Polestar Bets on StoreDot’s Fast-Charging Battery

• Polestar invests in Israeli startup StoreDot that promises fast-charging battery tech that will be able to add 100 miles of range in 5 minutes.

• StoreDot developed its proprietary battery by synthesizing organic and inorganic compounds that can be used in lithium-ion battery production.

• Volvo and Polestar have now both invested in StoreDot, ahead of plans to bring the battery tech into production in 2024 and into Polestar cars in 2026.

Polestar is the latest automaker to stake extreme fast-charging battery developer StoreDot, which has promised EV recharge times below ten minutes. The startup has been touting its "100in5" battery cells that are scheduled for 2024 production and expected to allow EVs to gain 100 miles of range in just five minutes. It's easy to see why automakers are interested.

"Charging and range anxiety are common concerns holding owners of combustion-engine cars back from making the switch to EVs," said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath. "StoreDot’s advanced battery technology potentially provides real solutions to these obstacles. If our current pilot projects with StoreDot are successful, we could see these solutions being implemented in Polestar cars by 2026."

StoreDot says its pioneering technology is near production-ready and relies on a unique silicon-dominant anode technology and software to permit fast recharge cycles in lithium-ion batteries, which have been reengineered to feature organic molecules for energy storage in nanoscale structures.

With the help of artificial-intelligence algorithms, StoreDot has synthesized proprietary organic and inorganic compounds that can be used in lithium-ion battery production. This nanodot technology, which lends the startup its name, is now progressing toward large scale production.

"Drawing from Alzheimer’s research that demonstrated the potential of using organic molecules for energy storage in nanoscale structures, we went on to synthesize innovative new compounds that eventually enabled our breakthrough," said StoreDot CEO and co-founder Doron Myersdorf.

StoreDot predicts that by 2028, the time needed to gain 100 miles of range will drop to just three minutes, and down to two minutes by 2032.

The startup's technology, now backed by Volvo and Polestar, is in a race with a number of solid-state battery designs being developed by other companies, as well as battery swapping stations that are being built at breakneck speed in China. Another race that StoreDot's proprietary technology faces is one of raw materials, amid persistent fears in the industry that a mostly-EV future will begin to see shortages of materials needed for battery production unless complete battery recycling becomes an integral part of vehicle life cycles.

The other crucial piece of the puzzle, of course, are chargers that will be able to deliver energy at these speeds.

"Like us, Polestar is an extremely ambitious, innovative brand and is already proving to be pivotal in the mass adoption of electric vehicles, helping us move to a cleaner, zero-emissions world," Myersdorf added.