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Electric vehicle (EV) makers want charging to be as easy as filling up a gas car. But right now, even top EVs take 30 to 40 minutes to charge, and finding reliable chargers can be stressful. Polestar, teaming up with StoreDot, has made a Polestar 5 sedan with a battery that charges super fast. It can go from 10% to 80% in about the time it takes to fill a gas car.
People used to worry about how far EVs could go, but now they worry about finding chargers and waiting for their car to charge. Even though charging is getting faster, it still takes a while—30 to 40 minutes for most EVs.
That’s a long time, especially compared to filling up a gas car. That’s why extreme fast charging (XFC) is so important for EVs. If charging an EV is as quick as filling a gas tank, people won’t worry as much. Polestar showed a demo of their Polestar 5 sedan charging from 10% to 80% in just 10 minutes.
Other batteries have charged fast in labs, but Polestar’s battery is real and works in a real car. It’s not just a small test—it’s a big step forward.
The battery in Polestar’s demo car has a capacity of 77-kilowatt hours (kWh), a bit smaller than what the Polestar 5 might have. But Polestar and StoreDot say they could make bigger batteries that charge just as fast. And the charging speed stays the same even as the battery fills up.
StoreDot’s battery uses silicon in the anode (the positive side of the battery) instead of graphite like most batteries. Silicon can hold more energy, meaning batteries can be smaller, lighter, and cheaper. And StoreDot says they’ve fixed the problem of silicon swelling up during charging.
Polestar showed that their battery could charge fast without any special cooling. But it’ll still take a couple of years before these batteries are ready for mass production. So, even though we won’t see them in cars right away, it’s exciting progress toward faster charging for EVs.