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Since they were first introduced in the early 1990's, lithium ion batteries have enjoyed unprecedented growth and success in the consumer marketplace. Combining excellent performance with affordability, they have become the product of choice for portable computers and cellular phones. Building on the same energy and life cycle attributes, which marked their consumer market success, but adding new high power storage capability, lithium ion technology is now poised to play a similar role in the transportation sector. With major programs in various aspects of electric and hybrid electric vehicles, Saft has developed a family of battery products which address the power and energy storage where light weight, long life, and excellent energy or power storage capabilities are needed. Significant progress in the packaging and control of high power, yet compact, batteries has been accomplished for a variety of vehicle applications.

As a relatively new battery technology, lithium-ion had not been considered a viable alternative for use in high power applications, including energy storage for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV). In 1996, Saft undertook a Phase I Research and Development program, funded by the US Department of Energy, under the sponsorship of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), to determine lithium-ion applicability for HEV energy storage. During this program Saft determined that properly designed lithium-ion cells could exhibit outstanding power handling characteristics, excellent cycle life and concurrently, relatively high capacity. Using portable size cell hardware, Saft was able to demonstrate power handling capability of over 1200 W/kg, over 120,000 cycles of 3% DOD increment, and energy densities of 65-85 Wh/kg.