Hawaii, which has been at the national forefront of embracing electric vehicles, has seen about 75 Nissan Leafs delivered so far and leads the nation for pre-orders for Mitsubishi’s i MiEV.

The gradual movement to the new cars provided the impetus for a new online permitting system for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations that was rolled out yesterday by the City and County of Honolulu.

Nissan North America, which designated Hawaii as one of its seven U.S. roll-out markets for the Leaf, has about 300 reservations for the vehicle so far in Hawaii, according to Ron Hansen, a representative from the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association. The other roll-out markets for the Leaf are Tennessee, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and Texas.

Mitsubishi, meanwhile, has received 92 confirmed reservations from Hawaii residents for its i MiEV, according to John Nakamoto, manager for the business development EV operations department for Mitsubishi Motors North America.

"This represents the largest state in our pre-order system, although California is right behind this number," Nakamoto said.

Among other automakers:

» Wheego delivered Wednesday its first highway-speed vehicle in Hawaii.

» General Motors has designated Hawaii for the second phase of its roll-out for the Volt in August.

» Chrysler Group LLC will provide Hawaii a test fleet of PHEV RAM 1500 pickup trucks. A total of 140 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will be supplied to selected cities and states as part of a demonstration project that will log 6.5 million miles over a period of three years. There are no plans for production of the vehicle at this time. Other states selected were North Dakota, Massachusetts and Arizona. In other states, cities chosen were San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.; Austin, Texas; and Kansas City, Mo.

HADA said that to meet the clean energy goals in the transportation sector, it will take a portfolio of solutions, including not just electric vehicles, but plug-in electric hybrids, gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, alternative-fuel vehicles and fuel-efficient gasoline vehicles.

A summary of miles-per-gallon ratings for vehicles can be found on the federal government’s website www.fueleconomy.gov.