When Angela Merkel addressed the Frankfurt motor show, it was not to a backdrop of revving engines but an exhibition of noiseless electric Golfs, South Korean hybrids and Japanese fuel-cell cars.

The silence should have pleased the chancellor, who in the wake of the VW emissions scandal has hinted at a possible ban on sales of the diesel cars for which German manufacturers are renowned. German cities plagued by air pollution, including Munich, home of BMW, are mulling over the banning of diesels from their centres.

Internationally, the UK and France recently promised to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040, while carmakers including Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover have raced to pledge electrification of their future models.

The summer of love for battery cars prompted newspaper editorials heralding the end of the internal combustion engine. One bank even forecast that all new car sales in Europe would be electric within two decades. Meanwhile, diesel car values have plummeted.

So it should perhaps come as no surprise that electric cars have taken centre stage at the Frankfurt motor show, which opens to the public on Saturday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The new BMW i3s car at the Frankfurt motor show. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP

BMW is showing off a new version of its popular i3 battery-powered car and new battery-powered Minis. Rival Mercedes-Benz has introduced a futuristic concept electric car, the EQA, which has pride of place at the centre of its hall, and the company’s chief executive promised all models from 2022 will be electrified to some degree.

France’s Renault unveiled a concept electric car that could double as a backup battery for the home. Japan’s Honda launched a boxy battery-powered concept car, the Urban EV, which European motorists will be able to buy in 2019.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Honda Urban EV concept car. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

“This is not some vision of the distant future,” said the Honda chief executive, Takahiro Hachigo, as he also pledged that all the company’s new models in Europe would soon be either hybrid, plug-in hybrid or fully electric. South Korean challenger Hyundai said more than half the models it sells in Europe by 2020 will be battery-powered.

So is the internal combustion engine’s century-long reign coming to an end? The carmakers here do not seriously believe that, despite the rhetoric and the prominence of battery models.

“That’s just hype,” said BMW’s Robert Irlinger, of the notion that conventional engines were dead. Irlinger, who heads the firm’s “i” electric division, expects electric models to make up only 15%-20% of the firm’s sales by 2025.

“There is a change and we are really starting with electrified cars, but we do not hide our normal cars,” he said, adding that the company was putting a “huge amount of money” into the development of battery-powered cars.

One Mercedes-Benz executive said that with €10bn committed to work on electric vehicles it was, if anything, overinvesting in the technology compared with its peers.

“It’s something that might be overhyped,” said Jürgen Schenck, the company’s head of e-drive integration, of the suggestion petrol and diesel cars were finished. “We’re intent to go on with diesel … it is a good technology for [cutting] carbon emissions.” A ban on diesels entering German cities would, he said, be a “crazy idea”.

Indeed, the European car manufacturers’ association argues that diesel is still the only serious way to meet future EU carbon targets, despite concerns over air quality.

Dieter Zetsche, the president of the ACEA, said: “Any rash move away from this technology [diesel] would make it harder to meet the [European] commission’s [carbon] targets.”

With electric and plug-in hybrid cars making up just 1.2% of new car sales in Europe today, he called for a reality check on how big a contribution they could make to carbon cuts.

“When it comes to market uptake of electric vehicles we have to look at the reality. The reality is the market uptake of these vehicles remains low. It’s not due to a lack of availability: all ACEA members are expanding their portfolios of electric vehicles, you can see proof of that on display here,” said Zetsche.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Renault Symbioz electric concept car. Photograph: Armando Babani/EPA

“We don’t see the immediate death of the combustion engine,” said Joe Bakaj, vice-president of product development at Ford of Europe, which sees more efficient diesel as the most cost-effective way to cut carbon emissions in the short term.

“We’re not seeing a strong pull [from customers] on battery electric vehicles. There’s a lot of talk, a lot of hype, but there aren’t a lot of customer numbers.” He blames their limited driving range, upfront price and a shortage of charging points as reasons why.

The issue of the limited charging point infrastructure is cited by many carmakers at Frankfurt as a barrier to electric car takeup.

Steven Armstrong, Ford’s president in Europe, said investment was needed in ageing infrastructure. “This is particularly true of the challenge facing our efforts to scale up the operation of electric vehicles in cities where we already have a strained energy grid,” he said, announcing a joint venture with Aldi, Daimler and Porsche to fit fast-charging points along Europe’s motorways.

Chargepoint, a North American charging firm entering the UK market, points out that most electric cars are topped up at home or work. Moreover, because take-up of the cars will be gradual, so can the roll-out of chargers. “You don’t need to fully build all the infrastructure before you sell the first car,” said Pasquale Romano, the company’s chief executive.

But while electric models have taken pride of place on many of the carmakers’ displays in Frankfurt this week, they are still hugely outnumbered by petrol and diesel vehicles. The big launch for Toyota, the Japanese carmaker synonymous with hybrids, was a Land Cruiser with a choice of a huge petrol or diesel engine.

Nonetheless, most manufacturers agree that the endgame in the long-term is probably electric. “There isn’t a plan B, this is plan A: we go electric,” said Schenck at Mercedes-Benz.

“What is sure is electric vehicles will increase dramatically. We feel the tipping point has been reached,” said Guillaume Berthier, chief of sales and marketing for electric vehicles at Renault, which has seen a 40% increase in battery electric vehicles this year.

And there are plenty of reasons an electric switch might come sooner than many think: a higher oil price, changes in taxation and, most worrying for the European motor industry, the diesel exclusion zones being mulled in many European cities. “That,” said Bakaj, “could change things very quickly.”



Electric cars to buy today

FULLY ELECTRIC

Nissan Leaf

£16,680 (plus battery leasing), 155-mile range

The Leaf is a small family car that has been around long enough that used ones can be bought for less than £7,000. Alternatively you could wait until next year for the new version, which has a longer, 255-mile range.

BMW i3

£28,570, 125 miles

This head-turning model is a large part of the reason BMW has sold more than 150,000 electric cars in Europe. If the range puts you off, there’s the option of a version with a small petrol engine with extends its reach to 206 miles.

Renault Zoe

£14,245 (plus battery leasing), 250 miles

Cheap and cheerful, the Zoe also has a battery capable of rivalling some Teslas, though its supermini size won’t be big enough for everyone.

HYBRIDS

Toyota Prius plug-in

£29,195

A halfway house between petrol and electric cars, the plug-in version of Toyota’s iconic hybrid can travel 39 miles on battery power – enough for most local journeys and commutes – with the reassurance of a petrol engine for cross-country trips.

Hyundai IONIQ

£22,385 (hybrid), £24,995 (electric), £27,495 (plug-in hybrid)

South Korean manufacturer Hyundai is the first to offer a model you can buy either as a hybrid – the lowest level of electrification – all the way to a plug-in hybrid and through to a 100% electric version.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV

£31,805

This SUV plug-in hybrid runs 33 miles on electricity before its petrol engine kicks in and has been wildly popular, becoming the UK’s best-selling plug-in electric car in recent years.



Prices are after government subsidy