Bolloré group's electric buses, stopped two years ago after impressive fires in Paris, returned to the RATP network on Monday. “We have taken a set of measures to guarantee all security conditions,” Pierre Ravier, deputy director of Île-de-France Mobilités, reassured Monday.
The manufacturer claims to have since identified the problem causing these two consecutive fires: a manufacturing defect on a specific series of batteries, namely a poorly positioned insulator. Bluebus promises that this defect is absent from other battery packs it builds and has also added new safety features in the event of a fire, including formwork to contain it for longer and a light warning the driver when the bus must be immediately evacuated. 232 Bluebuses (including 84 additional compared to the 148 previously in circulation) will be redeployed on the R ATP network between now and the Olympic Games, with an undisclosed amount to be paid by the Bolloré Group. The buses do not use the classic lithium-ion technology of electric vehicles, but an in-house technology of lithium metal polymer (LMP) batteries.