Renault-Nissan has agreed to provide telecommunications company Orange with a fleet of 200 electric vehicles (EVs) by 2015. Orange will mostly use the vehicles for car-sharing purposes between its buildings and installations in France.
At present the company has around 2,000 pool vehicles in France with around 100 of them available for car-sharing. Employees can book a car for professional or personal use online or via a smartphone using the Orange Auto Partage application. The new EVs will consist of the Renault ZOE subcompact, the Renault Kangoo Z.E. van, the newly launched Nissan e-NV200 van and the Nissan LEAF, the latter vehicle being the world’s best-selling electric vehicle. The company already owns a fleet of around thirty tandem 2-seat Twizys it has acquired from Renault since 2012.
“We believe that the use of electric vehicles needs to be encouraged both professionally and privately” said Hélène Billon, Orange Facilities & Mobility Management Director. “Therefore, this agreement with the Renault-Nissan Alliance contributes to helping us meet our commitment to a 20 percent reduction in our CO2 footprint by 2020. By that time, we hope to continue the acquisition of more than 1,000 electric vehicles, notably to account for about one-third of our car-sharing fleet in France.”
Christian Mardrus, Alliance Executive Vice President for Renault-Nissan B.V. and the Alliance CEO Office, added that the partnership between Renault and Nissan will enable them to provide Orange with the widest range of EVs to meet its needs, from subcompact passenger cars to light-commercial vehicles. This will enable more Orange employees to experience the benefits of EV mobility, zero noise, smooth handling and acceleration, and zero tailpipe emissions. The vehicles can also be fully recharged with renewable energy at night so they can be 100 percent recharged every morning.
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