Polestar and StoreDot complete demo of Extreme Fast Charging

Recharging times are often stated as one of the reasons why drivers don't want to switch to electric vehicles - and while we don't agree with the narrative, as nearly all vehicles spend much of their time not in use and therefore can be charged then - there are times when every EV driver would like to be able to charge that little bit faster.

How long does it take to charge an electric car? Currently the answer varies based on the car and the charger used, ranging from as little as 20-30 minutes at a fast-charging station to several hours with a standard home charger.

So there's a race going on - with various companies working on next-generation battery technology to produce battery units capable of accepting higher charging speeds without degrading the battery significantly. Oh, in a unit that will be affordable to roll out in production EVs in the future.

One of the leading fast-charging pioneers is StoreDot and they, alongside partners Polestar, have passed another milestone in their plan to produce extreme fast-charging (XFC) batteries.

The host for this new generation battery was a prototype Polestar 5 electric vehicle. The engineers fitted a StoreDot 77kWh battery into the fully driveable vehicle and then charged the battery from 10% to 80% in just 10 minutes. The vehicle saw a consistent charge rate of 310kW and rising to a peak of 370kW by the end of the test. Potentially this would mean that around 200 miles of range could be added to the vehicle in just 10 minutes.

The secret to StoreDot's XFC battery technology is that it uses silicon-dominant cells giving these cells an energy density on a par with NMC cells but without the need for specialist cooling systems. While the battery module structure improves cooling and reduces weight.

Israel-based StoreDot has numerous strategic investors and partners including Polestar, Volvo, Samsung, TDK and BP.