The Parisian tourist barge company has partnered with TotalEnergies for this operation.
The Vedettes du Pont-Neuf fleet will soon be 100% electric. The announcement was made on the occasion of the signing of an agreement between the river company and TotalEnergies, which will jointly develop “an innovative solution for converting sightseeing boats into 100% electric motors in Paris”.
The first boat concerned will be the Rocca II, the company’s oldest still in service, built in 1963. Its diesel engines will be replaced by two electric motors of 55kW each, the equivalent of a powerful electric car.
The electrification of boats on the Seine is underway
With commissioning scheduled for the summer of 2022, the Rocca II will have a range of 7 hours of navigation, at 10 km/h, for 5 hours of recharging. This conversion will be accompanied by the installation by TotalEnergies of a dockside charging infrastructure.
“This innovative project to re-engine boats responds to the challenges of decarbonizing river transport and the entire sector […] It also provides a concrete response to energy transition in tourist and commercial activities on the Seine Axis”, considers Philippe Callejon, Director of Mobility and New Energies France at TotalEnergies
In 2023, the Vedettes du Pont Neuf and their subsidiary Canauxrama plan to electrify three medium-sized boats (the Gavroche, Sisley and Arletty), before moving on to the first 300-seater boat in 2024.
The electrification of tourist barge engines in Paris is therefore underway. On the Seine, Alain Ducasse’s barge-restaurant has already been sailing electric since 2018. Vedettes de Paris has already begun its modernization process , and the private cruise company Green River Cruises has also converted four of its boats, and intends to go all-electric by the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
