Photo: Poelstar
The standalone Swedish-Chinese brand of Volvo and Geely wants to tell us the story of how they "charged a Polestar in 10 minutes." They are also pretty sure this tale will "change the EV landscape forever."
One of the main reasons detractors (successfully) argue against the advent of the EV revolution is commodity – you can't just recharge your zero-emissions vehicle as fast as you refill the tank of an ICE-powered counterpart. However, that's about to change, almost, according to Polestar.
If you own a 2024 or 2025 model year smartphone, there are big chances your device recharges with speeds of up to 125W by wire and some 50W wireless. That's great for quick five-minute top-ups that will nearly replenish your battery to 100%, even from low 10% charges. However, your EV can't do the same, even if the battery pack recharges at much higher kW rates.
Alas, there is one company that claims it can do both – the fast charging of smartphones and EVs, we mean. That would be Polestar, which recently announced its first-ever Polestar Phone, a $1k Android slab based on a Chinese device called Meizu 21 Pro, without being a blatant rip-off. Alas, it can only do 80W wired charging, 50W wireless, and 10W reverse charging.
Its automotive Polestar counterparts will be capable of much more, promises the company. Just recently, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based automaker announced the completion – together with fast-charging battery pioneer StoreDot – of a real-life test on a prototype Polestar 5 (an upcoming all-electric executive sedan rivaling with the Tesla Model S, Porsche Taycan, and Lucid Air).
It was a special one, indeed, as the standalone Swedish-Chinese brand of Volvo and Geely wants to tell us the story of how they "charged a Polestar in 10 minutes." They are also pretty sure this tale will "change the EV landscape forever." That is because they successfully demonstrated the integration of StoreDot's Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) technology in a car for the first time, with the fully drivable verification prototype achieving a consistent rate of at least 310 kW and peaking at more than 370 kW just before charging ended.
In layperson's terms, they achieved a 10 to 80% state of charge, which is the norm for fast charging (and should be your mantra when traveling – only at home should you slow-charge to 100%) in just 10 minutes. That's the equivalent of pulling up to the ICE refill station, taking a potty break, and paying for the fuel, more or less. And it's also the equivalent of the Holy Grail for lower charging time of EVs.
Of course, there are caveats. This was just a demonstration (in the real world, at least) of an extremely fast charge using silicon-dominant cells in a drivable vehicle and was featured alongside the Polestar 5 prototype and a "specially commissioned 77 kWh battery pack." If successful, they want to increase the capacity to 100 kWh and equate to at least 320 km (around 200 miles) of driving range in 10 minutes.
If you own a 2024 or 2025 model year smartphone, there are big chances your device recharges with speeds of up to 125W by wire and some 50W wireless. That's great for quick five-minute top-ups that will nearly replenish your battery to 100%, even from low 10% charges. However, your EV can't do the same, even if the battery pack recharges at much higher kW rates.
Alas, there is one company that claims it can do both – the fast charging of smartphones and EVs, we mean. That would be Polestar, which recently announced its first-ever Polestar Phone, a $1k Android slab based on a Chinese device called Meizu 21 Pro, without being a blatant rip-off. Alas, it can only do 80W wired charging, 50W wireless, and 10W reverse charging.
Its automotive Polestar counterparts will be capable of much more, promises the company. Just recently, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based automaker announced the completion – together with fast-charging battery pioneer StoreDot – of a real-life test on a prototype Polestar 5 (an upcoming all-electric executive sedan rivaling with the Tesla Model S, Porsche Taycan, and Lucid Air).
It was a special one, indeed, as the standalone Swedish-Chinese brand of Volvo and Geely wants to tell us the story of how they "charged a Polestar in 10 minutes." They are also pretty sure this tale will "change the EV landscape forever." That is because they successfully demonstrated the integration of StoreDot's Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) technology in a car for the first time, with the fully drivable verification prototype achieving a consistent rate of at least 310 kW and peaking at more than 370 kW just before charging ended.
In layperson's terms, they achieved a 10 to 80% state of charge, which is the norm for fast charging (and should be your mantra when traveling – only at home should you slow-charge to 100%) in just 10 minutes. That's the equivalent of pulling up to the ICE refill station, taking a potty break, and paying for the fuel, more or less. And it's also the equivalent of the Holy Grail for lower charging time of EVs.
Of course, there are caveats. This was just a demonstration (in the real world, at least) of an extremely fast charge using silicon-dominant cells in a drivable vehicle and was featured alongside the Polestar 5 prototype and a "specially commissioned 77 kWh battery pack." If successful, they want to increase the capacity to 100 kWh and equate to at least 320 km (around 200 miles) of driving range in 10 minutes.
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