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Automotive

Extreme fast charge test clocks Polestar 5 at 1,200 miles per hour

By Paul Ridden
April 29, 2024
Extreme fast charge test clocks Polestar 5 at 1,200 miles per hour
The Polestar 5 with a 77-kWh StoreDot XFC battery pack was charged from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes, adding 200 miles of range
The Polestar 5 with a 77-kWh StoreDot XFC battery pack was charged from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes, adding 200 miles of range
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The Polestar 5 with a 77-kWh StoreDot XFC battery pack was charged from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes, adding 200 miles of range
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The Polestar 5 with a 77-kWh StoreDot XFC battery pack was charged from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes, adding 200 miles of range
The 77-kWh battery pack installed in the prototype Polestar 5 is made up of StoreDot's 300Wh/kg XFC cells
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The 77-kWh battery pack installed in the prototype Polestar 5 is made up of StoreDot's 300Wh/kg XFC cells
The XFC battery pack pulled in 310 kW from the charger, though peaked at 370 kW
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The XFC battery pack pulled in 310 kW from the charger, though peaked at 370 kW
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On the road to delivering 100 miles of EV range in five minutes by the end of 2024, tech firm StoreDot has installed its extreme fast charging cells in a Polestar 5 prototype, and zapped the 77-kWh pack to 80% capacity in 10 minutes.

For many car drivers, the journey from home to work or the mall or school is a fairly short one, well within the per-charge battery range of modern electric family cars anyway. But those needing to make longer daily trips are going to be plugged in more often.

DC fast-charging is already available for quick top-ups, but you could still need to find something to do while you wait a while. What if such pit stops could take around the same time as filling up a gas guzzler? That's precisely what StoreDot is aiming for with its extreme fast charging (XFC) high energy silicon-dominant battery cells – with 100 miles (160 km) of battery range in exchange for three minutes plugged in as the target for 2028.

Last year, performance EV brand Polestar revealed its intention to "revolutionize the ownership experience for EV owners with the ability to recharge in minutes" by collaborating with StoreDot to install a full-scale XFC battery module in a Polestar 5 prototype. And that's precisely what's happened.

Jumping out of the lab, the 77-kWh battery pack is reported to have consistently pulled a whopping 310 kW from a DC charger, and peaked at 370 kilowatts. The battery pack was juiced from 10% to 80% in 10 minutes, and was monitored throughout the tests, but didn't rise above the "target operating temperature set by engineers of both teams."

StoreDot and Polestar showcase world's first 10-minute electric car charge with si-dominant cells

"We are very excited to share this impressive achievement today and are proud to be on this journey with Polestar, a leading car brand who envisions high performance cars with a sustainable future," said StoreDot CEO Dr. Doron Myersdorf. "We're happy to see our partner is among the first EV car makers to acknowledge that XFC is now a necessary standard to make vast EV adoption a reality. With our extreme fast charging technology, you can add 200 miles in under 10 minutes. This breakthrough revolutionizes EV ownership experience by eradicating the barrier of range and charging anxiety once and for all. Drivers can now truly travel long distances with the same freedom and convenience as traditional petrol-powered vehicles."

StoreDot says that conventional graphite anodes are already being pushed to their performance limits, but that switching to silicon for its XFC cells enables development to continue in terms of energy density and charging rates.

However, as the team notes in the video above, it "wasn't easy to find a cable that could handle this current" so we're not going to see this technology available at a charging station just yet. But StoreDot has "100-in-5" in its sights for this year, 100 miles in four minutes by 2026 and delivery of 100 miles in three minutes by 2028.

Source: StoreDot

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AutomotiveStoreDotPolestarBattery TechnologyElectric VehiclesEV Charging
3 comments
Paul Ridden
Paul Ridden
While Paul is loath to reveal his age, he will admit to cutting his IT teeth on a TRS-80 (although he won't say which version). An obsessive fascination with computer technology blossomed from hobby into career before hopping over to France for 10 years, where he started work for New Atlas in 2009. Now back in his native Blighty, he serves as Managing Editor in Europe.

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jzj
Translated: Charge at about 4.5C-rating from 10% to 80%. Useful examples: 50kWh pack would charge at around 225KW, and 100kWh pack would charge at around 450kW (if there's a charging station that can deliver that). Because, for the time being, 350kW seems to be the maximum a fast charging can provide, a 75kWh pack seems like the quickest functional deliverable charge available. But once again, if you insist on talking about delivering driving range, then have the decency to define the vehicle! Useful examples: a car averaging 3.0kWh/mile using 70% (i.e., 10% to 80% of the pack, as in the article here) and with a pack size of 75kWh would travel 157.5 miles, and if that car averaged 4.0kWh/mile, it would travel 210 miles.
Global
Shocking a battery at a variety of temperatures will take a toll on the battery life, unless it's a combination capacitor, that can withstand a mild lightning bolt tank up in less than a minute.
Aross
I still think that all this work on trying to get 1000k mileage and very rapid charging rates still does not solve the overall environmental problems. So far I have not seen any stats as to whether EVs are more environmentally friendly to produce. The need for large numbers of charging stations can't be environmentally friendly given the large amount of plastic used in making them not to mention the impact of copper smelting on the environment. Then there is the not so ECO friendly production of batteries and the cost of replacing them or the entire car when they fail.
All these articles about the electrification of our transportation is interesting but I would like to see one of the writers tackle the big question, What is the actual ECO impact of this movement?