GREEN RANKING FOR 2009
Ranking: 12
Worth: £7.2bn
Green investment: Electric cars

Groupe Dassault is a French aviation and software giant that has always been at the forefront of technology and is now investing heavily in electric cars. It is developing a high-performing car with Electricité de France (EDF), the country’s main electricity company. In late 2005, France’s state-run postal service began a trial of eight experimental electric-powered mail-delivery vans developed by Société de Véhicules Electriques, controlled byDassault, in an effort to meet a government requirement to reduce pollution. Now, La Poste is working on a five-year plan to replace the bulk of its 48,000-vehicle fleet with electric cars. Dassault is also joining an electric-vehicle project in Israel. He has the resources — he is reckoned to be worth £7.2 billion by France’s Challenges magazine.