The vehicles, which are on a long-term lease through Arval, will be provided to employees on a loan basis for urban business use, with the first 14 examples already deployed in the Ile-de-France region.

In addition to the remainder due by the end of the year, the group’s fleet management director, Jean Zermati, said Twizy could be added to fleets in other countries depending on suitable duty cycles and a supporting service infrastructure.

Orange has 35,000 vehicles on its global fleet, with 23,000 of those based in France, and said 5% of its energy consumption and 15% of its greenhouse gas emissions are from vehicles and business travel. As a result of promoting eco-friendly vehicle choices, average CO2 emissions are 130g/km group-wide, and 126g/km for its French fleet.

Twizy joins a number of plug-in vehicles already deployed on the group’s French fleet, including the Renault Kangoo Z.E., Renault Fluence Z.E., a Peugeot iOn and Toyota Prius Plug-in. By the end of 2013, Orange is aiming for have “several hundred” electric or hybrid vehicles in use globally, contributing to a planned 20% reduction in CO2 emissions and 15% reduction in energy consumption by 2020, compared to 2006 levels.