Under a £24 million deal announced last month, BMW will supply the vehicles, including the Mini and BMW bicycles and motorcycles, that will be used by athletes, officials and staff during the London Games.

Each car had to offer a maximum average CO2 output of 120g/km and BMW plans to showcase electric vehicles during the Games.

But Nissan has claimed that its e-car fleet would have been a better choice.

They say its motors would offer fleet-average CO2 readings of less than 60g/km, mainly because half of the supplied vehicles would have been its new Leaf e-car, which is higher than BMW are offering.

The car firm would also have worked with French power company EDF, who are already a Tier One London sponsor, to install charging points around the city, which would have been a big step towards realising London Mayor Boris Johnson's dream of making the city the electric car capital of Europe.

A spokesman for Nissan said: "We have no issue with BMW getting the contract, but we feel the LOCOG have missed out here on a golden opportunity to kick-start a proper electric infrastructure in London.

"The Renault-Nissan fleet would have averaged 60g/km and would have provided the legacy they're so keen to see with London."

It has also been claimed that the decision to choose BMW ahead of Nissan has put at risk thousands of jobs at its factory in Sunderland.

Nissan had hoped that if they had been awarded the deal then the electric Leaf hatchback would have been manufactured at the plant in the North-East.

Privately, Nissan officials have told insidethegames that they believe BMW was chosen over them because they offered a multi-million pound cash deal as well as a fleet of vehicles.

But spokeswoman for London 2012 denied this.

She said: "We needed a sustainable fleet that could handle the significant operational demands of Games time.

"This is exactly what the BMW deal gave us.

"BMW will provide a low-carbon vehicle fleet – in line with our sustainability commitments and operational requirements.

"LOCOG set a challenging target for passenger fleet to come in at less than 120g/km and BMW has done this - exceeding EU targets."

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