Thoughts on electric vehicles

CEO, General Motors

Electric cars are coal-powered cars. Their carbon emissions can be worse than gasoline-powered cars.

—Vinod Khosla

Indian-American businessman

In India where upfront cost is the key, [EVs] would not be attractive to consumers. For an average car user, the operational cost of running the car even after saving petrol would get neutralised by high EMI cost and depreciation.

—RC Bhargava

Chairman, Maruti Suzuki

The car industry has invested a lot in hybrid, but my opinion is electric cars will take over a lot of hybrids quicker than people think now.

—Henrik Fisker

American entrepreneur

It’s worth noting that everything—from the internet to electric cars, genomic sequencing, mobile apps, and social media—were pioneered by startups, not existing companies.

—Steve Blank

American entrepreneur

We have teams of people working on electric cars. So you never know... you may find Virgin competing with Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business.

—Richard Branson

English entrepreneur

I think there are more politicians in favour of electric cars than against. There are still some that are against, and I think the reasoning for that varies depending on the person, but in some cases, they just don’t believe in climate change—they think oil will last forever.

—Elon Musk

American entrepreneur

We have a tremendous investment in facilities for (internal combustion engines, transmissions, and axles) and I can’t see throwing them away just because the electric car doesn’t emit fumes.

—Henry Ford II

American businessman

I probably wouldn’t be a good spokesman for an electric car, because I’ll still get on a private jet, and one flight on a private jet undoes all my electric-car good deeds.

—George Clooney

American actor