StoreDot, the Israeli-based startup working on a commercially available extreme fast charging (XFC) battery cell, has revealed a cell-to-pack (CTP) concept that includes its proprietary 100in5 technology and an interesting cooling solution.
Dubbed I-Beam XFC, StoreDot’s concept is said to provide 100 miles of driving range after just 5 minutes of extreme fast charging, but this isn’t the main talking point as the company’s cells were already capable of the same.
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StoreDot integrates cooling into its cells
StoreDot's cell-to-pack concept features cells that are individually cooled. This means the pack benefits from an enhanced thermal management and can accept the high currents needed for extreme fast charging.
What’s new here is the patented Structural Cooling concept. In simple English, this means that each cell has an integrated cooling path where coolant can flow, thus providing enhanced thermal management, StoreDot says. It also means that the battery pack can accept the ultra-high currents needed for fast charging with minimal overhead.
To make a complete battery pack, several electrodes are assembled into what StoreDot calls I-Beam XFC cells, which–judging from the video embedded above–appear to be tailor-made for every vehicle so that they fit just right in the chassis width-wise. Put a bunch of these cells together and you get a whole pack, cooling system included.
While still in the concept phase, it’s a pretty neat idea that can potentially make the issue of individual battery cells running hot (and reducing the charging performance of the whole pack) a thing of the past.
StoreDot says it has several patents for the I-Beam XFC architecture and views the design as the key to unlocking the full potential of extreme fast charging technology on a mass scale. That’s if it will ever reach production-spec EVs.
The company’s XFC cells were validated by a third party early last year and over 15 car brands are exploring the technology for their upcoming EVs. Polestar said that a Polestar 5 prototype fitted with StoreDot’s XFC cells will be demonstrated this year, while Vietnamese startup VinFast is said to adopt the technology as soon as it becomes available sometime next year.
With an energy density of 300 watt-hours/kilogram, StoreDot’s silicon-dominant semi-solid state pouch cells have attracted investments from companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Samsung, and Polestar. According to the battery startup, the cells don’t degrade after 1,000 consecutive extreme fast charging cycles, including sessions where the state of charge is upped from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 10 minutes, as well as recharging cells from zero to 100 percent SoC with XFC.
