PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) - Ayvens, the car leasing unit of French bank Societe Generale, and Chinese electric vehicles company BYD announced on Tuesday a partnership for the European market.

The companies said in a joint statement that their memorandum of understanding would see BYD's range of electric vehicles used for Ayvens' international and local corporate clients in Europe.

This partnership comes just weeks after the European Commission imposed provisional tarifs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and just before the Commission is due to release details of its investigation into the likes of BYD. (Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta )