Skip navigation
Newswire

Bollore to Develop France-Wide EV Charging Network

PARIS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Groupe Bollore said on Friday it will invest 150 million euros ($172 million) to roll out an electric-car charging network across France, after the plan won government backing.

The French conglomerate, whose Blue Solutions division already operates electric car-sharing services in Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon, said in a statement it would install 16,000 new semi-fast chargers nationwide in the next four years.

"Wherever you are on the map there will be at least one recharging point every 40 kilometres (25 miles)," the company said.

The network will also offer wifi hotspots and car-pooling services to subscribers, who will be able to reserve time slots at recharging points.

French carmaker Renault has been an enthusiastic backer of electric cars, investing 4 billion euros with Japanese affiliate Nissan to develop several vehicles and battery technologies.

But French public investment in national charging infrastructure has so far lagged far behind official targets.

The Blue Solutions move follows a September joint-venture deal between Bollore and Renault to build electric vehicles at the carmaker's plant in Dieppe, northern France. ($1 = 0.8744 euros) (Reporting by Laurence Frost, editing by David Evans)