StoreDot develops battery pack with five-minute charge time

StoreDot, the Israeli technology and energy storage company, is steaming ahead with a new ultra-fast charging EV battery pack. It’s called the FlashBattery and its maker is touting a maximum range of 300 miles but recharge times of just five minutes.

StoreDot and its Chinese production partner, Eve Energy, have produced the first working examples of the EV battery pack, although the technology is yet to enter mass production. However, if it does, it could mark a significant step towards electric cars becoming as convenient to use as their combustion-engined equivalents.

Most current EV battery packs use graphite as an electrode, which store electric charge in the form of lithium ions. However, when charged too quickly, the electrode becomes overwhelmed by those ions, which can turn into metal and short circuit the cells. In an effort to avoid this, the FlashBattery uses what StoreDot calls “coated nanoparticles”, which the company says can transfer the lithium ions between the electrolyte and electrodes more easily.

The FlashBattery’s charging capability has been proven to a degree, though not at the scale of an electric vehicle battery. StoreDot says that it has successfully produced 1,000 cells and mounted them in devices such as mobile phones, drones and a pure-electric moped. The five-minute recharge time of the scooter was also showcased in 2019 with a live demonstration.

To make the technology work in an electric car would require much higher-powered vehicle chargers than those currently in use today. However, StoreDot is yet to announce what output these new chargers would require to charge its new battery effectively.

Despite the current lack of infrastructure to support its new battery pack, StoreDot has received significant investment from the likes of Daimler, BP, Samsung and TDK, raising $130 million (around £95 million) to date.

What do you make of StoreDot’s new EV battery pack? Let us know in the comments section below…