Airbus ditches lithium-ion batteries from A350

European planemaker to switch to using nickel-cadmium batteries after grounding of Boeing 787

Airbus is dropping lithium-ion batteries from its new A350 plane following the uncertainty surrounding the technology that has led to the grounding of Boeing's 787.

The European planemaker said today that it had decided to revert to nickel-cadmium batteries for the A350. The plane is a wide-body jet rival to the 787 Dreamliner and is expected to make its first flight around the middle of the year.

Airbus said it did not expect the battery switch to delay the A350.

The US government grounded the 787 last month because of problems with its lithium-ion batteries that caused one fire and forced another plane to make an emergency landing.

Airbus says the A350 uses batteries in a different set-up to the 787, making it unlikely that it would face the same problems.

It said: “Airbus considers this to be the most appropriate way forward in the interest of programme execution and A350 XWB reliability.”

The planemaker said its A350 flight-test programme would still go forward with lithium-ion batteries, but because what caused the problems with the 787 batteries remained unclear, it decided to make the switch “to optimise programme certainty”.