In flames: Paris takes 149 electric buses off the road
After two fires, the city temporarily takes the affected model off the road. Similar cases also in southern France and Germany. Are e-buses really safe and ready for use?
Footage from a surveillance camera, now published on YouTube, shows a huge cloud of smoke over Paris and a burning bus reduced to ashes within seconds. This happened in the French capital at the end of April, within just a few weeks of a similar incident in the city's fifth district.
Passers-by were alerted by a strong smell of burning plastic. They then warned the driver, who ordered all passengers to evacuate. In time, everyone was able to get off the bus and escape the fast-spreading flames. No one was injured. The cause of the fire is still unclear. Pending the results of the expert report commissioned by the manufacturer Bolloré, the state transport company (RAT) is withdrawing 149 Bluebus 5SE electric buses from service. Not using them could lead to disruptions in the Paris public transport network. However, many other e-motor buses remain in use in Paris. Since 2016, around 500 e-buses from various manufacturers have been driving on the streets of the metropolis. In five years, according to the transport company, there have been no "major incidents".
However, Paris is not the only city where safety problems with electric vehicles have occurred recently. Among other things, an electric bus caught fire in the southern French city of Carcassonne last April, causing firefighters to be on the scene for hours. Germany is no stranger to such cases either. Just a few weeks ago, an e-car caught fire while charging in Berlin-Spandau. Of particular concern are the toxic fumes from the burning battery, which the fire brigade that came to the rescue had difficulty extinguishing.
Although these cases raise doubts about the safety of electric buses, both France and Germany are not giving up on the path they have taken and continue to phase out diesel buses. By the middle of this decade, RATP plans to convert the entire bus fleet in Paris to electric and biomethane drives. Despite partly higher initial costs and technical problems, the climate policy of many European cities sees e-buses as the way to more environmentally friendly transport, where citizens are allowed to drive cleaner everywhere in the city. This also applies to low emission zones, where only the least polluting vehicles are allowed to enter. This often leaves cities with no alternative but e-buses.