Volkswagen Group outlined plans to offer as many as 40 electric or hybrid vehicles in a bet that customers will have enough confidence to shift to low-emission models.

The automaker will produce 14 vehicles with alternative drivetrains by next year, it said in a statement.

The company will widen the lineup should demand increase, CEO Martin Winterkorn said on Monday at a Frankfurt auto show event to introduce the e-Up electric car and and a battery-powered version of the Golf hatchback.

“The electric car cannot be a compromise on wheels,” Winterkorn said. “It must convince customers in every respect.” The plug-in hybrid has the “greatest market potential,” he said.

The e-Golf has a range of 190 km (118 miles) while the e-Up can travel up to 160km (99 km) on a full battery charge.

VW is expanding in a niche that has yet to meet mass-market competitors’ targets.

Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said in an interview in early September that the carmaker and partner Nissan Motor will miss a goal of selling a combined 1.5 million electric cars by 2016.

German buyers registered 435 electric autos out of a market of 214,044 new cars in August, according to the Federal Motor Vehicle Office. The e-Up, which goes on sale in October for 26,900 euros ($35,700) in Germany, is “deliberately positioned” against the battery-powered i3 city car that BMW is bringing out, Rudolf Krebs, head of electric-powertrain technology at VW, said on Sept. 4.