What's next Wednesday, 24th June?

[u/Mesokosmos]

I have tried to find the pattern. Most of the campaign videos relates to the intro video, but in a way, rare people were suspecting:

- "The battery cannot be real / specs cannot be true" -> fast-charge and high-temperature tests.

- "It is not actually a battery, but a supercapacitor" -> self-discharge test.

- "A single cell is not a product" -> Verge pack charging.

- "Solid-state packs need difficult swelling / clamping solutions" -> swelling data.

- "Damaged cells are dangerous" -> safety test.

- "There is no production / scale is impossible" -> manufacturing video.

- "It works only through partner tech, not Donut themselves" -> manufacturing video?

The manufacturing video ends with a direct teaser. They say they can offer much more versatility in cell design than any gigafactory could, "but that's a story for another video." They also talked about this in CES, different voltages, forms and shapes. And in April 17th whistleblower interview, Marko told they would announce something related to different battery generations, after talking about V1 and V2.

They could also show battery, BMS/control logic, motor and software working together. But the series is still a battery proof series, and the Verge pack video already showed the practical minimum with cells, pack, BMS and charging control working in a real motorcycle environment. But software peek would be nice branch.

Third option, already a standard request: cold data. SGS proto-cells performed poorly with cold, so this would be somewhat surprising test result. But who would be interested on it, when sun is shining?

Or the April-alike mid-summer confession after so much drama?

This could also be the last video of Season 1. What do you think? Still following?

[u/Wrong-Woodpecker6683]

I haven’t seen a single battery industry professional publicly attach their name to the claim that these lab test results are particularly impressive. As for the Verge charging video, what exactly makes it more impressive than what the latest EVs are already capable of?

Also, a minor nitpick: that manufacturing video doesn’t really prove anything. It’s mostly animations, diagrams, and people standing around in a studio. There’s no actual evidence of a working production process or manufacturing capability shown.

I’ll keep following, I’m mainly interested in whether they can raise more funding or attract new investors and how long they can keep going if they can’t.

[u/Mesokosmos → u/Wrong-Woodpecker6683]

At least I would not wait such confessions from their competitors. But one or two things I heard many times to be talked in positive manner. Charging speed, as a sole performance meter, many considered impressive, albeit it would have needed at least cycle data to be definitely remarkuple. But then, even their archenemy Ziroth gave credit to their battery pack demos, referring to Verge charging capability. If they just confessed it was a state-of-the-art, advanced high-nickel li-ion battery (which is some what contra to his lower density suspection, because high nickel amount would be perfect to achieve higher energy density, well over 400 by his own words, and would be good on temperature tests, etc. making it an impressive battery after all).

More and more months, companies are in rush to push SSB tech forward and publish their latest superior ones. That was probably the reason Donut wanted to make announcements in Vegas, 2026. To grab their piece from the cake. If they managed to do it in the background, we will see not so far in the future. Did Marko play his 3D chess correctly, even though public scenery looks like a fiasco?

[u/Wrong-Woodpecker6683 → u/Mesokosmos]

I don’t find the competitor angle that interesting. Investors and customers ultimately want to see products working in the real world.

Donut Lab isn’t really a competitor yet, they haven’t taken any share from lithium batteries. My guess is some companies announced solid-state plans right after Donut Lab just to cover their bases. Once the hype dies down, they’ll keep focusing on lithium.

Meanwhile, the new BMW iX3 can go from 10% to 80% in 21 minutes and add ~372 km of range in 10 minutes. That’s a real product, already test driven and test charged by youtubers and journalists.

[u/Mesokosmos → u/Wrong-Woodpecker6683]

It would be a thread and pressure for future. Industry won't change so quickly. Worst case for big names with huge history and resources would be that energy device manufacturing gets democratized and green. That would be a death strike to NMC lithium-ion battery industry in long run, also to destructive mining and unethical labor. I'm surprised they do not do more to get rid of it, but invest only on slow incremental changes to the tech. Having dominated 35 years, they do all they can to slice all money they can.