The world’s largest oil company is stepping up investment in synthetic fuels derived from renewable energy, as it bets on the conventional combustion engine to remain a crucial part of transport despite the shift towards electric vehicles.

Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, a senior executive at Saudi Aramco, said the global rush to electrify most road transport “does not make sense” from a climate perspective, especially for countries where energy is sourced from fossil fuels, such as China, which relies on coal power for more than half its electricity.

“There’s been a lot of exuberance around the pace by which electrification will take place around the world,” Al-Khowaiter, Saudi Aramco’s executive vice-president for technology and innovation, said in an interview. “It has its place in the market, but there will always be a need for other solutions like internal combustion engines.”