Electric river boats take to Seine for Olympic opening ceremony [Video]

PARIS, France — The Vedettes de Paris river boat tour company has been doing tours on the Seine River for nearly 50 years, and marketing director Julie Devernay said people can take tours down the Seine on electric boats.

“We are a company since 1976,” Devernay said. “It is one of the main companies on the Seine. We have five boats, and three of those are electric boats.”

Those electric boats will be used during the 2024 Olympic opening ceremony on July 26. Instead of being held in a traditional stadium, the opening ceremony will take the form of a 4-mile-long floating procession down the Seine River.

The company spent 12 months to retrofit older gas boats with electric engines that have 550 kilowatt-hour battery banks and, like electric cars, can be charged up …