On Tuesday I had a good long chat with Dan Thompson, the dynamic young American who is running the Nissan operation in Australia these days. That was followed up by lunch with Rob McEniry the next day, he’s an equally dynamic Aussie guy, who heads up Mitsubishi Motors and is doing an excellent job of reviving the fortunes of the local branch of the Japanese company in the post-380 era.

Both men want to be first in Australia in the EV (Electric Vehicle) field. However, they have set themselves into two different classes in upcoming competition. Mitsubishi is already promoting its i MiEV as ‘Australia's First Electric Car’ and has just completed an introductory trip to most capital cities in Australia. Early this year we were amongst the first to drive the i MiEV and came away impressed by how normal it felt on the road. To the extent that someone in the passenger seats may not even pick it as being an electric car.

McEniry is sweating on getting enough cars, and says he is struggling to get an allocation from the initial batch of i MiEV. He said he would be delighted to get 20 of them. Indeed, even five to ten would make him happy. Anything to make the Mitsubishi electric car the first in Australia seemed to be his attitude. He hopes to have the Mitsubishi i MiEV on our roads early in 2010.

(Before the pedants step in and complain, Mitsubishi is well aware that there were electric cars on Australian roads at the turn of the 20^th century. Perhaps the company should be describing i MiEV as, ‘The first electric car of the modern era’.)

Nissan's Dan Thompson was also keen to talk on the subject of the just-announced Nissan LEAF. This being the acronym for Nissan's first mass production electric car, it stands for Leading Environmentally-friendly Affordable Family-car (nothing modest about these guys) and is scheduled to be introduced in Japan and the USA in the third quarter of 2010, with other markets, including Australia, following shortly afterwards.

Though the Nissan LEAF is further away from on-road reality in Australia than the Mitsubishi electric car, Thompson aims to sell the car in relatively large numbers. He is quite definite about not wanting to rush the car to Australia just to be number one. Nissan is predicting that 10 per cent of all cars sold by 2020 will be EVs.

‘Sell’ isn't necessary the right word to describe Nissan Australia's plans for the LEAF. The company says it would probably make more sense to lease them to customers. High initial costs and rapid rate of development of electric cars make them different to conventional cars on the roads today. Thompson feels that being able to lease cars would make potential customers less wary about paying top dollar for a vehicle that would be a quite a way out of date not long after it was delivered. Another possibility is for the cars to be sold, but the batteries to be leased.

Both car company chiefs are aware of the ongoing problems of electric vehicles. The biggest drawback is restricted driving range and the long charging times required at home or at the office. However, most people in Australia only drive relatively short distances and electric cars as they currently stand would be suited to daily use.

If electric cars are charged in the wee-small hours of the morning, when demand on the electricity grid is at its lowest, there would be more than enough power on tap (on plug?) to cope with the charging of tens of thousands of EVs.

Fast charging machines, that can typically get batteries to 80 per cent of their capacity in half an hour, would require a new infrastructure to be set up, probably in shopping centres, parking stations, even fast-food outlets and perhaps built into parking meters.

Though electric vehicle are often heavily prompted as having zero emissions, the fact remains that the electricity has to be generated. And Australia's dirty brown coal doesn't do EVs any favours. Both Mitsubishi and Nissan say that, in the long term, all electricity has to come from renewable sources.

I wait with great interest the next stages in the never ending battle for sales in the dynamic Australian automotive industry, that for electric cars.