Five-minute battery firm Storedot appoints oil industry exec as chair

StoreDot, the Israeli company that in January unveiled its “five-minute battery”, has nabbed oil industry executive David Gilmour to take the role of chairman.

Formerly VP for business development at BP, Gilmour’s role at StoreDot is intended to help the company bring its “extreme fast charging” (XFC) technology to market and position it as a commercially viable offering within the growing EV market.

In January, the company said that is had successfully tested samples of its XFC technology that it believes could revolutionise the electric vehicle industry, making charging an EV as quick as refuelling a combustion car (while EVs can be charged at home like a mobile phone, this is not always convenient or a possibility).

Gilmour, who is joined by fellow BP executive Jon Salkeld in the role of BP representative on StoreDot’s board of directors, says that the fact the EV market grew in 2020 despite the challenges of the pandemic shows, “yet another signal of consumers’ growing confidence – and indeed excitement – around electric mobility.”

But he says there are still some barriers to overcome, in his view the need to recharge EVs as fast as refilling combustion cars.

“StoreDot is on the cusp of solving that challenge with its ground-breaking five-minute charging technology, which promises to remove a significant roadblock to mainstream EV adoption – range and charging anxiety,” says Gilmour.

“The launch in January of engineering samples of its first-generation XFC batteries provided a major proof point for the technology, demonstrating that it is both commercially viable and scalable on conventional production lines.

“Add to that the company’s highly-skilled team, state-of-the-art labs and its wide range of patented technology and it is clear that StoreDot is well-positioned to have a significant impact on the future of electric mobility and the clean environment.”

StoreDot says its XFC batteries are made possible by replacing the graphite in the battery’s anode with “metalloid nano-particles to overcome major issues in safety, battery cycle life and swelling during the charging process.”

In 2019, its partnership with BP saw it demonstrate what it claims was the first full charge of a two-wheeled EV with 70km range in five minutes. For comparison sake, the Segway Ninebot Max has 65km range and a 551kWh battery and takes around 6 hours to charge.

In mid-2020, it demonstrated a five-minute charge of a small drone, a reduction from the usual one-hour charge that would make continuous drone delivery a reality.