Germany wants to put 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2020, and it looks like the first of them will be the Lilliputian Smart fortwo EV that starts rolling off an assembly line in November.

Daimler announced today that it will begin mass-producing the urban runabout by mid-November and begin leasing it to "selected" customers in Europe and the United States by the end of the year. The rest of us will be able to buy it in 2012. The car we'll see this fall is actually the second generation fortwo EV, and it sports a lithium-ion battery pack – designed and built by Tesla Motors – with a range of 115 kilometers (about 71 miles) and an "overnight" recharge time.

"Motoring with zero local emissions in an urban environment has become a reality," says Smart's Marc Langenbrinck in a statement about the second-generation smart fortwo electric drive.

The 14-kilowatt-hour battery sits between the rear wheels in the space where the conventional fortwo has a gas tank. It powers a 30-kilowatt (40.2-horsepower) electric motor. That isn't much, but the tiny motor produces enough torque – 92.1 pound-feet – to propel the car from zero to 60 km/hr (37 mph) in a respectable 6.5 seconds. For the sake of comparison, the 2009 Honda Civic needs 9.8 seconds.

Top speed is limited to 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph), a move intended to maximize the battery's range. Daimler says 62 mph is plenty for a car designed primarily for city driving. The battery recharges "overnight" when plugged into a 220-volt line (like your dryer uses), but Daimler says you can get enough juice to go 40 kilometers (25 miles) in about three hours.

Daimler plans to lease the cars to start getting some "intensive real-world testing." It's similar to what BMW is doing with the electric Mini-E – turning over a few hundred cars for what is essentially a big R&D project, then using the data to refine the cars before offering them to the mass market. Those lucky enough to get their hands on a Smart EV will keep it for four years or 60,000 kilometers (about 37,000) miles.

No word on what the lease will cost – BMW is charging $850 a month for the Mini-E – or what the sticker price will be when the car goes on sale in 2012.

The Smart uses a battery pack designed with help from Tesla Motors, which started working with Daimler on the project more than 18 months ago. Tesla CEO announced the deal in January and said at the time that Daimler planned to build 1,000 Smart EVs as part of a pilot project. In May, Daimler paid $50 million for a 9.1 percent stake in Tesla Motors to jump-start its budding EV program.

Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad confirmed the Smart EVs use Tesla packs but had no further comment.

UPDATE: Aug. 21: I misread the press release - the zero to 60 time is kilometers per mile, not miles per hour. That was my mistake and I have corrected the error. Thank you to reader getagrip42 for pointing out the error.

Photos: Daimler