Richard Branson says Virgin could rival Tesla in the electric car market
First there was Tesla and now Virgin appears to be in the running with tech companies Google and Apple as the latest start-up car maker to eye the electric car market.
Virgin Group owner and billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson told Bloomberg TV yesterday at the Miami round of the all-electric Formula E race series, in which Virgin Racing competes, that his company is planning to expand its empire beyond airlines, music stores, mobile phones and space travel.
"We have teams of people working on electric cars," Branson told Bloomberg. "So you never know, you may find Virgin competing with Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business. We will see what happens.
"Tesla is as sexy as any other car on the road today."
Branson's Virgin Galactic is a commercial spaceflight company that competes with SpaceX, which was founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
"We are working with the Virgin Formula E team to develop the plan for next season's cars," Virgin Group spokesman Nick Fox told Reuters.
"Our aim is to build a leading engine and car for next season. Maybe ultimately that could be used in the broader car market in the future."
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