for a two-seater that goes 70 to 90 miles -- at most -- on a charge. (The price includes free towing to a charger if the need arises.) The Honda EV Plus, a four-seat hatchback that looks like a small minivan, leases for $455 a month.

On top of those prices, one needs to have a charger installed at home. The construction required for that costs $800 or more.

Despite these drawbacks, the electric cars were perfectly suitable for commuting and moving around town for appointments. And they offer some advantages. The ride is quiet, and there is something nice about not having to go to gas stations -- one can just plug in the car at home for recharging overnight. The power I used was scarcely noticeable on my monthly electricity bills. I normally spend $10 to $15 a week on gasoline.

Driving an electric car is similar to using a gasoline-powered car, but there are differences. Turning on the car requires flicking a switch rather than igniting a spark and turning over the engine.

While Honda and Toyota still require drivers to turn a key, this is largely a nod to tradition. G.M. has done away with keys altogether. You unlock the doors and start the car by punching a numeric code onto keypads. In all the cars, the dashboard lights up -- but, eerily, there is no sound or vibration, making it hard to believe the car is running.

Driving is quiet as well, although a high-frequency whine from the motor rises in pitch during acceleration and falls during deceleration. The EV1 is quick, but the Honda and Toyota are sluggish.

Although Southern California is the nation's capital of electric vehicles, most people still have never seen one. I had driven only half a block in the G.M. EV1 when the driver behind me pulled alongside at a red light and asked, ''What kind of car is that?'' For the whole month I found myself being stared at and questioned.

This is especially true for the EV1, which looks like a space-age sports car with an unusual, tapered rear end. (Like the Honda, the EV1 does not share its body with any other vehicle.) By the time I got the RAV4-EV, which looks virtually the same as the regular RAV4, I was pining for some anonymity. But my hopes faded when I saw that Toyota had prominently labled the car as an electric vehicle with big letters across the sides.