At the recent Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany, Toyota’s executive vice president handicapped the growth potential of electric cars.

“Electric vehicles of today are less costly than in the 1990s, but if you compare them with the other vehicles out there, they are still too expensive,” Takeshi Uchiyamada said. “Unless there is a very big breakthrough in battery costs, I don’t think electric vehicles can take a large market share.”

Nevertheless, Toyota is planning multiple vehicles that will utilize lithium-ion battery technology.

The Leaf is supposed to have a 100-mile range on a full charge (drawn overnight from a 220-volt garage outlet), and Tavares said 90 percent of Americans drive fewer than 100 miles per day.

Nissan spokesman Fred Standish said the Leaf will be imported from Japan for U.S. sales in 2010. Production in Smyrna should begin in late 2012.

Nissan has said production of the Leaf, and its lithium-ion battery, should create 1,300 jobs in Smyrna. As of March 31, Nissan employs 5,100 people in Middle Tennessee: 1,200 at its Franklin headquarters and 3,900 at the Smyrna plant.

Nissan North America, the fifth-largest automaker in the United States, reported August sales of 105,312 units, a 2.9 percent decrease compared to 2008.

Miller said carmakers appear confident the electric technology will be embraced, noting that a growing number have announced plans to include electric cars in their lineups.

“They’re past experimenting,” he said. “This isn’t just a trial-and-error thing.”

However, Brett Smith, a senior industry analyst with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said automakers pursuing electric cars could get burned by the hype surrounding what is essentially an unproven technology. He said diesel engines performed miserably when rushed to market in the 1970s, hampering their reputation even today.

“If you get too far ahead of the curve, you’re going to get killed,” Smith said. “If you get too far behind the curve, you’re an also-ran. For Nissan, that’s the question right now: Where are they on that curve?”

While Tavares said electric cars will create an impact lasting “decades” in Middle Tennessee, he sounded a slightly cautious note about the future of the area’s automotive industry.

“Nothing is locked for the future, because, as you know, things go very fast, and faster and faster,” he said.