General Motors plans to work with San Francisco and other cities to roll out its much-touted Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid-electric car that is scheduled for market launch next year.

Now, the cities are not in the business of selling cars. But they can make it easier for a company to do business through their permitting and other policy-making power. Plus, large cities often own large fleets of cars, making them good potential customers.

For companies that want to popularize electric cars of all kinds, seeking a municipal or state blessing is a good approach. Seeking help from cities that already have committed to popularizing electric cars is an even smarter -- and obvious -- strategy.

Last November, San Francisco and other Bay Area cities announced their plans to work with the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place, which aims to set up a network of electric-car charging and batter-swapping stations.

Better Place executives have traveled the world seeking national and regional government support for its business plan, which in some cases involves working with the Nissan-Renault Alliance to bring electric cars to places where Better Place plans to deploy its networks.

Another Silicon Valley startup, Coulomb Technologies, has begun selling and installing electric-car charging devices in California. The company also is selling subscription services to use those charging stations.

GM said it also is working with utilities to make sure proper charging networks would be available to service its new electric cars.