The alliance Renault-Nissan and EDF will test one hundred electric vehicles in Paris in 2010

On 9 October last year, the chief executive of Électricité de France (EDF), Pierre Gadonneix, and the head of the Renault-Nissan alliance, Carlos Ghosn, signed an agreement to carry out real-world trials with a fleet of electric cars in the French capital. Specifically, there will be one hundred passenger and light commercial models from both brands, intended for consumers, professionals and government employees.

The agreement involves funding the resources needed to check how well the vehicles perform and, for example, some of them will be the battery charging stations installed in the places where the people using them work, on motorways and in car parks, although users will also be able to charge them at their own homes.

The vehicles that will make up the fleet will be identical to those that go on sale from 2011. One of them will be the electric Kangoo, whose prototype, the Kangoo be bop Z.E., can already be tested this summer, as Renault announced a few days ago.

The project, called Seine Aval Véhicules Electriques (SAVE), will receive support from both the public sector (it has been developed alongside a local plan and has the approval of the authorities of the Paris region and of Yvelines) and private investors. A report has also been sent to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) specifying the interests and objectives. Once the financing for SAVE is authorised, it will be able to start operating.

Source | Renault