A Polestar 5 electric car prototype fitted with Israeli battery startup StoreDot's extreme fast charging (XFC) cells will be tested next year, the automaker announced at its Polestar Day event in California today. In theory, these cells would allow the coupe-like sedan to add 100 miles of range in just five minutes of charging.
StoreDot, which counts Polestar among its investors alongside Volvo Cars, Mercedes-Benz, and VinFast, says the two parties are exploring how the "100-in-5" cells can be brought to production. StoreDot and Polestar said they are collaborating on an advanced engineering project to demonstrate how XFC battery cells can be fitted to an existing platform and "show what a production-level solution could look like."
The announcement was made today at the event in Los Angeles, where a demonstration of StoreDot's "100-in-5" XFC cell charging also took place alongside a prototype of a Polestar 5 battery module. The companies said their collaboration includes key integration work, including the engineering design and cooling of the battery pack. (More on this event soon from InsideEVs as well.)
"This is a huge step for StoreDot and a strong endorsement that our ground-breaking technology is readying for mass production. We are extremely pleased and proud that Polestar aims to be the first automotive company to showcase our extreme fast charging battery cells in a full-scale, driveable prototype," Dr. Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot, said in a news release. "We still have lots of work to do to fully integrate our systems into a production car, but our teams are already fully engaged, and we will be demonstrating those results in the coming months."
Polestar's CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, added in a statement that his company has collaborated with StoreDot "to apply their advanced technology in proof-of-concept Polestar cars."
"StoreDot's pioneering extreme fast charging batteries, combined with our upcoming top-of-the-line electric powertrain, can revolutionize the ownership experience for EV owners with the ability to recharge in minutes," Ingenlath said.
StoreDot is a prominent battery startup known for its pouch cells with silicon-dominant chemistries that are said to enable EVs to charge at extremely high speeds. The company claims its extreme fast charging tech does not result in battery degradation.
Last week, the Israeli startup said its battery prototype didn't degrade after 1,000 consecutive extreme fast charging (XFC) tests compared with slow charging scenarios (using Level 1 or Level 2 chargers). The company's tests included sessions where the state of charge was increased from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 10 minutes, as well as from zero to 100 percent.
If achievable, these would be easily some of the quickest-recharging EVs on the road.
In 2021, StoreDot announced its "100inX" technology roadmap that will include three generations of technologies: silicon dominant XFC, semi-solid state, and post-lithium architecture. Late last year, the company said that by 2024, its XFC cells will be capable of accepting 100 miles of charge in five minutes; it also said that it expects to reduce this to just 3 minutes by 2028 and 2 minutes by 2032.
StoreDot's pouch cells were tested by independent battery lab Shmuel De-Leon Energy last year, and the conclusion was that the batteries are commercially viable.
