Investors are piling into a long-neglected sector: old-school car makers that are reinventing themselves as electric-vehicle producers.

After years lamenting that their shares were undervalued, Ford Motor Co. , General Motors Co. , Volkswagen AG and other blue-chip car manufacturers are experiencing sharp share-price gains this year as they embrace the new technology…

The new infatuation with established auto makers, many of which have been in business for more than a century, follows an earlier rush into electric-vehicle stocks that has driven shares of Tesla Inc. dnd other electric-vehicle and battery manufacturers into territory that some analysts say is reminiscent of the dot-com bubble of the 1990s.

Conventional auto makers have long stewed in the shadow of Tesla, whose market capitalization remains twice that of VW, GM and Ford combined.
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