Donut Lab

Donut Lab has released a second set of independent test results for its controversial solid-state battery — this time proving the cell can discharge at extreme temperatures up to 100°C and actually gain capacity in the process.

The new VTT report, released just one week after the first test confirmed the cell’s fast-charging capability at 0-80% in 4.5 minutes, adds another data point in favor of Donut Lab’s claims. But the most extraordinary specs remain unverified.

Donut Lab has released the first independent test results for its controversial solid-state battery, and the data confirms at least one headline claim: the cell charged from 0 to 80% in just 4.5 minutes at an extreme 11C rate.

It doesn’t blow up, but it gets pretty damn hot.

The results come from Finland’s state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre, one of Europe’s leading research organizations. But the report only covers charging performance — leaving Donut Lab’s most extraordinary claims completely unverified.

Donut Lab lit the EV and energy storage industry on fire last week with its announcement of a 400 Wh/kg solid-state battery cell that can last for 100 years. At face value, if true, we are looking at the single most disruptive announcement in the history of the electric vehicle industry and energy storage as a whole.

We aren’t just talking about a better motorcycle battery. If the claims of a 5-minute charge, 100,000-cycle life, and ~400 Wh/kg energy density are accurate and scalable, as Donut Lab claims, this is the holy grail of energy storage.

Battery breakthrough announcements generally don’t catch fire like this, but Donut Lab’s did because it said that the cell was already in production and will be in a production vehicle, Verge’s electric motorcycle, this quarter. It gave credibility to the claim, pushing everyone to report on it.

Now, we have interviewed Donut Lab’s CEO and investigated the technology. At this point, it looks like either this battery changes the world within the next 3 months, or it will make the CEO look like a fool. In this article, we discuss the impact of the battery, whether real or not, as well as clues about the secret sauce behind its chemistry.