Green Daily

Although we've been hearing electric car news from GM for over a decade now, they've already missed the opportunity to get out in front of the pack. A rash of electric car startups are bringing their eco-friendly vehicles to the market these days. Myers Motors and Aptera are already selling roadworthy electric 3-wheelers, while Tesla's already staked out the all-electric performance car market.

You'd think with all the competition, GM might be concerned about finding their place in the alternative vehicles market. If they are concerned, they're not showing it. General Motors' CEO Rick Wagoner insists that today's startups are just blips on the larger electric car time line -- a time line that GM will dominate. Is he talking smack, or is he just telling it like it is?

According to Wagoner, none of these manufacturers have the ability "depth of technology," or the manufacturing capacity to compete with what GM is doing. Considering that they actually release the Volt in 2010 as planned, I kinda have to agree. Tesla for example is probably the most high profile startup, and it's working overtime to turn out 100 cars a month. Compared to what we will see from a company like GM -- that is a mere drop in the bucket. In Wagoner's own words:

"We plan to win. We welcome the competition, but I expect in ten years were going to be leading the parade."

Wagoneer did hint at GM's willingness to partner up with some of these startups in the future -- anything to try to take market share away from Toyota. While the smaller manufacturers may have impressive designs, they don't have the capacity to deal with regulations and consumer demands.

[via Earth2Tech]