Never one to miss the opportunity for a pithy quote, petrolhead extraordinaire Jay Leno has come up trumps again whilst taking delivery of his new 2011 Chevrolet Volt.

"Electricity is like sex. People lie about it," quipped Leno, referring to how owners are occasionally inclined to add a few more inches... SORRY! miles... to their vehicle's range than is actually the case.

It's not one of Leno's better one-liners and we'd be the first to point out that electric car range seems almost infinitely variable depending on the type of car, the type of driving and the type of driver. Not dissimilar then, to regular internal combustion vehicles. Leno appears though to have been referring more to electricity's usefulness for going longer distances than specifically having a dig at EV drivers.

Perhaps electric car owners do over-state their range sometimes though, maybe as a way to reassure others that range anxiety need not be an issue? We'd certainly forgive them that, given how pessimistic milage ratings from the EPA for cars like the 2011 Nissan LEAF are. In our experience (no lies here, Jay...) the LEAF can realistically achieve the 100 miles that Nissan claim it can rather than the 73 of the EPA test, though we're yet to test it in colder conditions. Nissan reckons many drivers will beat the EPA's claims.

Back to Leno's Chevy Volt, which the chat-show host says will actually be used as his daily driver, rather than sitting amongst his massive car collection in Burbank, California. For a man with so many incredible cars to choose from, this is a nice vote of confidence in the Volt. It's also a show of confidence in the American car industry, commenting that he's buying it for the U.S. technology and because it's built in Detroit.

You can watch a video of Leno taking delivery below:

Of course, we'll make no comment on how far Jay might be able to get in pure EV mode...

[USA Today]