Israeli company claims fast-charging battery breakthrough – report

An electric vehicle (EV) battery capable of five-minute recharges may have been achieved by Israeli company StoreDot.

According to The Guardian newspaper, StoreDot claims it's production-ready EV battery can provide 480km of driving range and be fully charged in five minutes – a little more than it takes to fill up the average petrol-powered car.

However, the charger used to achieve this feat is far more powerful than commercial plugs currently available to EV drivers.

By 2025, the company is aiming to have a vehicle battery capable of providing 160km of driving range after being plugged in for only five minutes, using charging stations accessible to the public.

"We focus on fast-charging technology as opposed to the rest of industry which is focused on energy density," StoreDot CEO Doron Myersdorf told CNBC in 2017.

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Above: StoreDot CEO Doron Myersdorf.

"Fast-charging is the critical missing link needed to make electric vehicles ubiquitous."

The new battery is said to be able to withstand a thousand recharges while retaining 80 per cent of its original capacity – twice as many recharges as testing protocols mandate.

StoreDot has raised about AU$130 million in capital since 2014, with big-name investors including BP, Samsung, and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.

While competitors such as QuantumScape and Solid Power are racing to be the first to market with solid-state battery technology, StoreDot is further developing lithium-ion batteries, which are the prevailing method of powering electric vehicles.

In September 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company was introducing a new battery designed to provide cost savings, weight savings, and up to 16 per cent more range.

"We totally share Elon’s vision and with our fast-charging technology we enhance the ability of car companies to offer exceptional driver experience," Mr Myersdorf said.

While the new batteries could begin making their way into production cars in the coming years, the implications are that they could lower the cost of current battery technology, making electric vehicles cheapers and more accessible to buyers.

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