Volkswagen has unveiled designs of an electric car developed from the ground up - the E-Up! - which could go into mass production by 2020.
Professor Dr Martin Winterkorn, chairman of the board of management of the Volkswagen Group, believes that for it to be a genuine success an electric car must be affordable to a broad customer base and must be uncompromisingly practical in every day driving.
He said: "Only then, in high volumes, and ideally on all continents, can one truly speak of the beginning of the electric age in automobiles and a perceptible reduction of their environmental impact.
"Nonetheless, until the production numbers of a purely electric car approach the success curve of a Polo, its schedule will indicate the year 2020 at the earliest."
The concept car presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show shows how Volkswagen envisions a pure electric drive - technically, visually and with regard to a practical size.
The fact that the E-Up! will quite clearly offer driving enjoyment is demonstrated by a look at the car's classic 0 to 100-km/h sprint time: 11.3 seconds.