The development of electric vehicles is "the task of the century" according to the chairman of the Volkswagen Group, Martin Winterkorn.

"The electric car will impact the future of individual mobility in crucial ways," said Winterkorn at the Vienna Motor Symposium. "Over the mid-term the plug-in hybrid offers great potential, because it combines the best of two worlds in one vehicles."

Winterkorn also spoke in surpport of more targeted research funding for new battery chemistry developments.

"Electric mobility is the task of the centry for the automotive industry and the European industrial communcity as a whole. Manufacturers, suppliers, energy providers, scientists and politicians - everyone must step up to the plate here," he said.