Saft takes Control of Nersac Lithium-ion Battery Factory

Saft has acquired the Nersac Li-ion battery facility near Angouleme in France from Johnson Controls Inc.

The factory, which employs 90 people today provides Saft with complementary Li-ion battery production capacity for its different markets. The factory is qualified to manufacture batteries for the automotive industry and has been building Li-ion batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles since 2009.

The facility has a current capacity of 60 MWh, which can be doubled with limited investment and is equipped to produce the same cells as Saft’s Jacksonville plant.

"Taking control of the Nersac Li-ion factory and thereby increasing our production capacity in Europe is an important part of Saft’s strategy to accelerate our growth and to further deploy our Li-ion technologies into high growth markets such as energy storage and vehicles, but also into our traditional markets," explained John Searle, Chairman of Management Board, Saft Groupe.