After two burning electric buses within a few weeks, the Parisian transport company RATP temporarily took 149 vehicles of this type off the road.

This is the Bluebus 5SE model, which is owned by the dazzling French billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

The 12 meter long buses, powered by solid lithium polymer batteries, were used in local public transport.

Because other buses are now being activated, traffic in the French capital is partially disrupted.

Niklas Zaboji

Economic correspondent in Paris

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The latest incident occurred on Friday morning at the François-Mitterrand metro station in the 13th arrondissement of Paris.

The passengers were not injured.

According to RATP, the bus driver initiated an immediate evacuation of the passengers.

According to the local fire department, around 30 emergency services with 15 vehicles were involved in the extinguishing work.

Video footage shows flames and thick black smoke.

The AFP news agency reports a strong smell of burnt plastic.

Earlier in April, a Bluebus electric bus caught fire on Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris' fifth arrondissement.

There was no personal injury either, as the bus driver was able to persuade the passengers to get off and get to safety in good time.

The vehicle had crumbled to ashes within a few minutes, as the local newspaper "Le Parisien" wrote.

The alarm was raised by passers-by who saw suspicious smoke rising from the vehicle.

Since 2016 "without major incidents"

The cause of the fire is still unknown in both cases.

RATP announced that it had commissioned a comprehensive expert opinion from the manufacturer.

He should explain the causes of the incidents and propose an action plan that will allow the vehicles to be safely put back into service.

Bluebus itself, which operates more than 400 electric buses worldwide, responded with a brief statement on Friday afternoon.

"All Bluebus teams are mobilized to actively collaborate with RATP and the relevant authorities, in particular to determine the cause of the damage," it said.

A spokesman for the Solidaires RATP union told the newspaper "Le Figaro" that RATP must not "greenwash" and save on material when modernizing the fleet.

"There is an extremely rapid renewal for ecological image reasons," he said.

Poor quality materials are often used.

RATP has been using electric buses in the Paris city area since 2016 - "without any major incidents", as the transport company emphasizes.

Of the 4,700 bus fleet, 500 are electrically operated.

In addition to Bluebus, manufacturers are the French railway company Alstom and the traditional French brand Heuliez, today in the hands of the Italian Iveco group.

By the middle of this decade, RATP intends to convert the entire bus fleet in Paris to electric and biomethane drives.

An electric bus also caught fire in the southern French city of Carcassonne on Friday after the vehicle went off course and crashed into a railway bridge.

According to local media reports, this is a bus from the Turkish manufacturer Karsan, which was traveling without passengers for test purposes.

The accident led to disruptions in train services.