Branson hints at electric car foray

The Virgin brand encompassed a media empire, a few airlines, wireless phone service, some hotels and also a space programme and now there was speculation it could also include electric cars. CEO Richard Branson dropped hints during a chat with Bloomberg, saying Virgin already had a team plugging away on high-speed electric car that would take part in the Formula E racing circuit, but here was what sparked the speculation,"We have teams of people working on electric cars," Branson said. "So you never know-you may find Virgin competing with the Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business. We will see what happens."

Commentators point out though that though there was nothing concrete about his statements, what was beyond doubt was Branson's general distaste for more conventional, petrol-guzzling cars. He recently that said he hoped,  "10 years from now the smell of exhausts from cars will be a thing of the past as much as the smell of cigarettes in restaurants."

However, Branson concedes that even surpassing a small player such as Tesla Motors would not be easy, stating, ''Tesla is as sexy as any other car on the road today."

Meanwhile, Google had made clear its intention to develop a fully autonomous car, which would not even feature a steering wheel or pedals. The search engine giant was currently testing prototypes and Apple, though it had not announced any plans for a car, had been poaching numerous engineers from car and battery manufacturers (See: Battery maker A123 Systems sues Apple for poaching staff).