"I Donut Believe" We Have the Whole Story

After a high-profile debut of its solid-state battery at CES, Donut Lab has some writers wondering how real this all is, especially with rumors of launch delays. Their new website embraces the skepticism, to a point…

To their credit, they have engaged a reputable independent lab to run and report on a series of tests intended to prove the capabilities of their battery, starting with the oft-quoted “5-minute charge” claim. I’ll defer to those with electrical engineering degrees on some of the technical details, but the first video seemed convincing. I did catch that they highlighted some of the existing challenges around solid-state batteries (like swelling), which it sounds like they’ve addressed — but haven’t specified how.

They haven’t indicated how many videos are planned (I assume one will address cold-weather performance, which is top-of-mind here in Michigan), but it seems like we may be waiting a while; the next video is over six days away.

That being said, there are two vectors of skepticism here: one around the capabilities of the battery, and one around the commercialization. It appears the website is designed to address the former, which means we are still waiting for clarification on the TS Pro superbike. That $30,000 piece of hardware was supposed to hit the street in Q1 2026 (e.g., by the end of this month), but recent news articles seem to suggest otherwise. Let’s hope we get an update on this as well…

#ev #electricvehicle #solidstatebattery