Athlon Car Lease pre-orders 100 electric vehicles Renault ZEs together with its biggest client Rabobank

Athlon Car Lease is thus the first international full operational car leasing and mobility provider to order electric vehicles from Renault and to provide Rabobank, an international financial services provider, with electric cars for their fleet.

Already in 2009, Athlon Car Lease has partnered with Renault and announced their cooperation in the joint delivery of electric vehicle solutions to their mutual clients.

Signing the pre-ordering agreement for 100 Fluence ZEs is thus the first step to continue the strategic partnership. Hans Blink, President of Athlon Car Lease: “At Athlon Car Lease, we strongly believe that electric vehicles will represent a significant part of the mobility solutions market in the future. Supporting our biggest customer Rabobank to introduce electric vehicles to their fleet is an important first step in stressing our position as a major player in this market.”

Dirk Duijzer, Director Food & Agri and CSR of Rabobank: “Corporate social responsibility is the very basis of our core activities, with lending coming first and foremost. Rabobank Group is committed to creating more sustainability in value chains. We also place a great emphasis on sustainability in our own operations. Therefore we gladly support the initiative of Athlon Car Lease to order electric vehicles from Renault and thus support the innovation in sustainable mobility.”

Commenting on the strategic partnership with Renault, Mr. Blink explains: “Our choice to work together with Renault is driven by the competitiveness of their offer and the confidence we have in Renault’s global strategy for electric cars. Renault’s electric vehicles complement our existing mobility solutions for customers who are concerned about their impact on the environment and aim at decreasing the CO2 emission level of their car fleet.”

Uwe Hochgeschurtz, Senior Vice President, Renault Corporate Sales Division, adds: “We are convinced that the early adopters of the electric vehicle will be fleet customers, and Renault’s global electric car proposition really fits their needs, with a range of four competitive vehicles for each kind of usage. We applaud the initiative of Athlon and Rabobank because we believe that the first companies to integrate our electric vehicles into their fleet will be the first to reap the benefits in terms of changing habits and management, which in the end will become a competitive advantage.”

Renault has just revealed the first two production models of its electric vehicle range: Kangoo Express ZE, a light commercial vehicle, and Fluence ZE, a family sedan.

Renault’s range of electric vehicles will later be extended with two new cars, exclusively designed for electrical power:
– Renault Twizy, a nimble and practical electric vehicle for city motoring (2 seats – 4 wheels)
– Renault ZOE, a compact and flexible hatchback for everyday use.

Athlon Car Lease is an international provider of operational car leasing and mobility solutions, active in nine European countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Spain, Poland, Italy and Portugal. Focusing on all business and non-profit organizations, Athlon Car Lease offers mobility solutions, both for professional and/or secondary-benefit purposes. Athlon Car Lease has a total portfolio of approximately 225,000 active contracts.

Athlon Car Lease International is part of De Lage Landen, a global provider of highquality asset-based financing products which is 100% owned by Rabobank.

The Renault group, present in 118 countries, designs, develops, manufactures and sells passenger cars and light commercial vehicles under the Renault, Dacia and Renault Samsung Motors brands.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance aims to rank among the top three global carmakers on quality, technology and profitability. It is working on collaborative projects with institutions, governments and businesses, to which it contributes its automotive expertise. More than 80 agreements have thus far been signed worldwide, aimed at developing electric vehicles for as early as 2010 and marketing these vehicles widely from 2012.

www.athloncarlease.com

www.renault.com