In a Reuters report, Wissing was quoted as saying: “We want electrically powered vehicles. Of course, hybrids also make a contribution to this.” It was said during a conference organized by the newspaper, Handelsblatt.

On one side, hybrid vehicles are seen by some environmental groups to be as least damaging as their fossil-fuel equivalents because of infrequent charging and their weight. On the other hand, some argue that the shift to all electric vehicles is premature because there aren’t simply enough minerals or plants to build high-voltage batteries for use in EVs. Plus, the mining of nickel, cobalt, and lithium are energy intensive and can be as environmentally damaging as drilling for oil.

Wissing is also not completely dismissing vehicles powered by synthetic e-fuels. E-fuels, made by combining hydrogen with carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere, provide an environmentally-friendly means to power combustion engine cars. He said that “technical openness” was paramount if Germany is to reach their climate neutral goal.

Currently, around half of the just over one million electrified vehicles on German roads so far are hybrids, with the other half fully-electric.