The main cause of the two Bluebus (Bolloré) electric bus fires that occurred in April in Paris has been “very likely” identified and should lead to a recall of the defective series, the group’s CEO, Cyrille Bolloré, said on Wednesday. “We have most likely identified the root cause and sent letters to our customers,” said the manager at the general meeting of shareholders. Several investigations have been launched to investigate these fires and the RATP has suspended the use of 149 buses pending their conclusions.
A Bluebus electric bus caught fire in the 13th arrondissement of the capital on April 29, a few weeks after another bus fire in the 5th arrondissement. These two incidents caused no injuries.
VIDEO. Paris: an electric RATP bus catches fire in the 13th arrondissement
After the second disaster, the RATP immediately withdrew from circulation, “as a precaution”, the 149 electric buses of the series produced by Blue Solutions, a company of the Bolloré group – i.e. nearly a third of its bus fleet. electrical. Bolloré has in all supplied 250 electric buses to the RATP.
“The assembly of an electronic component” in question
According to the first results of the investigation carried out by Bluebus, the main problem would not come from an “electrochemical defect” but “perhaps from the assembly of an electronic component on a given series”, indicated Cyrille Bollore. The recall and reproduction of the modules would cause an additional expense of 10 million euros for the group in 2022, he added.
The RATP and the Land Transport Accident Investigation Bureau (BEA-TT) have also launched investigations. “It is when we have the results of the first investigations that we will take the decision to put the buses back in circulation”, once any corrective measures have been applied, explained to AFP Laurent Probst, the general manager of Ile- de-France Mobilités (IDFM). The first fire was caused by “a fault on the battery”, he noted.
The Bolloré group, mainly active in logistics and the media (Vivendi), also has several activities related to electricity storage. In particular, it is developing a system of solid Lithium Metal Polymer (LMP) batteries, competing with the Lithium ion batteries most commonly used for electric vehicles.