The automakers believe they can solve the problem of achieving — as G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, has begun stressing — a world with “zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion.”

It is a stunning statement from a company that, together with Ford, sells more large pickup trucks and full-size sport utility vehicles than the rest of the global industry combined — and from an industry that grudgingly got into building electric vehicles in the face of stricter fuel emissions standards.

Just last month, during a visit to China, Ms. Barra cautioned against mandates in which the transition to electric vehicles outpaces consumer demand. “I think it works best when, instead of mandating, customers are choosing the technology that meets their needs,” she said.

On Monday, Mr. Reuss framed the company’s strategy as a natural outgrowth of what it had learned from its existing entry in the all-electric arena, the Chevrolet Bolt, even though it has achieved only negligible sales so far.

“There is a transition going on,” said Mr. Reuss, adding that G.M. has no timetable to eliminate gasoline engines from its vehicles. He said that by the 2023 target date for the new electric models, G.M. will still be building cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles with internal combustion engines.

“They wisely gave no time frame because, frankly, no one knows how the future will evolve,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with the research firm Autotrader.

For its part, Ford said it intended to accelerate its development of electric cars as part of a broader business strategy that will be laid out for Wall Street on Tuesday by its new chief executive, Jim Hackett. Mr. Hackett was installed in May after his predecessor, Mark Fields, failed to persuade investors and his board that the company was moving fast enough to develop the vehicles of the future, like battery-powered and self-driving cars.