Peugeot goes electric

French car maker Peugeot-Citroen is teaming up with Bollore to jointly produce and sell electric cars, as well as promote car-sharing schemes worldwide.

A Peugeot 508

Peugeot-Citroen will manufacture Bollore's Bluesummer convertible, four-door electric car at its Rennes factory in western France and also sell it in their showrooms.

Production will begin in September, with a maximum of 3,500 vehicles to be made per year.

The companies will also seek to promote car-sharing schemes, first in Europe and then by creating a worldwide joint venture. These would use electric vehicles and low-emission traditional vehicles.

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The deal with Peugeot complements one signed by Bollore in September 2014 with Renault to produce the Bluecar model at a plant in Dieppe, northern France.

Germans go electric

The German government is examining further support to help bring one million electric cars onto German roads by the end of the decade and aims to make a decision by the end of the year.

Norway and the Netherlands have created incentives to spur demand for electric cars which in Germany continues to suffer from high costs, range limitations, poor recharging infrastructure, and falling oil prices.

"Germany will have no choice but to offer further support (for electric cars) although we've already done some things.

"We will once again study all instruments of support that are also available internationally," said Angela Merkel.

Once promoted as a technology that would crowd out conventionally-powered cars, sales of electric cars continue to fall short of expectations.

A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers this week showed drivers need financial incentives to pay extra for electric cars whose sales in Germany were no more than 19,000 last year.

Ford will mark the 50th anniversary of its 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours victory by returning with a new GT car for next year's event as well as entering the full world endurance championship.

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