StoreDot is developing new a lithium-ion battery technology it calls eXtreme Fast Charging (XFC) that will enable an EV to charge in 5-10 minutes (writes Peter Donaldson).
At the heart of it is a silicon-dominated anode that can accept lithium ions much faster than a graphite anode (thanks to silicon’s lower resistance) but controls the tendency of silicon to swell when it accepts those ions that would otherwise generate damaging mechanical forces inside the battery, the company’s CEO Doron Myersdorf says.
The Israeli start-up is backed investors Samsung, Daimler, BP and TDK, has raised about $130 million in capital, owns around 100 patents and has 35 PhDs in its team of 120 people, with specialisms in areas including materials science, organic chemistry and electrochemistry.
Myersdorf says this number of PhDs provides a level of research power equivalent to two faculties at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all focused on the problem of how to charge a battery quickly. More…