Renault-Nissan and Orange Expand Electric Vehicle Partnership

An expansion of partnership agreements between the Renault-Nissan Alliance and Orange means adding 200 electric vehicles to the telecommunications giant's fleet.

Orange is one of the world's largest telecommunications operators and it already has a large fleet of vehicles, many of which are plug-ins and hybrids. Now, the company will be adding 200 electric vehicles to that fleet as it moves towards its environmental goals.

The 200 new EVs will be added through to the end of 2015 as part of the company's car-sharing plan to help workers move between offices and installations. The current fleet of 2,000 vehicles in the Orange car pool used for car-sharing. Their system works similarly to public car-sharing services like Uber, allowing employees to reserve a car for use via the company's intraweb or smart phone app. Employees can also "rent" the cars for personal use.

Four vehicles will be included in the 200-car purchase by Orange. The Renault ZOE, the Renault Kangoo ZE van, the Nissan e-NV200 van, and the Nissan LEAF. These will add to the thirty Renault Twizys already in the Orange fleet. The company's goal is to have one third of its car-sharing fleet (1,000) all-electric by 2020.

"Thanks to the partnership between Renault and Nissan, the Alliance is able to provide Orange with the widest range of electric vehicles to meet its needs -- from subcompact passenger cars to light-commercial vehicles," said Christian Mardrus, Alliance Executive Vice President for Renault-Nissan B.V. and the Alliance CEO Office.

Renault-Nissan will accompany Orange in the installation of a network of charging stations at the sites which adopt the car-sharing service. This agreement is the latest of several between the two companies, which both operate internationally.