NEW YORK » With a name like General Electric, it stands to reason GE would want to embrace the electric car.

The company announced yesterday it has plans yesterday to embrace 25,000 of them by 2015.

GE’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, said the company would convert half of its corporate fleet to electric vehicles by 2015 in an effort to give the nascent technology a jump-start and help develop a potentially big new market for the company.

"By electrifying our own fleet, we will accelerate the adoption curve, drive scale, and move electric vehicles from anticipation to action," Immelt said in a statement yesterday. The company had hinted at the plan in late September.

GE builds natural gas-fired generators for utilities, electric motors, advanced electric meters and a home electric car charging station called the WattStation, all of which could be in higher demand if drivers buy electric cars.

GE estimates the expanding market could bring it up to $500 million in revenue over the next three years.