Last week we told you all about the all-electric BMW Mini trials that are taking place around the country as a means for BMW to determine if and how they’ll sell the cars in the United States, but it looks they may have some competition in the form of the an all-electric Smart Fortwo. Now the Smart Fortwo electric drive isn’t headed for U.S. production yet, but it recently wrapped up testing trials in the U.K. (similar to the MINI E trials just getting under way here) and the feedback was positive enough that Daimler, the makers of Smart cars, has confirmed that they’ll be going ahead with small series production and that the zero-emission Smart Fortwos will be available in the U.K. as early as 2010.

In addition to the small-scale launch that will take place in the U.K., the trial results were good enough for Daimler to initiate trials in Rome, Milan and Paris and begin plans for trials here in the U.S., which could help the company determine whether there’s a market for the tiny, city-specific vehicles here in America and also garner more feedback for the development of future models. If the U.S. trials go well here, an American launch could be sped up by the fact that the cars will already be up to standard for production overseas, and electric Smart Fortwos could be available about the same time as the Mini E—potentially even before it, especially since BMW has yet to commit to producing the vehicle.

The American demand for bigger, faster cars has kept the market for small, fuel efficient city vehicles limited until recently (the regular Smart Fortwo was only made available in the States in January of 2008), but if fuel prices continue to increase, sales of such cars could see a rapid boost, and electric Smart Fortwos would certainly be enticing with the U.K. version getting to 30 miles per hour in 6.5 seconds and having a gasoline equivalent of 300 miles per gallon (versus the regular Smart Fortwo’s 33 miles per gallon for city driving). However there’s no word yet on how much more the electric Smart Fortwos will cost and that could be a deciding factor for many.

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