General Motors Co., the largest U.S. automaker, will sell its Chevrolet Volt for a starting price of $41,000 and lease terms similar to those on Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf electric car, Bloomberg reported.

The Volt will be leased for $350 a month with a $2,500 down payment, Detroit-based GM said in a statement. Lessees for the Leaf pay $1 less a month and are required to put down $1,999.

The Volt will sell for a premium over the all-electric Leaf, which is scheduled to go on sale in November for $32,780. The Volt’s lease price and longer driving range on a single charge and tank of gasoline will make it a better choice for most drivers, Joel Ewanick, GM’s vice president of U.S. marketing, said today.

“They’re looking for transportation that will give them no anxiety,” Ewanick said on a conference call. “We’re positioning this as a car first and electric second.”

The Volt’s price includes the $720 freight charge. Tony DiSalle, director of product marketing for the Volt, said GM can offer a lower lease rate than Nissan’s Leaf because the company will have a better resale value than its rival car.

The Volt can travel 340 miles on a tank of fuel, with the first 40 in electric drive before a gasoline engine starts to recharge the battery. The Leaf uses no fuel and can travel about 100 miles on a charge.

GM’s customer research found that car buyers are most worried that they would be stranded if their electric car’s battery ran out of power before they get home, Ewanick said.

The company has set up a website where customers can find a dealer and place an order. The automaker also will have a live phone line staffed 24 hours a day, every day to answer questions about the car.

If there is a waiting list, the company will provide buyers with updates about their place in line and their expected wait. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG used a similar system when it introduced the Mini brand in the U.S. in 2002.

The Volt will initially be sold this year in California and then move to parts of Texas, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington, D.C. Next year, GM will build 10,000 of the cars and 30,000 in 2012, the company said.

The company has said the Volt will get 230 mpg. The official rating may be different than that figure, Ewanick said.

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has said he plans to sell 500,000 electric cars annually worldwide by 2012. Both cars will be eligible for U.S. government subsidies of $7,500.

Companies such as Automotive Leasing Guide, which sets residual rates, are likely to give a car like the Volt a higher value because it has better range and could find more buyers in the used-car market, said Jim Hall, principal with consulting firm 2953 Analytics Inc, in Birmingham, Mich. Not all buyers can qualify for a lease, so it may not be a large portion of sales, Hall said.