FRANCE After converting route 341 to electric buses in 2016 and with programs in place to install partial battery charging equipment at the termini of service 115 and 126, Île-de-France Mobilités and RATP are launching the biggest European tender yet to buy electric buses.
The objective is that RATP will have a 100% clean fleet by 2025, making Paris and the Paris region a world reference for very low carbon-footprint urban road transport. The plan is that two-thirds of buses will be electric while the remainder will be biogas fuelled.
The two-year contract has an order potential of 1,000 buses (of which 250 are firm orders) worth up to €400m. Finance is to be shared between Île-de-France Mobilités and RATP under the terms of its contract with Île-de-France Mobilités. It consists of three batches and has been sized to ensure early roll-outs of electric buses. RATP and Ile-de-France Mobilités expect manufacturers to submit standard 12-metre electric buses. The first “series” deliveries of electric buses from this tender should be made at the end of 2020. The fleet, comprising 4,700 buses, already has 800 hybrid vehicles, 140 bio-GNV (natural gas) and 74 that are electric.
RATP President and CEO Catherine Guillouard said: “The massive order to equip our fleet with electric buses demonstrates our ambition to become a vital player in the energy transition of the public transport sector. Our aim to ensure a 100% clean fleet by 2025 in the Paris region is what can only be described as a technological challenge that requires us to adapt our 25 bus depots within a very tight timeframe. The entire company has been mobilised to succeed with this challenge.”
Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France region and of Île-de-France Mobilités said: “My ambition is to provide the region with 100% clean vehicles by 2025 for the dense zones (Paris, towns in the inner suburbs and major regional conglomerations). This is a public health issue and a major industrial challenge in line with our desire to make Île-de-France an attractive and ecological metropolis. This is why Île-de-France Mobilités is launching with RATP the largest tender for electric buses in Europe. For the outer suburbs Île-de-France Mobilités is currently working on issuing a tender for approx. 450 buses over three years to accompany the improvements to lines implemented since 2016 and continue providing clean buses for other operators (Transdev, Keolis, Car Lacroix, etc.) in the Paris region.”
