GM plans to vault ahead with electric car Chevrolet Volt

As the race to bring a mass-market, rechargeable electric vehicle to the market heats up, GM's Bob Lutz said employees working on the Volt "are becoming increasingly nervous."

"There is a lot of skepticism within the company about the timeline," Lutz said at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit. "People are biting their nails, but those of us in a leadership position have said it has to be done."

Lutz said the Volt plug-in hybrid - which GM plans to road-test early next year and produce by late 2010 - is crucial to GM's efforts to snag the environmental technology crown from Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.

"When people think of Toyota, their iconic brand is the Prius," Lutz said, referring to Toyota's popular hybrid car.

"When they think of GM, the iconic brand is, unfortunately, the Hummer," he added, referring to its gas-guzzling, military-inspired sport utility vehicles. "That perception needs to change."

GM is the only automaker to have provided a timeline on production even though other companies, such as Ford Motor Co and Toyota, are working on similar technology.

"We have to reestablish GM's leadership and the Volt is, frankly, an effort to leapfrog anything that is done by any other competitor," Lutz said.

Unlike earlier gasoline-electric hybrids, which run on a system that twins battery power and a combustion engine, plug-ins are designed for short trips powered entirely by an electric motor and a battery charged through a socket at home.

Lutz said GM regrets its decision not to build a hybrid car when Toyota launched its game-changing Prius in 1997.