The French postal service, La Poste, plans to order 10,000 electric delivery vehicles, which it says are far more economical than normal cars or vans.
The state-run service is inviting tenders from European manufacturers for the first batch of 500.
"There has never been such a big order [for the vehicles] in the world," said French Industry Minister Francois Loos, quoted by the AFP news agency.
La Poste wants to reduce its 70m-euro (£48m; $95m) annual fuel bill.
La Poste has been testing eight French electric vehicles since 2005, made by SVE - a firm owned by the defence group Dassault and vehicle manufacturer Heuliez.
"According to our tests, it is six times cheaper to run an electric vehicle than a diesel vehicle," said La Poste chairman Jean-Paul Bailly.
La Poste believes the change will also cut emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) by four tonnes per vehicle annually.
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