Built in Ergué-Gaberic near Quimper by the company Bluebus, a Bolloré Group entity, the 12-meter Blue bus sees its autonomy reach 387 km. Initially the LMP® batteries, also built in Ergué-Gabéric (and in Canada) by Blue Solutions, a Bolloré Group subsidiary, only gave it an autonomy of 320 km. The company Bluebus has been building 12-meter electric buses since January 2016 and 6-meter ones since 2015.
Lithium metal polymer (LMP®) batteries are an alternative to Lithium ion technology, at the heart of the current market dominated by China. Research on this type of battery continues with the opening of a Blue Solutions laboratory in Grenoble. Blue Solutions also plans to soon produce batteries for cars to increase volume and thus lower production costs. Contracts have been made with car manufacturers whose names are confidential for the moment.
Bluebus and its partner Navya, have finalized the robotization and automation of two Bluebus Autonom® vehicles and successfully completed all the commissioning tests. The vehicles, operational for level 4 autonomous driving, will now begin their rolling-out phase on the test track.
The goal is to automate future mass-produced driverless vehicles. The 6-meter driverless Bluebus should be launched in September 2023.
