ITEN, a French deeptech specialist in lithium ion micro-batteries, has chosen Greater Chalon (71) for its new production site
Energy storage is a major issue for all electronic components. To supply its revolutionary micro-batteries to all the players in the electronics industry, ITEN is going to build a factory in Chalon by relying on the professionalism and voluntarism of the local authorities. To this end, a hundred or so jobs will be created in the first instance.
ITEN becomes a major industrial player by increasing its production capacity
The micro-batteries produced by ITEN can provide 1000 times the power density of primary button cells for the thickness of a blue card. They are compatible with the automated manufacturing processes of the electronics industry and are eco-designed. They contain no heavy metals or pollutants. After more than 8 years of R&D, and around 300 patents registered worldwide, the technology is now complete. Now it is a matter of scaling up production capacity. ITEN already has a small production plant in Dardilly near Lyon.
ITEN found a site in Chalon that matched its expectations in every respect
“We are going to increase our production capacity to around 40 million units by the beginning of 2024 for our Dardilly site, and we are going to build a new factory in Chalon, France, of which I am particularly proud. The manufacturing capacity of this site is planned to grow in modular tranches of 100 million components per year, the first of which will be operational in 2026,” says Fabien Gaben, CEO of ITEN. This new factory will be located in the SaôneOr industrial zone in Chalon-sur-Saône (71), on a former Kodak industrial site. Many constraints had to be taken into account, and the land selected in the Grand Chalon area meets them all. A surface area of at least 5 hectares, a connection to the existing electrical network with significant electrical power, necessarily located in a major employment area and, above all, well served by public transport. The selected site is served by a bus leaving every 10 minutes from the Chalon-sur-Saône train station on weekdays. “This is important for the comfort of our future employees,” says Fabien Gaben. He also points out that the site will also be easily accessible from the Dardilly site.
The Regional Economic Agency of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The AER BFC is delighted with this move to the Grand Chalon area, which once again demonstrates the attractiveness of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region’s ecosystem and its strategic location at the heart of European markets.
About ITEN
In the context of the race for miniaturisation, energy management is an obstacle to the development of new electronic products that improve everyday life; this is why ITEN, a French industrial company, provides revolutionary micro-batteries that can be adapted to all situations, by controlling the entire production chain, from eco-design to manufacturing. ITEN is a French company, created in 2011 by Fabien Gaben, a visionary entrepreneur whose project based on more than 8 years of R&D has given rise to this Deeptech, one of the flagships of France’s reindustrialisation. ITEN has a first production site in Dardilly, near Lyon, capable of producing around 40 million micro-batteries by early 2024. ITEN has twice been a winner of the global innovation competition, in 2015 and 2017.