French car maker Renault SA Tuesday revealed four electric concept cars that it hopes will put the company at the forefront of the drive towards this technology.

Launching the concepts at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said he expects electric cars to make up 10% of total global car volumes by 2020.

Renault's concepts for the market are the Twizy city car, the Zoe, the Fluence family sedan and the Kangoo zero-emissions people carrier.

Ghosn said he expects the Twizy concept to go into production in the second half of 2011, while the Zoe will be launched mid-2012.

The Fluence will be the first to be launched, hitting the market in the first half of 2011. Renault has decided to launch the car in Israel.

Renault has been working with California-based Better Place on its electric car technology for the past two years. Better Place has developed the platforms for charging the car batteries and interacting with the electricity supply grids.

The two companies Tuesday said they'd signed a deal whereby Better Place would start importing and distributing the Fluence into Israel in the first half of 2011 and would also offer subscriptions to its platforms to customers buying the car from the Renault network in Denmark. Both companies have committed to a volume of at least 100,000 cars for both countries by 2016.

Ghosn said that Renault, and sister company Nissan Motor Co. (7201.TO), had developed three charging solutions for its electric cars - standard, fast charge and "battery switch," which enables the car owner to take out a used battery and replace with a full-charged battery in less time than it takes for a petrol car to be refilled with petrol.

-By Steve McGrath, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9284; steve.mcgrath@dowjones.com