StoreDot's new battery technology cuts electric cars' charging times from 6 hours to 10 minutes
As of 2021, even the most fast-charging electric cars, such as the Porsche Taycan or the Tesla Model 3, can take over half an hour to charge to 80%, and longer still to reach 100%. Gasoline-powered car enthusiasts often compare this to the few minutes required to refuel a gas tank.
StoreDot, one of NWA's founding members, has made massive breakthroughs in the world of electric vehicles by developing a battery that has a better charging speed than any technology currently available. Their XFC (extreme fast charging) prototype 4680 Li-Ion Cell reduces the charging wait to only 10 minutes. Furthermore, the battery handles repeated charging remarkably well, suffering little to no damage over 850 consecutive fast-charging cycles.
The secret is in the chemistry design. Usually, Lithium-Ion batteries use graphite-dominant anodes, which were the first step for energy density technology. However, these are not perfect; Over time, the batteries' lifecycle and limits on charge speed make for incrementally longer charge times. StoreDot’s battery uses silicon-dominant anodes instead, which allow for much greater charging speeds with no harm to the battery. The goal for these batteries is 1000 fast-charge cycles with no damage, which would promise a reliable long-term car.
The batteries' chemistry alone is not enough for a fast charge, which StoreDot accounts for with one of their latest patents. It aims to combine hardware and software, which would allow the battery to adjust itself to tolerate higher currents for even faster charging. This patent will be open source and is only one of 12 patents that StoreDot owns.
The XFC cells will turn charing times in electric vehicles' favor, but what about range? As it turns out, having silicon anodes helps the batteries have much better energy density than the current Li-Ion batteries. Whereas the cells used today by big car companies have a range of approximately 280 miles (260 wh/kg), these batteries have a range of 480 miles (400-450 wh/kg), effectively doubling it. StoreDot is also working on extreme energy density (XED) batteries, which could have ranges up to 600 miles in a single charge, exceeding even gasoline-powered vehicles.
This is only the beginning for StoreDot. They have exceeded all their 2021 targets ahead of schedule, are on track for mass production of their XFC battery cells by 2024, as well as mass production of their XED battery cells by 2028. They have also announced that many news updates on their solid-state cell technology are due in early 2022. Their recent expansion from Israel into Asia and the US makes StoreDot a company worth keeping an eye on.
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