Earlier this year Israeli company StoreDot helped to produce a battery that could charge up in just 5 minutes. Fast charging has already been developed in mobile phones, drones and scooters and now the technology is moving to EVs.
Samsung, TDK, BP and Daimler have all invested in StoreDot, which has raised $130 million so far.
Currently, the fastest charging EVs take anywhere between 20-60 minutes to charge-up but these require special rapid-charging stations and the vehicles need to be compatible.
StoreDot’s ‘extreme-fast-charging’ technology uses geranium as oppose to graphite components. Geranium’s lower resistance allows for quicker charging times whilst also reducing the gradual degradation of the lithium-ion battery (known as ‘plating’) that previous forms of fast charging would otherwise accelerate.
Further developments to this battery are expected to arrive which includes the use of silicon that’s a cheaper alternative to geranium.
As of now, the infrastructure to facilitate these ‘extreme-fast-charging’ batteries doesn’t exist on a major scale, but with the ever shifting EV landscape it might not be long till we see people filling up electric cars as if they were petrol or diesel.