PARIS — Many auto executives were not that enthusiastic about battery-powered cars at their outset, and now that sales of electric vehicles made by Tesla and Renault have been disappointing, some carmakers are playing down the technology.

Martin Winterkorn, the chief executive of Volkswagen, said last week, on the eve of the Paris Motor Show, that the company would instead focus on plug-in hybrids, which can travel short distances on battery power alone and switch to gasoline or diesel fuel for longer trips.

“We had a realistic view of the technology all along,” Mr. Winterkorn said at a company event held here last week in conjunction with the motor show, which runs through Oct. 14. “There will be, for a long time to come, no alternative to the internal combustion engine.”

Volkswagen is the largest carmaker in Europe by far, so its decisions about technology are likely to greatly influence the industry’s direction. While VW has not completely scrapped plans to introduce all-electric cars, Mr. Winterkorn and other executives made it clear that they expected plug-in hybrids to be the more realistic way to reduce automobile emissions.