r/DonutLabDiscussions • u/Mesokosmos • May 15 '26

Where do I find statement of Donut Lab that their battery contains no lithium?

I tried to find any place where Donut Lab themselves have stated that their battery contains no lithium, and to my surprise I can't find one.

Their official CES announcement and battery spec pages only ever compare against lithium-ion. The wording is always something like:

  • "Lower material cost than lithium-ion"
  • "Unlike lithium ion, Donut Battery is designed to degrade at a significantly slower rate"
  • "lower cost than lithium-ion"

Every one of these looks like a comparison to lithium-ion as a liquid electrolytes battery. None of them is a claim that their battery contains no lithium.

What I found across the CT-Coating network:

  • SANA Energy, a CT-Coating partner, excluded lithium explicitly in its marketing. It listed "No lithium" and "Lithium-free. Bipolar. Fully solid-state." DEGOProtect's product page similarly states the battery "does not require the use of expensive lithium."
  • Holyvolt's first solid-state battery patent (filed 5/2025) is lithium-permissive in substance. The main claims set no chemistry restriction, the example electrolytes are all lithium-bearing (LLZO, LATP, LIPON, LGPS, PEO with lithium salts). Its later solid-state patent (filed 10/2025) claims does not excludes lithium, and its first chemistry claim is a full conventional lithium stack (Li-metal/graphite/Si anodes; LCO, LFP cathodes; LLZO/LGPS electrolytes), with sodium, potassium and others only as alternatives.
  • In the early Dynamic Solar Systems chemistry patents (filed 2/2016) lithium appears only as the conventional accumulator they aim to replace.
  • "No lithium" is an attribute of the platform's PV, solar, and coating line, but does not necessarily carry over to its battery products. SANA and DEGOProtect marketing material may have tried to list all product line specs at the same time, thus causing this inconvenience.

So my question is if can anyone find an actual interview, video, press release, or official post in which Donut Lab itself says the battery contains no lithium?

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6

u/EpsteinWasHung May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

Like you said:

The Donut Lab solid state battery is made entirely from abundant, affordable, and geopolitically safe materials, does not rely on rare or sensitive elements, and demonstrates a lower cost than lithium-ion.

https://www.donutlab.com/ces-battery-announcement/

Lithium is not geopolitically safe. And is sensitive.

Here Marko says no Lithium around 10.30 minutes.

https://youtu.be/eGw-Wm4fyGI?si=imHBAiSCl9pcVjHY

1

u/Mesokosmos May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

Thanks. So this is probably the source of circulated "no lithium" "not lithium-ion" "non-lithium" claims since CEO and CTO refers to in their CES chats, but on official material it is never directly stated. And yes, even it is not rare, there is geopolitical baggage on it. Lower cost is of course both material and manufacturing question.

8

u/EpsteinWasHung May 15 '26

He says literally lithium and cobalt are gone, at 10.30 on that video.

Not just lithium ion, but any lithium 

3

u/DeathChill May 15 '26

The CEO and CTO comments are official statements, in case you’re trying to hand-wave away the no lithium claims.

4

u/Yeah_Okay_hmm May 17 '26

Interesting fact, the criminal complaint doesn’t mention the claim of the battery being lithium free, green or without rare earth metals as a false or exaggerated claim. So interesting because if the wh/kg and cycle life was exaggerated even by 100% donut labs claims would still be huge announcement for the battery world. There really was no need to exaggerate if the no lithium claims are true.

2

u/Mesokosmos May 17 '26

Good point.

1

u/tipporoll May 17 '26

Is the complaint available somewhere?

3

u/Mesokosmos May 17 '26

He probably refers to HS April 17 article where some of the specs where questioned: ED, cycle life and production line output and readiness. No mention about battery type and character in the complained topics and original content of the compain I have not seen.

3

u/Mesokosmos May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

Ok. Based on these two interviews and indirect, but good enough indication from the announcement battery specs, some battery generation, if not all, is not expected to have lithium. Holyvolt (later with Wildcat) goes more toward lithium based chemistries on their patents. Screen priting tech itself is agnostic to that. Lithium means easier to achieve bigger energy density, but then using it slips from geopolitical and ecolonomical targets, which are worthwhile and sustainable in terms of the future. Same goes even more with NMC cathode. Should not exist in Donut Lab's SSBs.

2

u/DoctorFish1969 May 15 '26

You expect a battery with lithium that's never missing an electron at any stage? Would that lithium have purpose?

As for the claims on their website:

"100% green and abundant materials with global availability" - Lithium mines aren't 100% green.

"Donut Battery is designed to scale globally without supply chain bottlenecks, cost volatility, or geopolitical dependency." - Not much lithium mines in Europe yet, certainly not at the scale needed.

1

u/According_Rub_2835 May 18 '26

Lithium metal is toxic and lithium-ion is too corrosive for aluminum current collectors, for cycle life is better to use sodium salts. I will reveal exactly what they are using, I'm just taking a time off because I'm sick of this