A battery capable of fully charging in five minutes has been produced in a factory for the first time. Designed by the Israeli materials innovation company StoreDot and manufactured by Eve Energy in China on standard production lines, the battery is being acclaimed as a milestone on the way towards electric vehicles becoming as fast to charge as filling up their petrol or diesel alternatives.
Existing charging infrastructure means, however, that their range is limited to 100 miles, so their full potential will not be realised until a new generation of higher-powered chargers come to market.
StoreDot has already demonstrated its “extreme fast-charging” battery in phones, drones and scooters and the 1,000 batteries it has now produced are to showcase its technology to carmakers and other companies. Daimler, BP, Samsung and TDK are all investors.