Musk's electric-car vision doubted by major parts suppliers

New York

SOME of the world's top car-parts suppliers aren't buying all the enthusiasm about the electric vehicles hyped by Tesla Inc's Elon Musk and larger carmakers trying to keep up.

Executives at five of the 25 biggest suppliers to carmakers in North America have all downplayed this month expectations for electric-vehicle sales. After Volvo Car Group made a splash with its pledge to put electric motors in every new car by 2019 and Mr Musk predicted more than half of US car production would be electric in 10 years, the parts makers have issued modest forecasts and spoken in circumspect, even defiant, tones.

"There's a lot of buzz and a lot of talk about how the world's going to change to electrified vehicles overnight, and I'm here to tell you it's not going to happen overnight, and it's not going to happen for decades," David Dauch, chief executive officer of American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc, said on Tuesday at a JPMorgan conference in New York. "I'm a strong believer in the…