Polestar has teamed up with Israel-based start-up StoreDot to build an electric prototype that charges from 10% to 80% almost as quickly as you can fully fill up a fuel tank. The brand stresses it achieved this relatively fast charging time using a drivable car rather than in a lab.
StoreDot's Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) technology was installed in a Polestar 5, which is a big, fastback-like sedan due out in 2025. The company explains the battery pack started charging at 310 kilowatts and rose to 370 kilowatts as it neared 80% — Polestar states this is significant because charging speeds tend to decrease as the battery's stage of charge increases in most EVs currently on the market. It also points out that the prototype was equipped with a "specially commissioned" 77-kilowatt-hour battery pack whose capacity can theoretically be increased to at least 100 kilowatt hours. Put another way, the system could add 200 miles of range to a mid-size EV in about 10 minutes.
Engineers didn't need to modify the cooling system to make 370-kilowatt charging possible. There's no word on what conditions the test was performed in, however; factors like the ambient temperature can have a major effect on charging times. The secret is in the battery pack: It uses silicon-dominant cells, and it's compatible with the existing DC charging infrastructure so it doesn't need a special charging station.
Polestar notes that the XFC technology "could be applied" to some of its future vehicles, though it hasn't made a firm commitment yet. "We typically have a development cycle of two to three years, so I'd say we could put this into production within that time period," it added.
