The German federal government has pledged to put 1 million electric vehicles on the country's roads by the year 2020.

Germany's chancellor Angel Merkel met with many top executives from the country's automobile industry in Berlin on Monday to kick off the National Development Plan for Electric Mobility. At the event, VW presented its 2013 Golf blue-e-motion, an all-electric version of Europe's most successful model.

The goal to put 1 million electric cars on the road by the end of the decade was established as a policy last August by the Chancellor's office.

Merkel is pushing the transportation and energy industries in Germany to come up with sustainable technologies which will make the country less dependent on CO2 emitting carbon-based petroleum.

Norbert Reithofer, chief executive of BMW AG, said at the event that Germany was poised to become a world leader in renewable energy technology but that there had to be a concerted effort.

"To make this happen, our leaders in politics and industry have to be pulling in the same direction."

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