Eni's Italian car sharing service goes electric

MILAN (Reuters) - Eni is adding electric vehicles to its car sharing service in Italy's biggest cities as it deepens its partnership with automaker XEV, the energy group said on Tuesday.

Eni said 200 urban electric vehicles produced by XEV will be operational in Milan, Italy's financial capital, by the end of the year.

The electric cars will also be made available in Rome in the coming months, Eni said, adding that they are already operational in Turin, Bologna and Florence.

Eni Energy Evolution General Manager Giuseppe Ricci said the company was looking at developing components for XEV and working with the automaker to bring its assembly line to Italy.

"We are also studying a partnership with XEV on batteries," Ricci said at a press conference in Milan.

XEV is a Turin-based company producing electric vehicles for urban mobility which are designed in Italy and produced in China.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Alvise Armellini; editing by David Evans)