Donut Lab’s all-solid-state battery delivers 400 Wh/kg of energy density (donutlab.com)

Definitely a "huge if true" headline.

Seems like there's natural skepticism here (https://electrek.co/2026/01/05/verge-unveils-370-mile-electr...), but boy, if it works... Hopefully would be a bellwether for commercial solid-state truly emerging in the next few years.

Fingers crossed this is true.

I'm very skeptical of any company that just 'pops up' and makes a bunch of claims that will shake up the industry.

I doubt they'd sell to endusers, but not having any partnerships with established brands with sales figures is a big red flag.

No mention of manufacturing capabilities either so I think it's just hype (or worse a rug pull for early investors)

No physical address, no patents, no mentions of independent testing, the whole "drag&drop OS to build EVs".

Totally legit.

Been following/hoping for the ultimate battery for... a few decades now I think. Donut reads as a home run of sorts. However... during those decades reading about "new tech" that promised great gains, all ended up in the dustbin of history. I really, really hope Donut is for real. Breath. Not. Holding. HTH, RF

ps: Just ordered two new dog collar lights cause the relatively new ones we had fully discharged while the mutts were outside. Now they wont charge. Jesus I hate LiOn.

From the donutlab page:

  > It can be charged to full in just five minutes without limiting charging to 80%, and supports full discharge safely, repeatedly, and reliably.

From the motorcycle youtube video[1]:

  > delivers up to 370 miles (600 km) of range and adds up to 186 miles (300 km) in under 10 minutes

One is claiming 100% in 5 minutes, and the other is claiming ~50% in 10 minutes. Why are their claims so different?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy_mXYItqXU

Some speculation from friends that I was reading is that the battery could be Sodium-based, there's another battery startup in Finland using that same tech.

No spec sheets though.

they dont use the word patented, but claim to have engineered the battery but avoid discussing any particulars of chemistry, other than to say it is not lithium, which strongly suggests a silent partner. At 35k for a bike they have to be more forthcoming, though as there are only be so many serious solid state battery developers out there, and even less working on non lithium, someone will put the pieces together quick.

I guess we'll see what happens in ~5 years

If this is true, it's possible that the technology is from Nordic Nano. That would at least explain how a motor/software company could pull a battery out of thin air:

https://www.donutlab.com/nordic-nano-investment/

Their chief scientist is working on solar-powered hydrogen production, which seems fairly unrelated to solid state batteries:

https://www.nordicnano.co/chief-scientist-bela-bhuskute-will...

Though TiO2 nanoparticles appear to be relevant to battery research in general:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsaem.3c02304

Seems vaporware at the moment.

But has anyone else had thoughts on how solid "solid state" batteries are?

IE could the frame of my next motorbike be made from solid state batteries?

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Extraordinary claims come up all the time in the battery world. The thing is though with so many claims popping up all the time a few actually turn out to be true on a pretty regular basis. We will see if this is among them! At the pace battery technology is advancing I can almost believe this isn't actually that bold of a claim actually.

What exactly makes them solid state? If they mean no water, wouldn't that make all li-ion batteries solid state when compared to lead acid batteries?

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> Donut Lab’s all-solid-state battery delivers 400 Wh/kg of energy density

This is damn impressive. I suppose all the makers of military drones are lining up at the factory already. I mean, electric bikes are fine, but who has the most burning need to increase range and payload?..

One of the things I haven't seen discussed yet in the comments is this claim:

Clay-like design freedom

They're claiming this not only can fit custom geometries, but can be part of the structure itself. Would love to see what they're building this out of. I expect we'll see some people dissecting the verve cycle batteries soon enough.

If true, would have massive geopolitical implications.

1) China has gone all in on batteries. A competitor from Finland would be shocking. Scale is the real issue.

2) Luckily Finland hates Russia so this probably can't be used for Russian drones

Interesting - Donut apparently also manufactures innovative motors.

if this is production ready right now - can't wait to see what CATL and BYD bring to market this year

cz 100k cycles is impressive

So solid state battery tech is very likely on-schedule for mass production over the next 4 years. There really isn't much time left for the haters to post stories attempting to factually dismantle and dismiss EVs before EVs pass the 51% adoption curve in 2030.

what about the price tho ??? I think the biggest hurdle for EV is in need for cheaper battery tech

The press release says they're demonstrating this at CES 2026, which starts tomorrow (Jan 6, 2026) so I imagine we'll have some kind of verification one way or the other..

Or maybe CES is already happening?? [0]

[0] https://www.cnet.com/home/electric-vehicles/donut-lab-produc...

There's no mention of the underlying cell chemistry on the landing page or under the "battery" tab, and only three people listed under the "About Us" of which the only one who sounds remotely technical is Ville Piippo, so I punched him into Google Scholar and found this:

https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/items/a9608639-3897-4878-979b-0d95...

If this guy has developed a revolutionary new battery cell then he has really learned a lot in ten years.

So we have no chemistry and no researchers but this startup claims to have blown everyone else out of the water. We'll see, I guess.

I don’t understand, why would this debut only in a motorcycle?

Wouldn’t there be a much bigger market and investor interest in putting it in a car initially?

This is so out of left field and so "ideal" that it warrants some pretty heavy skepticism. Donut isn't even a battery company, and plenty of other battery companies with lots of knowledge and lots more money have been pouring over this problem with mixed results.

Because of this, now I am even a bit skeptical of their electric motor claims, which before I didn't really question much at all.