Breakthrough Battery Promises Polestar 100 Miles Of Electric Range In Just 5 Minutes

The time it takes to charge an electric vehicle could be a sticking point for a lot of people trying to make the switch over to an EV. After all, filling up at the gas station takes just a minute or two and you're on your way. Even with a Tesla Supercharger handy, charging up to 200 miles of range takes upwards of 15 minutes. 

That's not a long time if you want to hang out at a charging station for a few minutes and grab a snack, but it's an eternity when you're in a hurry. Even with more and more automakers adopting the NACS plug that Superchargers use, that's still longer than parking at the pump.

Polestar, maker of less-than-conventional EVs, has teamed up with StoreDot — a company that specializes in fast charging technology — to pioneer an EV that can replenish 100 miles of range in just five minutes. XFC (Extreme Fast Charging) batteries are at the core of the new technology, and StoreDot and Polestar are claiming that it will have a prototype ready as early as next year.

It's not yet known what vehicle will host the new battery architecture, but a press release from StoreDot says the battery is "silicon dominant," "semi-solid state," and "post-lithium." How that impacts charging speeds at the charging station is yet to be seen, but after this technology is shipped, StoreDot aims to have batteries that can charge 100 miles of range in just two minutes by 2032. 

According to Thomas Ingenlath, the CEO of Polestar, the technology is firmly in the proof of concept phase, with no actual timeline for when you would start seeing XFC batteries show up in Polestar vehicles. It's still yet to be seen how this technology will specifically be implemented in road cars, and there's still a lot of work to be done to make recharging EVs as convenient as filling up a gas-powered car. That said, anything to cut down charging time is a step in the right direction.