Donut Lab alleged Solid State Battery launched at CES 2026

[Marco]

Dolphin Mini in Mexico is 22k$, not 8k.

For that money I'd prefer the Hyundai Inster (or maybe VW ID.Polo when it launches).

[LogicDude]

Their claim of "only new orders are delayed to Q4 or early 2027" is just part of the fake-out.  It's a setup for the next release that goes something like, "We're sorry but we are having some production issues with the motorcycle and all orders are now delayed to Q4 at a minimum."

Note how they will use the production of the motorcycle itself as an excuse for delays to disguise the fact that that the battery itself is fake.

I read somewhere that the $100 USD deposit for your order is non-refundable.  So..... If they get 1000 pre-orders that's $100,000 cash in the bank.

There is a big race going on between most of the automotive OEMs to finally release a solid-state battery into production.  This has been going on for years.  I am following a non-automotive contender for the prize called QuantumScape.

[LogicDude]

I guess we are about 6 to 8 weeks away from the first grumblings from people that dropped their $100 USD and pre-ordered the electric motorcycle.  Even those motorcycle lifestyler guys that look like big bears with their white beards and jean jackets are fully connected on social media.

It's going to be a gas! gas! gas!  No pun intended!

[Electrodynamic]

Dolphin Mini in Mexico is 22k$, not 8k.

For that money I'd prefer the Hyundai Inster (or maybe VW ID.Polo when it launches).

Mexico also has tariffs on Chines EV's most likely because of blatant threats and intimidation made by the U.S. against Mexico and Canada. The U.S. has made it pretty clear they cannot be trusted.

"Despite these tariffs, BYD has maintained a strong market presence, controlling about 70% of EV and plug-in hybrid sales in Mexico.
The company has doubled its sales volume in the past year, indicating that demand for its vehicles remains robust."

China has a clear advantage over other countries by selling EV's to their own people at $8000. The $20K saved goes into their own pockets not some psychotic drug addicted billionaire. Wouldn't you like to buy a $8000 EV?, I would in a heartbeat.

[LogicDude]

The $20K saved goes into their own pockets not some psychotic drug addicted billionaire.

Orange man really bad.  Badder than bad.  Three more years and you will be free!!!!!!!!!

Who knows what drugs those guys in Finland are on.  They might show up on YouTube in a police bodycam video.

[thm_w]

Dolphin Mini in Mexico is 22k$, not 8k.

Mexico also has tariffs on Chines EV's most likely because of blatant threats and intimidation made by the U.S. against Mexico and Canada. The U.S. has made it pretty clear they cannot be trusted.
Wouldn't you like to buy a $8000 EV?, I would in a heartbeat.

- The launch price was $21k USD when there were no mexico/china tariffs on EVs (March 2024).
- The 50% tariffs only started Jan 1, 2026.
This is not hard to look up.

The safety rating is quite good considering the cost and small size: youtube.com/watch?v=oyPOXEnJjKY. But sometimes they do cut out things for the Mexico market as the requirements are lower.

[Marco]

Mexico also has tariffs on Chines EV's most likely because of blatant threats and intimidation made by the U.S. against Mexico and Canada.

Or maybe the statements of BYD building a Mexican factory any day now were blatant lies and they wanted to protected their own industry. (Mexico has a floating currency, so tariffs are then the mercantilist tool of choice.)

[Randy222]

Orange man really bad.  Badder than bad.  Three more years and you will be free!!!!!!!!!

Why's that?, will JD relinquish tariffs? 

[sleemanj]

Full text from their email to shareholders today (translated from Finnish):

We previously announced that we would soon be releasing third-party test results regarding Donut Lab's battery technology as part of a broader video marketing campaign. There were a few delays beyond our control, but now the clock has started ticking.

The first video, launching a series in which evidence will be presented, will be posted on the website next week on February 20, 2026, at 9:00 AM Finnish time.

The first episode (to be released on the website at that time) will be an introductory video explaining what to expect from the series and why we are making it. It will also provide some background and recap recent events. Following that, as part of the campaign, we will release a succession of videos on the same site, each proving a key feature of the battery.

https://old.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1r10bpk/donut_lab_to_launch_a_video_campaign_which_it/

Apparently wil be here

https://idonutbelieve.com/

[rteodor]

Following that, as part of the campaign, we will release a succession of videos on the same site, each proving a key feature of the battery.

Apparently wil be here

https://idonutbelieve.com/

Thanks but no thanks DL. Everyone can make campaigns or make believe. Show some independent tests or go home.

[sleemanj]

Thanks but no thanks. Everyone can make campaigns or make believe. Show some independent tests or go home.

Apparently mistakenly published text on that site (since removed) potentially indicates they may have VTT doing tests
https://old.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1r10bpk/donut_lab_to_launch_a_video_campaign_which_it/o4n36hp/

[Electrodynamic]

Following that, as part of the campaign, we will release a succession of videos on the same site, each proving a key feature of the battery.

Apparently wil be here

https://idonutbelieve.com/

Thanks but no thanks DL. Everyone can make campaigns or make believe. Show some independent tests or go home.

It's debatable, I own an energy and automation company and am gearing up to sell some high end technology this spring. If my customers said they want independent testing I would tell them to do it themselves. I am under no obligation to convince them anything works and if they don't like it then don't buy it. My only obligation is that the thing I'm selling works as claimed to avoid liability.

The fact is most real business owners think it's comical when their customers start making demands. Everyone here rolls their eyes and thinks, oh great another Karen. We may try to oblige them a bit but then basically tell them to get lost. In many cases I have met the customers on a consulting job, talked for 10 minutes, found they are Karen's and said sorry I'm busy. It's just not worth my time dealing with people who cannot be pleased. We also know damn well they are going to try to shaft us given the chance. It's just not worth our time.

Sorry, that's just life.

[Marco]

Assuming that letter to shareholders is true, this is not about customers. A scam on its last legs.

"lorem ipsum dolor sit amet." = shit to make up and their contact at VTT was going to be on a 6 month holiday.

[Electrodynamic]

Assuming that letter to shareholders is true, this is not about customers. A scam on its last legs.

"lorem ipsum dolor sit amet." = shit to make up and their contact at VTT was going to be on a 6 month holiday.

It's debatable, one of my customers tried to get independent testing on ESD from a provincial research center. They had no idea what he was talking about, no experts in this field and any testing could be at least one year away if it was approved. At which point my customer called me, I setup the measuring equipment, tested two weeks later and had a science paper on his desk the week after.

Unfortunately anything technical relating to government run research is a slow moving train wreck. It takes forever and we can be pretty sure they are going to screw it up. So a government operation having one testing guy who happens to be on holiday for 6 months is par for the course imo.

It sounds like most people have no idea what it takes to launch a tech startup.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Thanks but no thanks. Everyone can make campaigns or make believe. Show some independent tests or go home.

Apparently mistakenly published text on that site (since removed) potentially indicates they may have VTT doing tests
https://old.reddit.com/r/electricvehicles/comments/1r10bpk/donut_lab_to_launch_a_video_campaign_which_it/o4n36hp/

Independent tests may show how well one device works, but won't say anything about equally important things like manufacturability, costs etc.  Untill they are shipping in significant numbers it's all BS until proven otherwise

[Bud]

They had no idea what he was talking about, no experts in this field .

This is clearly not the case here.

[Siwastaja]

And VTT will make a test, that is exactly the business they do. This is the good old "Tested by TÜV" scam: ask them to do any test, they will write a test report that shows how the product performed in the test, then you can say it was tested by TÜV or whatever is respected independent testing facility name in the relevant region, and you don't need to even lie, just misrepresent what it means that something is independently tested.

[LogicDude]

There is some news.  Donut Lab is stating that they are going to be sharing independent lab testing of their battery with a series of videos.  They created a new web site for this.

The CEO released a video acknowledging all of the doubts about their alleged battery technology and said "stay tuned for all of the proof."  There is nothing of substance in that video, you can find it on YouTube.

Here is the new web site and I think we are a few days away from the first testing video.  It should be interesting.

https://idonutbelieve.com/

[LogicDude]

First test results go live in two days, 10 hours and 56 minutes!!!   The web site has a countdown clock!

Call me old school, but the first test I would do is connect the battery to a dumb resistor and integrate on the power dissipation and show the resultant energy and voltage vs. time.  Do this for different values of load resistor.

I hate seeing amateur experimenters on YouTube drive LEDs to show their setup is doing something because you see lights!!!  An LED is a non-linear load that makes life very complicated when trying to make some power or energy measurements.

I don't know what they normally do to test batteries so it will be interesting for me.  I hope they measure the charging and output impedance of the battery for different states of charge and different current levels.  For all I know there might be a automated machine that plots curves for all of these parameters.

[LogicDude]

We can assume that the tester, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, is credible for now.  But if there is anything shady or flaky in what they do, I am going to come down hard on them.

It reminds me of a story about the late Robert Murray Smith.  He seemed like a nice chap, but at the same time he was a poseur that often did not know what he was doing when it came to electronics.  And of course most of his audience were non-technical and cheered him on no matter what he did.

He was making some small batteries with some kind of graphene mixture.  And he was making big claims about the energy in them.  The problem is that he was only measuring the current output from the battery and not the voltage.  He was that clueless.

So I told him in the comments on his clip that his measurements were dead wrong and you had to factor in the voltage.  And that completely blew his mind and his brain was frying.  He super-blocked me on YouTube, and that was that.  He even made a clip about me calling me a troll.  A couple of months later he deleted that series of clips from his channel.

The harsh reality is that sometimes jolly old Robert Murray Smith was clueless.  He presented himself as a learned person, but he didn't even know what the number 2.7182818 represented.

So, let's see what VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has to offer.

[Haenk]

Countdown is progressing... to reveal this:

srLive.textContent = 'More information is now available.';

Well. Let's hope they don't forget their set date to publish results.

[Siwastaja]

We can assume that the tester, the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, is credible for now.

Of course they are credible, but all they do is to perform the tests as specified by their client, and supply the report to the client.

It is then up to their client (Donut Lab in this case) how they use the report. Now if Donut Lab chooses to publish the report as a whole, then we can of course see what was tested, and how it performed. But classically in this sort of scam the idea is that the scammer does not publish the report as a whole; the convenient "minimum" is to simply say that "our product is tested by VTT". Another variation of that scam is to openly publish the report, but rely on the fact that most of the target audience are not technical enough to understand the significance of the test, and rely on the mainstream media bubble. I mean, if the report says that a cell weighing 105.3 grams had integral discharge energy of 22.8Wh, any engineer can calculate that as such their central claim of 400Wh/kg was bogus, but yellow media journalists are not capable or willing to do that, but continue hyping the story, because the story creates clicks for them.

Or, they can simply ask VTT to measure the capacity and temperature rise of the cell, and not ask them to weigh it. Then the most central claim about energy density cannot be assessed at all, and people who question that fact are just stupid and jealous.

But yeah, one thing using VTT rules out is the type of scam where secret wires are connected under the table, invisible to the camera. Or photo editing false numbers on video, etc. And this is exactly the reason to use such testing lab instead of doing your own youtube videos: this is useful for both serious players, and scammers.

[Bud]

The cheesy web site name, the countdown timer, all is to drive hype and make some money on youtube clicks. Why would anyone make a separare web site  decoupled from the company's site just to publish test results, makes no sense, unless is part of an elaborate scam.

[EEVblog]

VTT are supposedly releasing a test report on 23rd Feb? 

EDIT: I see on the website they literally have a countdown timer with 11 hours left until the first test report is published.

The problem with this is that these companies will test and verify exactly what you pay them to test and verify. Remember when Batteriser had UL test their battery, and UL had to subsequently tell them not to use their name to promote the battery as "UL tested"?

[SteveThackery]

Wouldn't it be amazing if all the sceptics were wrong and their claims were right. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.