Seabubbles: new vehicles being tested on the Seine
SeaBubbles has been testing its electric vehicles floating over the river Seine from September 16 to 20. Commercial launch is planned for Spring 2020.
Seabubbles: new vehicles being tested on the Seine
© DR
From September 16 to 20, 2019, a “SeaBubbles” boat, futuristic-looking vehicle levitating above water , was tested over the Seine. The vehicle is authorized to sail “at a maximum speed of 30 km/h on a route from Issy-les-Moulineaux to Bercy, between 8am and 10am in the morning and between 3pm and 5pm”, stated Paris Region prefecture.
Formal approval was required to allow these vehicles to exceed the 18 km/h speed limit on the river Seine. Plans to open up the use of vehicles on the Seine as from Spring 2020.
“All signals seem to be on green to start commercial operations of our Bubble Taxis in the first quarter of 2020. We are thus confirming Seabubbles’ ambition to put the Seine back at the centre of mobility in Paris Region” declared SeaBubbles’ CEO and former skipper Anders Bringdal.
€140,000 price per unit currently makes these levitating taxis more of a luxury product than vehicles dedicated to public transport, although buses of the same type are already in the design phase. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo nevertheless welcomed the experiment on Twitter.
These electric vehicles have several advantages since they do not emit CO2, do not make waves and drive silently. Indeed, the machines fly over the surface of the water thanks to their speed, as well as to large drifts equipped with propellers called “foils”.
Originally published in Le Journal du Grand Paris (read French version here).
