As test drives go, this is pretty nerdy. With an early evening snow flurry falling, I am gliding silently through the streets of Detroit in Toyota’s prototype for a future plug-in electric car.

Saul Ibarra, a young and chipper Toyota product specialist, directs me as I negotiate around the rustbelt city’s retro downtown area in the car. It is identical in appearance to a Prius hybrid, but able to drive longer and faster on its battery, which you can recharge from any wall socket via a hefty charger cable, which is stored in the car’s trunk .