Île-de-France Mobilités and RATP launch the energy transition of buses
To support the development of these new clean buses in Paris and the inner suburbs, RATP has undertaken to convert 2/3 of its bus depots to electric and 1/3 to NGV by 2025. This adaptation of the existing centres was also marked by the signing, on 14 March, of a partnership between RATP and Enedis to ensure connection to the public electricity distribution network. The RATP will have to adapt 17 bus depots to accommodate the new vehicles ordered.
Europe's largest tender for the purchase of electric buses
Following the arrival of electric buses on line 341 in 2016 and lines 115 and 126 very recently, Île-de-France Mobilités asked RATP to launch a massive call for tenders for the purchase of electric buses.
This is the largest tender in Europe for this type of clean vehicle. Its objective is to continue the renewal of the RATP bus fleet in order to reach 100% clean buses by 2025, with 2/3 electric buses and 1/3 biogas-powered buses.
For a maximum amount of €400 million, Île-de-France Mobilités and RATP, which will share the funding, will potentially order a thousand buses to strengthen the existing fleet of clean buses in Île-de-France. Out of a total of 4,700 buses, RATP currently has 800 hybrids, 140 bioNGV buses (a 100% renewable fuel) and 74 electric buses.
The first deliveries of this call for tenders will begin in two years, by the end of 2020.
Catherine Guillouard, Chairman and CEO of RATP, comments: "The massive equipment of our fleet with electric buses demonstrates our ambition to become a key player in the energy transition in the public transport sector. Our goal of having a 100% clean bus fleet by 2025 in Île-de-France is a real technological challenge that requires us to adapt, within very tight deadlines, our bus depots. The entire company is mobilized to succeed in this challenge. »
Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France Region and Île-de-France Mobilités, explains her objective: "My ambition is to provide the Region with 100% clean vehicles by 2025 for the dense area (Paris, cities in the inner suburbs and large regional agglomerations). This is a public health issue and a major industrial issue in line with our desire to make the Île-de-France region an attractive and ecological metropolis. This is why Île-de-France Mobilités is launching the largest call for tenders for electric buses in Europe with RATP. For the outer suburbs, Île-de-France Mobilités is currently working on launching a call for tenders for around 450 buses over 3 years to support the improvements to the lines put in place since 2016 and to continue equipping other Île-de-France operators with clean buses (Transdev, Keolis, Car Lacroix, etc.). »
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