SAFT is a French company with a global presence, and it is widely regarded as one of the leading battery manufacturers in the world. As is the case with other prominent brands like Panasonic and Energizer, SAFT has a rich and varied history, as we explore throughout this blog post.
Early beginnings
SAFT was established in 1918 in Levallois-Perret, France. The full name of the company – The Societe des Accumulateurs Fixes et de Traction – was known by its popular acronym (SAFT) from the mid-1920s, when the company was under the direction of its founder, Victor Herold. Herold started his professional life by manufacturing batteries for the luggage carts that were an integral part of the railway stations managed by the Paris-Lyon-Marseille Company.
By 1928, SAFT had been purchased by ALCATEL, where it prospered throughout the 1930s and again through war-time Europe, where demand for the latest innovations in battery production was keenly sought by the allies. In 1949, the company was responsible for the production of a unique alkaline battery before diversifying into the likes of power plants, telephone systems, and a range of other industries.
Growth in Europe and further afield
Towards the end of the Second World War, SAFT opened its first subsidiary in the United Kingdom, which was an indication of the company’s global aspirations. At the same time, SAFT technicians were working on a range of systems that had a significant impact in the aeronautic field, specifically their sintered plates, which have long been regarded as industry-leading.
By the 1950s, SAFT’s presence was felt in America when the US Naval Air Command requested 2,000 batteries of 24V for various applications within the US military. The contract was worth over $10 million and put SAFT on the map in the United States, leading them to establish a subsidiary in the States in the 1970s. Soon after, SAFT established an HQ in Singapore and continued its global expansion. The company has been at the forefront of the study of battery technology for use in electric vehicles since the 1980s, and their sophisticated robotic assembly line enabled SAFT to develop technologies that some of their competitors couldn’t match.
The 1990s to the present day
By the 1990s, SAFT had established itself as the world’s leading manufacturer of nickel-cadmium batteries, which are predominantly used within the aviation and railway sectors. In 1995, ALCATEL delisted SAFT from the stock market, which enabled SAFT to buy its main rivals, Nife and Alcad. Various other mergers and acquisitions occurred throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, increasing SAFT’s presence in Europe, Mexico, and South Korea.
More recently, SAFT has landed multiple big contracts, supplying high-power lithium-ion batteries for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting craft, for instance. By 2016, TotalEnergies acquired all SAFT shares and delisted the company once again, highlighting the fact that the future of TotalEnergies will be focused largely on renewables, as opposed to their historical exploitation of fossil fuels.
However you view the company, SAFT is one of the leading manufacturers of batteries and associated technologies and has been throughout the course of the last 100 years. It will be intriguing to learn how the company adapts and evolves to the new demands for battery tech in the coming years, particularly now that SAFT is a global subsidiary of TotalEnergies.
