Mygreenwheels

London's network of free public recharging stations must surely have made it a no-brainer as Daimler's location choice to test plug-in versions of its Smart Fourtwo from mid-December. The plan is to deliver electric Smarts to about 100 lucky customers in London with similar pilots running in two other European cities.

Before London EV fans get too excited about this, the cars will be leased for the period of the 4-year test to mostly corporate and public sector users including the police. If it all goes to plan, commercial production of the cars will begin in 2010 before the pilot is over.

The first of Smart's electric models will come with conventional nickel metal hydride batteries, but Daimler claims that a viable lithium ion battery is 'just around the corner'.

These Smart EVs will have a top speed of 115kmph, range of more than 110km and will take around three and a half hours to recharge to a level needed for most commutes (whatever that might be - the FT report doesn't say).

So it looks like we're about to see a seriously cute-looking electric car on the UK roads. OK, it's just a conversion for the moment, but the Smarts were so revolutionary when they first appeared that I feel sure the EV production version will be just as exciting. And by 2010 who knows what fancy telemetry and gadgets they'll be building into them. Shucks, maybe even four seats! Now that would truly be something.

These things will sell like hot cakes - unless of course they've got some totally silly price tag on them and so far there's no mention of pricing strategy. Still, the ICE models are priced from £6,900, so it can't cost THAT much to produce an electric version, can it?