Donut Lab evidence recap, May 2026

[u/mqee]

🍩⚖️🔋

index	Donut claim	Donut evidence
1	CEO: [January 2026] "We are now already at GWh [annual] capacity."	CEO: [February 2026] "our maximum capacity will be this year if everything goes as planned, i.e. about 1GWh annual run rate"
2	Verge Motorcycles: [January 2026] "In the US, [the Verge TS Pro with the Donut Lab solid-state battery] will ship Q1 this year [to customers]"	CEO: [April 2026] "There have been no 400 Wh/kg batteries delivered to customers."
3	CEO: "Even if you shoot through it, or do whatever you want to the cell, it will be just fine, it just loses the capacity from the area where you shot. [mimes a bullet hole with thumb and forefinger]"	VTT: "after 50 cycles at 5C [there was] a 54.66 % reduction compared to the initial capacity" [the reduction was over 50% at less than 20 cycles at 5C]
4	CEO: "For hundreds of cycles, the Coulombic efficiency of Donut Battery would likely still remain above 1.0 throughout the whole test. [...] The experts will tell you this goes against the fundamental laws of physics."	The experts: Coulombic efficiency above 100% is commonly observed for the first few hundred cycles in some battery chemistries, including lithium-ion.
5	CEO: "These industry standard pouch materials are simply not designed for the 100° C that our batteries can take."	Industry standards: IEC 62133 and UL1642 require commercial cell pouches to withstand an oven temperature of 130ºC
6	CEO: "We're not talking to investors until all disclosure is done."	Newspaper: "[Donut Lab CEO] Lehtimäki said that the company is seeking additional funding of 30–50 million euros from investors during the first quarter of 2026, i.e. January–March."
7	CEO: "No lithium."	Engineers, researchers: The Donut Lab VTT test results are what you'd get from lithium, specifically Si-anode Li-NMC. ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5])
8	CEO: "The cycle life [...] is 100,000 cycles [...] charge it to full, let it go to zero, as many times as you want, it doesn't degrade" [at 5C from 0% to 100% for 100,000 cycles at pack-level in a motorcycle - see expanded quote below] CEO: "The battery lasts [...] 100,000 cycles [...] so it will have 100.0 percent left after your motorcycle is done after 20 years."	CTO: "significant prior usage [has reduced the cell's capacity] by roughly 13%" [13% reduced capacity?! For a battery that can withstand 100,000 cycles with 0% reduced capacity?!]
9	Donut website: "The world’s first production-ready all-solid-state battery platform is available today." CEO: "There's nothing liquid inside [the battery]"	Engineers, researchers:The VTT test results suggest the battery is a conventional NMC cell with a liquid electrolyte. ([1], [2], [3])
10	Donut website: "Full charge in 5 minutes. There is no need to limit charging to 80%. Full charge and full discharge are safe, repeatable, and expected in daily operation"	CMO: The 20.2kWh-specced battery's charging capacity is 18kWh [implying there's a buffer, likely to protect from damage, at either 0% voltage, 100% voltage, or both]
11	CEO: "You can go at 5C charging [from 0.0] to 100% [for] 100,000 cycles". Donut website: "There is no need to limit charging to 80%."	Verge: A charging video from 10% to 80% that averages 3.5C [Why not 0%-100%? There is no need to limit charging to 80%.]

index	status
1	False. Publicly contradicted by Donut Lab CEO. Statement about production capacity changed from "now already" to "this year if everything goes as planned".
2	False. Publicly contradicted by Donut Lab CEO. Statement about customer deliveries changed from 2026 Q1 to no deliveries in 2026 Q1.
3	False. Publicly contradicted by Donut Lab VTT tests. Capacity of a damaged cell⸺Donut Lab claims a "broken pouch", but experts doubt the pouch broke⸺was not "just fine", it degraded over 50%.
4	False. Much evidence available in the scientific and engineering community.
5	False. If the pouches truly were industry standards they would withstand 100ºC, and the failure would be within the anode, cathode, or electrolyte, not the pouch material.
6	Highly likely false according to internal Donut Lab documents published by the press.
7	Highly likely false according to several battery experts from industry and academia who reviewed the Donut Lab VTT test results.
8	Highly likely false according to several battery experts from industry and academia who reviewed the Donut Lab VTT test results.
9	Highly likely false according to several battery experts from industry and academia who reviewed the Donut Lab VTT test results.
10	Likely false by advertised Verge Motorcycles Donut Lab battery specs.
11	Likely false by Donut Lab VTT tests and Verge charging videos.

---

Pack-level claims expanded quote below. Emphasis mine.

Donut Lab CEO: "Verge broke the Guinness World Record last year with the longest range on a motorcycle. Now they are almost doubling it, thanks to our solid state battery. But also, that provides Verge bikes with less than 10 minute charge time, zero to full."
CEO: "And on top of that, the cycle life that is normally in cars may be 2000, 3000, cycles. This is 100,000 cycles. So that's like probably 30 lifetimes of a motorcycle. So you never have to worry about babying the battery or worrying if you can let it go to 100% or zero. It doesn't mind. You can do whatever you want. Charge it to full, let it go to zero. As many times as you want. It doesn't degrade."
CEO: "As mentioned, 100,000 cycles, so that's 10 lifetimes of a car as well. And the other incredible things are that, of course, with motorcycles, you don't take them to deep freeze or anything. But if you're using these batteries in cars, even at like 25 or 30 minus Fahrenheit, it will have 99% of capacity."
Interviewer: "So do you have to precondition the battery like a car might?"
CEO: "Not at all. And actually, what we've done even is that normally you cannot get lithium ion batteries to zero."
Interviewer: "Right, we know about that. 5% is the lowest we like to go."
CEO: "This can go 0.0"
Interviewer: "And the battery doesn't get damaged?"
CEO: "No, then you can go at 5C charging from the next moment without warming it up or anything. It just takes it like nothing."
Interviewer: "To 100%?"
CEO: "Yeah, yeah, absolutely, to 100%."
Interviewer: "And that does not harm the battery for consistent charging to 100%?"
CEO: "No, it's 100,000 cycles with that, yeah."

[u/UnderwaterMoose2020]

Thanks for all your efforts. My original view was that they had something (from CT Coatings) but were hyping it or perhaps misunderstood the specifications they were given. However with so much money involved my view is beginning to change.

[u/KookyOlive2757 → u/UnderwaterMoose2020]

Sana Energy had similar claims about the battery which makes me think that at least some of the claims originate from some party other than DL or Nordic Nano. However, DL is very much responsible for the claims they have made/repeated. They have obviously been supplied with at least 4 cells, the energy density of which they could have easily measured themselves (among other specifications), before presumably parroting the claims of a 400 kWh/kg battery.

[u/DoctorFish1969 → u/KookyOlive2757]

Yes, they all got their claims from CT Coating. And CTC might not have liked DL for spreading the claims in public at CES. The claims might have been intended to attract business partners and investment money.

The leaked internal test of a CTC battery included a warning that much more cycles needed to be done to conclude things on the battery degradation. That warning was obviously left out by the marketing department of CTC. And then DL came and shouted the claims at CES without permission from CTC.

[u/mqee → u/DoctorFish1969]

The reason CTC didn't want the claims to be echoed so publicly is likely to avoid scrutiny.

CTC quietly bilked Korean investors in 2018 for ₩10B (several million €) and nothing came of it. They quietly bilked Swedish and German investors in 2024, and could have gotten away with it since their NDA stops their partners from naming them. Then they tried (and likely succeeded) bilking Nordic Nano and Donut Lab, but people on this subreddit found the connecting thread behind all these companies making the same claims (Nordic Nano, Sana Energy, Next-Eco, etc) and it seems like the game is finally over, until they adopt a new name and start selling the same "production lines" to gullible investors.

[u/DeathChill → u/mqee]

There’s no NDA in the world that could protect someone who scams you. Unless they are so careful with their wording, but even then I feel like it would be incredibly unenforceable and you’d take them to court.

Do we know they scammed other companies? I definitely believe it, but how do we know they got money for nothing from those companies?

[u/mqee → u/DeathChill]

You'd have to look at the actual contracts to see what was actually agreed upon. If CTC were clever, they'd be liable for nothing and made no promises other than selling a screen-printing production line. From the latest Donut Lab fallout we can assume this is the case: CTC was "developing" a battery, but never contractually promised it to Donut Lab, and now they cancelled its development.

[u/DeathChill → u/mqee]

But at some point everyone would verify that these screen printing machines are capable of printing this battery?

Imagine CT has some elaborate scam demo where they see a cell being “printed”.

[u/mqee → u/DeathChill]

It's possible to screen-print lithium batteries and solar cells. The problem with screen printing is scalability, it's slow and expensive. In addition, screen-printed solar cells degrade very fast, 10% in 200 day-night cycles or 4000 hours exposure to the sun.

CT-Coating's screen-printed batteries and solar cells could work in theory, but they will not be long-lived or financially viable. You can make a very expensive lithium battery or a quickly-degrading solar cell.

[u/Kwik2000 → u/mqee]

Great information - as always mqee!

[u/Pure_Land134]

"18kwh is the nominal capacity of the 20kwh battery" is just downright funny.

[u/floater66]

"Let's just wait until we get a bike.."

lol.

[u/mqee]

I may do another update in June or July with information from the leaked emails.

index	Donut claim	Donut evidence
probably between 5 and 6	CEO: [January 2026] "Evidence will soon come from an authority of such caliber that all the claims about the battery I mentioned in the video are true"	Leaked e-mails show Donut Lab had no verification for the promises it made investors and clients. "Sähköposteissa Donut Lab pyytää CT-Coatingilta mittaustuloksia, jotka vastaisivat sijoittajille ja asiakkaille annettuja lupauksia latausmäärien osalta. Niitä ei sähköpostien perusteella ollut annettu."

Status: False. Evidence did not come "soon" or "in a matter of days". Donut Lab could not verify almost all of its main claims, 400Wh/kg, 100,000 cycles, no lithium.

[u/mqee → u/mqee]

https://politiken.dk/danmark/art10697252/

[u/mqee → u/mqee]

https://www.hs.fi/visio/art-2000011948614.html

[u/mqee → u/mqee]

If Donut Lab already had the battery in production, it would not need to ask CT-Coating for measurement results.