Saft

Saft has been building batteries since 1918, when it was founded in France as the Societe des Accumulateurs Fixes et de Traction. The acronym outlived the full name. The company has never been a consumer cell maker. Its work is industrial and mission critical, and since 2016 it has sat inside TotalEnergies, which took full ownership through a tender offer that year. Saft reported revenue of about 1.4 billion euros in 2025, employs roughly 4,500 people and runs manufacturing sites in France, the United States, Sweden, China and elsewhere.

The group is organised into four divisions. Aerospace, Defense and Performance covers nickel, lithium-ion and silver chemistries for aircraft, military platforms, satellites and high performance applications. Connected Smart Energy makes primary lithium and small lithium-ion cells for metering, medical devices, tracking and connected sensors, a high volume line that rarely gets attention outside the trade press. Energy Storage Systems builds containerised lithium-ion installations for grid support, renewables firming and island microgrids. Industry, Mobility and Infrastructure supplies nickel and lithium-ion batteries for rail traction and rolling stock, telecom backup, oil and gas installations and industrial standby.

Defence work cuts across land, sea and air. The Xcelion 6T is a 28V lithium-ion battery built to the NATO 6T form factor as a direct replacement for lead-acid batteries in tactical and armoured vehicles, and it removes roughly three quarters of the weight of the pair of lead-acid units it displaces. A 56V version extends the same approach to vehicles with higher electrical loads. Alongside the rechargeable side, Saft is one of the few makers able to supply both primary and rechargeable lithium and silver chemistries for military electronics, which matters for equipment that has to sit in storage for years and then work on first use.

The naval side has become the most visible part of the defence business. In 2026 Naval Group awarded Saft a contract to supply lithium-ion battery systems for the Barracuda and Scorpene submarine families, replacing lead-acid installations. Li-ion gives a submarine more stored energy in less volume and a lower self-discharge rate, which translates into longer submerged endurance. Saft handles the full chain in house, from cell through module to the battery management electronics and safety architecture that a submarine certification authority will scrutinise.

In space, Saft supplies the VES family of lithium-ion cells. VES16 is a 4.5Ah cell aimed at low Earth orbit constellations and small geostationary platforms, while the larger VES140 and VES180 cells serve geostationary and medium Earth orbit spacecraft in the 3kW to 25kW class and have flown on well over a hundred GEO satellites. Saft cells powered the European Space Agency SMART-1 lunar mission in 2003, one of the first operational uses of lithium-ion in space.

The stationary and industrial ranges are sold under long running product names. Intensium Max is the containerised megawatt-scale storage system. Seanergy provides classified lithium-ion modules for marine propulsion and hybrid vessels. Evolion covers telecom backup, Uptimax handles maintenance-free industrial standby, and Sunica.plus is the nickel range for off-grid solar. The Block battery range covers stationary backup and engine starting.