France’s state-run postal service, La Poste, is working on a five-year plan to replace the bulk of its 48,000-vehicle fleet with electric cars, The Wall Street Journal reports (via The Energy Blog). 

 The cars La Poste used were developed by SociA?A??A?AA©tA?A??A?AA© de VA?A??A?AA©hicules A?A??AA¢a?A¬AA°lectriques, controlled by aerospace tycoon Serge Dassault, and were outfitted with a specially designed lithium-ion battery developed by a joint venture of Milwaukee car-parts maker Johnson Controls and French battery company Saft Groupe.

SVE has yet to settle on a price for its electric car, and it isn’t clear how much La Poste will have to pay to increase its fleet. But the car will be significantly more expensive than a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle because of the high cost of the lithium-ion battery, which La Poste says would account for about 60 percent of the unit price. The mail company says it will save on operating expenses because charging the electric car with electricity costs about one-sixth what
it would spend to fill up the tank with gasoline.