Donut Lab’s announcement at CES 2026 about its solid-state battery left many speechless. The company claims that its new battery can charge in five minutes, withstand extreme temperatures and last up to 100,000 cycles without losing capacity.
All this, according to Donut Lab, with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, which would mark a before and after in the world of the electric motor. To give you an idea, that’s more than double the 125 wh/kg batteries in some Tesla Model 3s, and better than the 272 to 296 wh/kg batteries in a Tesla type 4680 battery.
It is now on sale and motorcycle brand Verge Motorcycles is mounting them on its new TS Pro electric motorcycle. It will reach customers in a matter of weeks.
The problem is that, for many, the news was too good to be true. And it didn’t take long for criticism to arrive from the other side of the world. Yang Hongxin, president of the Chinese giant Svolt Energy, comments the following: «That battery does not exist in the world. Any technician with basic knowledge would recognize that it is a scam».
Yang adds that the numbers reported by Donut Lab are contradictory. According to him, it is not possible to have ultra-fast charging, resistance to extreme temperatures and such high energy density in a single battery without serious safety or durability problems.
In other words, what these Chinese experts are saying is that what Donut Lab promises, It doesn’t physically fit anywhere.
The promise of Donut Lab: an electric car from another planet that no one believes
As mentioned before, this startup from Finland presented its battery as the first European solid-state battery ready for mass production. They claim that it will be available to vehicle manufacturers from the first quarter of 2026, starting with the Verge 2026 motorcycles.
According to the startup:
- The battery charges fully in just five minutes.
- You do not need to limit the charge to 80%, as is the case with current batteries.
- It maintains more than 99% of its capacity at both -30°C or more than 100°Cwithout combustion problem.
- can go through 100,000 charge and discharge cycles without degrading too much.
This sounds like the great revolution of the century, something that is going to change everything, but experts warn that no real battery today can accomplish all of that at once.
Those who criticize and say that all this is a scam argue that to achieve that energy density and at the same time maintain fast charges and temperature stability, current materials and chemistry are not sufficient.
Even the top manufacturers in China, which have been developing solid-state batteries for years, They have not yet managed to combine all these factors safely..
Svolt, in fact, continues with a fairly safe approach. Its line of semi-solid batteries reaches 188 Wh/kg and allows fast charges of up to 6C, much less than the 400 Wh/kg promised by Donut Lab. Its plan is to reach 400 Wh/kg with the second generation in 2026 and 450 Wh/kg by 2028, but always in semi-solid, not in complete solid state.
With all this, Yang makes it quite clear that Chinese technology is the most advanced in the world and that if his country cannot make such a battery, others should not promise it either. «We must have confidence in our abilities and evaluate the information rationally,» he comments.
Donut Lab, for its part, defends its figures and ensures that its internal tests support each announced data. According to the company, motorcycle and electric vehicle manufacturers can now order their batteries and begin integrating them into their 2026 models.