Volkswagen CEO Deiss is not afraid of an Apple Electric car.

Germany’s Volkswagen is not concerned by any Apple plans for a passenger vehicle that could include the iPhone maker’s battery technology, its chief executive Herbert Diess said.

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“The car industry is not a typical tech-sector that you could take over at a single stroke,” Diess was quoted as saying an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “Apple will not manage that overnight,” he added.

While Apple’s plans are not public, Diess said its intentions as such were “logical” because the company had expertise in battderies, software and design, and that it had deep pockets to build on these competencies.

“Still, we are not afraid,” he said.

Hmm. Where have we heard this before? Lets back track to 2006, a few months before the announcement of the iPhone. Palm CEO Ed Colligan’s remarks:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in

Let us not forget Microsoft CEO on the introduction of the iPhone.

$500 fully subsidized? With a plan? I said that is the most expensive phone in the world and doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard. Which makes it not a very good email machine.

We have a video of trail of that one:

Both Palm and Microsoft left the mobile cell phone business soon after.

Whatever Apple’s first electric car introduction is, it will probably won’t be the best. That misses the big picture.

When Apple enters a market, they rarely have the best product. In many key specs, it is inferior. The very first Apple II computer, it wasn’t the cheapest or the fastest. But it was a completely assembled machine that was well designed and worked out of the box. For the Macintosh, they re-imagined how users interacted with the computer. With the iPhone, they didn’t release a new phone. They released a Unix based pocket computer with a phone app.

Apple just does not enter a market, they re-imagine the market place and tilt it to their advantage . Volkswagen CEO Deiss should be afraid. Very afraid.