A method of applying several coats to an electrically conducting substrate by applying a primer coat using electrophoresis, stoving the primer coat, applying directly to the stoved primer coat a colored and/or special effect coating layer made of an aqueous coating material containing color and/or special effect pigments and including as a binder: A) 50 to 85% by weight of one of more hybrid binder vehicles based on polyesters and on (meth)acrylic copolymers with a hydroxyl number of 100 to 350 mg KOH/g and an acid number of 20 to 60 mg KOH/g; B) 0 to 20% by weight of one or more of binder vehicles which are different from A); and C) 15 to 50% by weight of one or more free or blocked polyisocyanates and/or one or more triazine-based components which crosslink with the hydroxyl groups of component A) with the formation of ether and/or ester groups, at least 50% by weight of the (meth)acrylic copolymers of component A) being produced in the presence of at least 20% by weight of the polyester or polyesters of component A).