The company, which manages the Autolib electric car sharing service in Paris and the Source London charging point scheme in the UK, presented its plans to French Ministry for the Economy and Finance earlier this month.

The ministry will decide by the end of January whether to waive the fees usually attached to installing on public property. Bolloré said it will invest €150m (£118m) in the network, which will complement the 14,000 charging points already in place across France.

Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy, Industrial Renewal and Information Technology, said: ‘This marks a new step towards electromobility for France. In a public-private joint effort, we now give a boost to the deployment of a national network of charging stations.’