Polestar reports drivable EV with 10-minute 10-80% charging

Polestar has announced that prototype cells fitted to a version of its upcoming Polestar 5 flagship EV have been able to do a 10-80% charge in just 10 minutes. 

Polestar said last year that it would place the tech in a prototype Polestar 5 gaining 100 miles in 5 minutes—this project—by 2024, and it appears to have exceeded the original target. In the drivable Polestar 5, fitted with a “specially commissioned” 77-kwh battery pack, the pack has demonstrated that charge rate. 

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With this project, Polestar fitted StoreDot’s “100-in-5” XFC cells into the prototype Polestar 5 via a prototype Polestar battery module. It claims to have charged the resulting pack at a starting charge rate of 310 kw and a peak of 370 kw. 

Polestar 5 prototype

The cells aren’t the all-solid-state cells that Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and others are targeting for later in the decade. But these “silicon-dominant” cells, delivered in their first test samples for automakers in 2021, are a further evolution of the lithium-ion cell tech common in EVs. StoreDot says it’s transformed them “by innovating and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, optimized by Artificial Intelligence algorithms.”

Polestar underscores that while energy density is on par with current nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion cells, these don’t require “specialist cooling systems.” The companies have previously said that this aspect could cut hundreds of pounds of weight from complete EVs, but it’s unclear if that means the test Polestar 5 is going without a liquid cooling system. 

Polestar 5 prototype

That said, it’s unlikely that the tech would be installed in a production model anytime soon, and the production Polestar 5 will get a different battery pack. With this test Polestar 5, the brand now needs to see if such a cell would be durable and reliable as part of the thermal demands of a large electric vehicle battery pack. In 2022 the companies said that StoreDot was seeking mass-production of EV-sized batteries of such tech by 2024. 

BP is an investor in StoreDot, and Polestar also holds a stake; a “strategic collaboration” with Volvo will also result in real-world testing with that related brand.