GoKawiilis transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
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Earlier this year, a relatively unknown startup from Finland made a startling announcement: It had finally solved solid-state batteries.
Not only that, but Donut Lab, a spinoff of Verge Motorcycles, said that its solid-state battery — long considered the “Holy Grail of batteries” for their high-density, durable, fast-charging abilities — would go into production later this year.
Battery experts were understandably skeptical. After all, solid-state batteries are one of those technologies, along with artificial general intelligence and the hyperloop, that seem perpetually two years away. And while most legitimate efforts in this field — whether academic or commercial — have some level of published research or recognizable names attached, Donut Lab seemed to have emerged out of nowhere, with no known researchers or prior presence in the field. This lack of traceability immediately raised concerns about the startup’s credibility.
“I can’t say they didn’t do it,” said Eric Wachsman, the director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute and an expert on solid-state batteries and solid oxide fuel cells. “All I can say is they haven’t demonstrated that they have.”
I Donut Believe
The skepticism seems warranted, especially when you consider how many other people have been chasing the solid-state dream. Were we really to believe this obscure startup had beaten Toyota, Stellantis, and the entire nation of China to the punch? The odds were against it.
Donut Lab seemed to anticipate the doubt, launching a website last February called idonutbelieve.com that would serve as a platform to publish independent tests verifying that, in fact, its solid-state battery was real, and spectacular. Over the course of several weeks, the startup posted third-party results from state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland that it said proved its battery was what it said it was: a fast-charging, high-energy-density solid-state battery that wasn’t actually a supercapacitor in disguise.
“The resistance won’t disappear when we present the proof,” Donut Lab CEO and cofounder Marko Lehtimäki said in a video. “It will just intensify because this new technology is a threat to the established players in the industry.”
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