France-based advanced battery-maker Saft, a wholly-owned subsidiary of international energy giant Total, is building an alliance with other European partners to launch an ambitious program of research, development and industrialization for new generations of batteries focusing on advanced high-density Li-ion and solid-state battery technology. The program addresses all market segments, such as electro-mobility (EV, e-Bus, Railway, Marine, Aviation), energy storage (ESS) and specialty industries.

These new generation batteries will provide performance, cost and safety advantages, compared to current lithium-ion products. The batteries—which will be integrated into their system environments, with digitalized functions and interfaces—are planned to be designed together with leading material suppliers.

Should the development be successful, the next step will be to work together with industrial partners on new manufacturing processes, and on cell and system industrialization. This will then lead to an easily scalable manufacturing standard block of 1GWh.

Saft said that to build European leadership in this domain, with disruptive technologies, innovative products and state-of-the-art industrial processes, the alliance will need strong regulatory support and appropriate funding from European and national authorities.

Saft has already signed up several leading European companies to Partner in the fields of materials, equipment and digitalization of industrial processes:

• Solvay, headquartered in Belgium, is a materials and chemical multinational bringing its strong expertise in polymer and electrolyte solutions;

• Manz, headquartered in Germany, is the European specialist of equipment for battery cell and module assembly;

• Siemens, headquartered in Germany, is a global technology powerhouse which equips Industry 4.0 manufacturing facilities with software and automation solutions; and

• other leading European companies working in the fields of active material and system integration.

The alliance is not exclusive of other agreements or partnerships, however the companies will work together over the next seven years to reach the common ambition. Throughout the different phases of the project, the core group of the Alliance will partner with European academia, research centers, SMEs, customers and other entities to leverage the expertise already accumulated throughout Europe.