Batteries from 1150 buses to be replaced after explosion

A battery explosion on board an Auckland bus, that left a driver with facial injuries, was a freak one-off incident, Auckland Transport says.

But following yesterday's incident the transport agency plans to replace console batteries from 1150 of its buses.

The explosion happened after a malfunction within a console, which is used to store ticket and route information, led to the internal AA-lithium battery to overheat, explode and cause the plastic casing to fly off.

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The bus's rear-view mirror was damaged and the bus windscreen was also cracked.

Passengers were on board at the time, but the driver off loaded them safely, drove the bus back to the depot, before going to hospital to be treated.

At a press conference at the agency's headquarters in the HSBC building in central Auckland, AT chief executive David Warburton said the bus driver was in good spirits and would be back at work next week.

He unveiled the small AA-style battery to the gathered media at the conference and demonstrated where they slotted into the ticket console.

An example of the replacement internal lithium battery in the bus ticketing console. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Mr Warburton said incidents involving faulty batteries of this type were very rare world wide.

"We do not believe this is a systemic issue but rather a freak accident. Thales have never had any experience of an incident like this and they advise the possibility of a similar event is extremely low, and reduced even further with the latest fail-safe battery."

Mr Warburton also admitted AT had been aware of the batteries overheating in the past and was in the process of addressing this.

"We have now fast tracked that and we will have all the batteries replaced with a new-fail safe circuited battery by the weekend."

Technicians are being flown in and the new batteries will be fitted on buses by Saturday.

AT also wants Thales Australia to look at modifications to the console casings.

Mr Warburton promised no services or customers would be affected while the replacement took place.