VW introduced electric versions of the Golf compact (left) and Up minicar at the Frankfurt auto show last month.

Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn said the German government’s goal to have 1 million electric cars on the country’s roads by 2020 can be achieved if partly battery-powered cars such as hybrids are taken into account.

“We will make our contribution toward this goal,” Winterkorn said during a panel discussion in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Plug-in hybrids, which can switch between rechargeable battery power and conventional combustion engines, “offer the biggest market potential,” and should help with a rollout of electric mobility on a larger scale, Winterkorn said.

The CEO reiterated Volkswagen’s plan to offer as many as 40 electric or hybrid models in the event that demand for low-emission cars takes off. The automaker will produce 14 vehicles with alternative drivetrains through next year after introducing electric versions of the Golf compact and Up minicar at the Frankfurt auto show last month. Volkswagen also showed new plug-in hybrid versions of the Porsche brand’s Panamera four-door coupe and Audi’s A3 compact.

VW’s move echoes initiatives by peers such as Nissan and General Motors to promote purely electric and hybrid cars, which help automakers comply with tightening fleetwide emission regulations across the globe.

Corporate enthusiasm for alternative-drive engines has failed to translate into significant sales amid consumers’ concerns that powering systems offer only limited distance before a recharge is required and objections to higher prices.

Purely or partly battery-powered vehicles accounted for 4,157 new-car registrations in Germany in 2012, about twice as many as the year before, according to the country’s auto industry association, the VDA. Germany’s new-car market amounts to about 3 million vehicles a year.

VW’s e-Up went on sale in Germany this month for 26,900 euros ($37,000). The model is “deliberately positioned” against the battery-powered i3 that BMW is bringing out, Rudolf Krebs, head of electric-powertrain technology at VW, said on Sept. 4.

BMW presented the i3 in Frankfurt last month, as well as a plug-in hybrid version of the X5 SUV. The i3, priced at 34,950 euros, will enter showrooms in Germany in November.

Plug-in hybrids have the most potential and BMW plans to eventually offer one in every model line, Herbert Diess, the automaker’s development chief, said in an interview last month. Cars with electromobility will make up 5 percent to 10 percent of the market by 2020 from well under 1 percent now, Diess said.

Other alternative-drive vehicles shown at the Frankfurt auto show included an all-electric Mercedes-Benz B-class compact from Daimler that will use a drivetrain supplied by Palo Alto, California-based Tesla, and a hybrid coupe concept from Volvo.

VW was “startled” by reports of a fire earlier this month involving a plug-in Tesla electric car in the United States, Winterkorn said at the event, held yesterday.

Electric-vehicle safety is “a very intensive issue,” and the German company’s own systems have successfully passed extensive testing. “Our battery technology is on the safe side.”

Tesla shares dropped to a two-week low on Wednesday after the top U.S. auto regulator said the agency is studying the Oct. 1 incident, in which a Model S sedan’s battery caught fire following a collision with a large metal object on a road in Kent, Washington.