Monday 29th April

Polestar 5 prototype charges in 10 minutes

Those wild 10-80 per cent SOC claims you've heard? Now one's actually happened

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Those of you with regular experience of electric cars and public charging will know that maximum charge rates for both need to be taken with a large grain of salt. Lots and lots of stars need to align, basically, for claims to be met and batteries to be replenished at the advertised speed. The dream is for a depleted battery to become very near full again in not much time at all, because we all have better places to be than at a services, but we’re not quite there just yet. 

Polestar reckons it’s made a big step forward, though, with the 5, as a prototype has recorded a 10-80 per cent charge in just 10 minutes. It pulled a mighty 310kW from a DC charger at the beginning, increasing to more than 370kW at 80 per cent state of charge. It benefits from StoreDot’s Extreme Fast Charging (XFC) tech, with the potential of adding 200 miles of range in 10 minutes (a standard 5 will use a 77kWh battery, with the option of 100kWh).

Polestar says this was a world first demonstration of the 10-minute 10-80 per cent charge in the real world, using ‘silicon-dominant cells in a driveable vehicle’. All previous tests have been lab experiments. The XFC battery tech ‘could be applied to future Polestar vehicles’; this seems to be a demonstration of what’s possible rather than a promise of what’s right around the corner, but it still feels like a step in the right direction. 

Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO, said: “Time is one of life’s greatest luxuries, and as a manufacturer of luxury electric performance cars, we need to take the next step to address one of the biggest barriers to EV ownership – charging anxiety. With this new technology, on longer journeys when drivers do stop they’ll be able to spend less time charging and be back on the road faster than before. In fact, that stop time will be more akin to what they experience with a petrol car today.” The 5 launch is still believed to be on track for next year, following a reveal in 2023. Best get planning the European road trip now…

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• 2024 Polestar 2 Long Range | PH Review
• 2024 Porsche Taycan | PH Review

[sidesauce]

That's one in the eye for the argument that EVs take too long to charge. Let's see what they'll complain about next...

[sidesauce]

Mushroom12 said:

sidesauce said:

That's one in the eye for the argument that EVs take too long to charge. Let's see what they'll complain about next...

Who is 'they'? Did you ever consider that some people want ICE cars and that there's nothing wrong with that? Not everything has to be tribalism based on purchasing decisions

Yes, I have certainly considered that some people want ICE cars but the fact is, they will eventually go away, whether those people like it or not. Yeah, there will always be options available for the wealthy but for the majority, the cost of running them will simply be made prohibitive. So in this case, yes, everything in this context will be based on purchasing decisions made so by governments.

It is what it is.