StoreDot announces 4680 format cylindrical cell
The Israeli battery developer StoreDot has presented a cylindrical cell in the 4680 format that, according to the company, can be fully charged in ten minutes and is scheduled to go into production in 2024.
This expands StoreDot’s choice of cell formats for its fast-charging ‘XFC FlashBattery’ with silicon-dominant anode. In addition to the already announced pouch cells, cylindrical cells will now also be realised. According to the Israelis, both formats are in the scale-up process at production partner EVE Energy and should be ready for mass production in 2024.
StoreDot describes itself as a pioneer and market leader in ultra-fast battery technologies. In mid-2019, the company demonstrated fully charging an electric two-wheeler in just five minutes. Earlier this year, it made development samples of its first-generation battery available. And in May, StoreDot entered into a strategic framework agreement with said Chinese battery manufacturer EVE Energy. Just recently, StoreDot also filed a patent for its “booster” charging technology and announced a cooperation with the Vietnamese carmaker VinFast.
The XFC battery is supposed to “enable a 50 per cent shorter charging time at the same cost”, the company regularly repeats. This is also the case in the current announcement. It says: “StoreDot’s XFC batteries offer a 50 per cent shorter charging time at the same cost.” In parallel, the battery developer says it is already working on a solid-state version of its battery (called XED by StoreDot: “Extreme Energy Density Solid State”), which is to go into mass production in 2028.
Now, however, the XFC technology is first to be transferred to other cell formats – according to StoreDot, this has now been achieved for the cylindrical cell format 4680. During the development process, “a number of significant challenges” were solved. “The 4680 cylindrical cell format requires a unique adaptation of chemistry to compensate for the higher internal pressure, release gas and avoid potential leakage,” the Israeli company indicates.
StoreDot says it has been developing cylindrical cells for more than three years – together with the University of Warwick in the UK, StoreDot’s strategic partner BP and involving “experts from around the world”. The work is protected by five patents in the field of cell design, he said. Tests at the company’s own facility are said to have shown “promisingly low internal resistances”.
“The goal of charging a cylindrical cell extremely quickly in just 10 minutes has been on StoreDot’s technology roadmap from the beginning,” says Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot. “It is significant that with our XFC technology we can offer electric vehicle manufacturers a choice of cell formats that overcome the current barriers to electric vehicle ownership: Range and charging anxiety.” Both the cylinder and pouch cells are designed to be safe, reliable and stable and are expected to be in large-scale production by 2024, Myersdorf said. “We are in advanced discussions with a number of global automakers and plan to supply them with various XFC cells (…).”
Among the best-known proponents of 4680 battery cells is Tesla, as is well known. The Californian company wants to manufacture cells of this format themselves in planned cell plants in Grünheide in Germany as well as Austin in the US state of Texas. The company is also likely to buy 4680 cells. Tesla partner Panasonic is said to be working on their development, as are the South Korean battery manufacturers Samsung SDI and LG Energy Solution.
The designation 4680 refers to the dimensions: The diameter of the round cell is 46 millimetres, the cell is 80 millimetres long. The new cells should not only improve the range and performance of electric cars, but also be cheaper per kilowatt hour and significantly reduce the investment costs in their production.
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