Volvo's electric car spin-off brand Polestar has made its first financial investment as a company, partnering with the fast charging battery technology company StoreDot. It becomes the latest automotive company to place bet on the as yet unproven tech from the Israeli firm.

Polestar will investigate using StoreDot’s extreme fast charging silicon-dominant batteries for future models. StoreDot is on track to begin mass producing its ‘100in5’ technology as early as 2024, which it claims can add 100 miles of range in five minutes of charging.

Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO said: “Charging and range anxiety are common concerns holding owners of combustion engine cars back from making the switch to EVs. StoreDot’s advanced battery technology potentially provides real solutions to these obstacles. If our current pilot projects with StoreDot are successful, we could see these solutions being implemented in Polestar cars by 2026.”

Polestar is due to launch several new models over the next few years as it expands the electric car brand up and down from the current Polestar 2. The company badly needs faster charging tech as the 2 is comprehensively outgunned at the socket by rival models from Tesla, BMW and Kia/Hyundai. 

Polestar needs faster charging in future models to compete with Tesla and Kia