Two new cars, the Nissan LEAF and the Chevrolet Volt – a battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle respectively – may together, one day, be recognized as the brave upstarts that launched a new chapter in automotive history. As the first of a new crop of mass market electric vehicles to hit dealerships, they might push aside the internal combustion engine as the predominant means of propulsion or they may become relics of yet another failed attempt to bring electric vehicles to market. Time will tell.