After Chevy announced the Volt’s pricing yesterday, we decided to put the numbers in some context. Below are the buy and lease prices for the Volt and its upcoming fuel-sipping challenger, the Nissan Leaf—though they are very different vehicles indeed. We’ve thrown in the stand-by yardstick, the Toyota Prius, for good measure. We’ll steer clear of the running-cost debate for now, rather than open a box even Pandora wouldn’t touch.

Full MSRPTax CreditLease TermsTotal Payments2011 Chevrolet Volt$41,000$7500 (Federal), some says offer additional credits$350/month, 36 months, $2500 down$15,1002011 Nissan Leaf$32,780$7500 (Federal), some says offer additional credits$349/month, 36 months, $1999 down$14,8092010 Toyota Prius*$22,150–28,845Sales and use tax exemption in Washington state$219/month, 36 months, $2299 down$10,183

*Pricing is promotional to clear 2010 inventory; 2011 prices aren’t yet available

Being electric cars—mostly—the Volt and Leaf can plug into your 120-volt home outlet. There’s no extra equipment needed for that, though charging times will be longer than a New Yorker article. A faster charging system may be a necessity, especially for the Leaf, as Nissan reports that a 220-volt outlet’s juice will take 8 hours to charge the Leaf fully. Chevy, on the other hand, is claiming that power from a normal 120-volt socket will be sufficient to charge the Volt overnight.

Considering that both the Leaf and the Volt are asking for money that, before the tax credit, could put you in a BMW instead, they’re fairly well equipped. The Nissan Leaf comes standard with “advanced” navigation, phone integration (and no doubt the requisite phone apps that will let drivers turn the air conditioning on from inside their house), Bluetooth, satellite radio, stability control, traction control, and six airbags.

If you’re an airbag-oriented shopper, however, Chevy will tell you that the Volt has eight of then, as well as stability control, a touch-screen navigation system, a Bose stereo, and five years of so much OnStar there’s another press release for it.

Both the Volt and the Leaf will come with generous warranties to ease concerns about long-term battery life. Chevy is going to offer 8 years/100,000 miles on the Volt’s battery, 3 years bumper-to-bumper, and 5 years on the Volt’s gas engine. Nissan just announced that it’s also offering 8 years/100,000 miles of warranty on the Leaf’s battery; the rest of the EV’s warranty hasn’t been announced yet.

We are, of course, excited to test both the Volt and the Leaf fully, but in the meantime we’re glad that the slow drip of information on these vehicles has become more of a steady flow.

Related posts:GM Claims Chevy Volt is On Track Despite Cost HurdlesGM Expects Chevy Volt to Achieve 230 mpg CityPricing Announced for 2011 Chevy Silverado HD, GMC Sierra HD

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