Sparky Smart may head here

Smart's fourtwo electric car is being tested in London and will be introduced in Australia within a couple of years. Photo / Supplied

The electric version of the Smart fourtwo is "on the radar" for New Zealand, now that Mercedes-Benz in Australia has confirmed it will introduce the plug-in micro-car within the next couple of years.

"We haven't crunched the numbers yet, but we are definitely looking at it," says Coby Duggan, marketing manager for Mercedes-Benz and Smart in New Zealand. "We are closely aligned with Mercedes-Benz in Australia, particularly with Smart."

The new plug-in Smart will go into production in France in November, after which it will be leased by owner Mercedes-Benz for real-world testing to selected customers in Europe and the United States. From 2012, it will be available worldwide.

It can be charged at any normal household socket overnight, says Smart. The car is powered by a 14kW lithium-ion battery pack housed in the floor between the two axles and driving a 30kW/120Nm electric motor in the rear.

Fully charged, the fourtwo has a range of around 115km. In Germany, a full charge costs about €2 ($4.20), says Smart. Top speed is limited to 100km/h - but acceleration is brisk: Smart claims a zero to 100km/h time of 6.5 seconds.

It has one single fixed gear ratio. There is no need for any gear changing. To reverse, the engine's direction of rotation simply changes.

The second-generation battery pack is made by California company Tesla Motors, which makes a plug-in version of the Lotus Elise sports car and is testing a sedan, the Tesla Model S.

Tesla will open a new plant in Southern California to produce the sedan, which is expected to have a range of 500km on a full charge.

CEO Elon Musk - the founder of the PayPal system - is negotiating with the cities of Long Beach and Downey.

Musk says the possible locations are Long Beach's former Boeing 717 aircraft plant, which ceased production in 2006, or a former Nasa production site next to Downey Studios.

The plug-in fourtwo is based on the petrol-powered coupe/cabrio models. Smart began testing the first-generation fortwo electric version in London traffic in 2007. A year later it began testing the second-generation example in the same city.

Says Marc Langenbrinck, Smart brand manager at HQ in Stuttgart: "The second-generation fortwo electric drive is based on a successful and accepted vehicle concept with character and inherent environmentally friendly characteristics.

"Its innovative electric battery drive makes it the perfect car for the city: it is agile, economical and climate-friendly. Motoring with zero local emissions in an urban environment has become a reality. This equates to driving fun with a clear conscience."

Electronics monitor the battery, the charging process, the capacity display and supply the vehicle's electrical system with power from the battery via a DC/DC converter.

The electronics also control the heating and air conditioning, to minimise strain on the battery. Smart says drivers can air-condition the Smart fortwo in advance - as long as the vehicle is being charged at home. No other car offers this comfortable option, says the carmaker.

The fourtwo is likely to be one of three electric cars from big-time carmakers on the road in New Zealand in 2012. Mitsubishi will have its small iMiEV up and running and Nissan is expected to have the first of its new Leaf hatchbacks available.

Honda also plans to develop an electric car to debut in the US by around 2015 as tighter environmental regulations push demand for zero-emission vehicles.

Other carmakers such as Toyota and Volkswagen have also announced plans to launch electric cars in the next few years.

Consumer research, says New Zealand electricity supplier Meridian Energy, shows there is widespread interest here for plug-in electric cars.

One in two Australian car owners say they are prepared to replace their petrol-engined cars with hybrid or all-electric vehicles, according to a survey commissioned by US-based Better Place, the company planning to build a recharging grid across the ditch.

Better Place says its survey conducted this year on the east coast of Australia revealed 45 per cent of respondents would not consider a petrol-only car for their next new-car purchase.

In the survey of 1500 car owners in and around Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, 39 per cent said they would be interested in buying an electric car as their next vehicle, while 62 per cent said they wanted to test drive an electric car.

Better Place plans to establish an electric car recharging grid in Australia from 2012 as part of a global roll-out of networks that will debut in Israel in 2011.

The technology would allow Australian drivers to swap the batteries in their electric cars in the same way they exchange gas bottles for their barbecues.

Electric car owners would then buy pay-per-kilometre plans from Better Place as consumers buy minutes from mobile phone companies.

Better Place Australia's chief executive, Evan Thornley, told website GoAuto that the survey carried out by international market research agency Ipsos is the first local consumer research of its kind and confirms there is demand in Australia for battery-electric vehicles.

"The [results] really show there's a large customer base out there wanting to buy an electric car," says Thornley, "and the opportunity is there for the first car makers, and I hope some of them will be Australian car makers, to start capturing that market opportunity.

"A lot of Australians are frustrated. They want to make a change but are not being given the opportunity by businesses or government.

"There's no love lost for petrol; it's not a highlight of their lives. If you ask people if they'd buy a car that was as convenient as or more convenient than petrol and was as cheap as or was cheaper than petrol, then a large number of them will say yes."

The Australian research was part of a multinational survey that also included Israel, Denmark, Canada and the United States.

Israel's results revealed two-thirds of those surveyed would not consider a petrol-only car as their next vehicle purchase, though in the US only a third were contemplating a hybrid or battery-electric vehicle.

However, according to a study released by the University of California, Berkeley, electric cars could account for up to 86 per cent of light vehicle sales in the US by 2030 if consumers don't have to buy batteries themselves and petrol prices climb significantly.