I felt much the same as you, until I drove a Tesla. At that moment my life was forever changed. I look at a parking lot of ICE vehicles and see nothing but horse and buggies that don't yet know that they are relics of the past. Traditional automobile companies will continue to build traditional cars and might even replace the propulsion system with an electric motor, but they will never make the jump to what Tesla has started. It is a sea change, a complete rethink of how to provide transportation to the masses and no amount of old knowledge will help. In fact, I think the longer that they have been entrenched in the old ways, the harder it will be to step out.

Sure, others will make electric vehicles (at least I hope they will), but it will probably be smaller, more focused companies. Companies such as Pagani or Elio Motors will have a much easier time making the switch. Again, it's not about replacing the ICE with an electric motor, it's a whole mindset.

Someone else in this thread mentioned cell phones before the iPhone as a good analogy and I agree. Look at where RIM and Nokia are compared to where there were in the early 2000's. They simply could not adapt to the new way of thinking about a cell phone. GM, Honda, Ford, Porsche, they are the RIM and Nokia of the car world; dead but they don't know it yet.