Conducted in partnership with eight public and private entities, the Seine Aval Vehicules Electriques (SAVE) project is the biggest of its kind in France, deploying a fleet across an area covering 51 towns and five inter-municipal bodies situated along the Seine river near Paris. It concluded last December.

Supported by the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the all-electric fleet fleet comprised 20 Renault Fluence Fluence Z.E. and 10 Nissan LEAF passenger cars, as well as 35 Renault Kangoo Z.E. light commercial vehicles, averaging 25km per day with well-to-wheel CO2 emissions of 16g/km for the electricity used. 

Of the 150 test drivers involved, 15% drove the cars for more than 60km daily. Driver training was also provided, improving achievable range by 25% on average despite only a 1% drop in speed.

A total of 130 charging stations were deployed, of which 45 were public access units installed at Carrefour, Leclerc, Total, Vinci Park and Intermarche sites in the region and the remainder split among 40 companies for their own use. 

Such was the extent of the supporting network that no driver was more than 15km from a charging point in the region, representing France's most advanced, most varied charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. A further nine charging points will have been installed by the end of 2013.