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Thanks everyone, that's about what I figured. Part of my confusion with driving in L is it seems like some describe it as if they're either using energy or regen with no coasting (I'm sure there are people who drive like that, I've seen them do it with the gas and brake). Just wanted to make sure coasting was still valid.
I've test driven a Leaf twice, but both times were just a mile or two drive up the road and back. Volt was a 10-15 mile drive with a few miles on the freeway. Smart EV was about 6 miles of city. I liked all of them and wouldn't hesitate to buy any (I'd have to do more research on the Smart's reliability), but none of those drives were long enough to really give a feel of how to maximize range (unless driving down a perpetual hill is a viable scenario). My biggest complaint between the 3 was the Leaf's power steering being so helpful I thought I was going to throw the steering wheel through the door. Funny thing is despite the Smart being the smallest, its battery didn't reduce the usable space inside the car. Also rode in a Model S 85 the Volt's dealer had, I can't imagine how it must feel accelerating even faster than that in the performance and AWD versions.
Something interesting about the gen2 Volt is the regen paddle that you can pull to get regen similar to L and lighting the brake light. I think I would drive in D if I had that to make coasting easier while still being able to get some good regen without risking the disc brakes activating. We'll just have to see what's on the used market when the Prius finally dies.
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