Earlier this month, a little-known Finnish startup shocked the world when it claimed to have beaten Toyota, Samsung, LG Energy, Quantumscape and any number of Chinese automakers at commercializing the Holy Grail of electric-vehicle power: solid-state batteries.
Helsinki-based Donut Lab said at CES 2026 that it has a class-leading solid-state battery ready to go in an upcoming electric motorcycle, boasting five-minute fast-charging and unprecedented energy density. Hopes ran high that this could be a breakthrough for a battery technology widely seen as capable of changing the world. But then, the doubts started to emerge.
“People love seeing strategic partnerships and manufacturing scale-up,” Jiayan Shi, an associate at research firm BloombergNEF specializing in electrochemistry, told InsideEVs. “It would be nice to have data for performance and safety validation,” she added.
44
Source: Patrick George
For their part, Donut Lab executives maintain the technology is real, yet shrouded in mystery to protect their trade secrets. The company says the battery will soon be used in a new two-wheel EV from Verge Motorcycles. “The Donut battery surpasses what most of the industry is still planning for years from now,” Marko Lehtimaki, the co-founder and CEO of Donut Lab, said on the company’s YouTube channel. “These batteries are shipping today.”
Donut Lab and Verge Motorcycles did not respond to a detailed list of questions from InsideEVs about the technology, nor grant interviews with executives to respond to these claims.
Battery researchers have long described solid-state batteries as a key to solving many, if not most, of the problems with current battery chemistries. They swap out the liquid chemical-based electrolyte with a solid one, promising to eliminate range anxiety, enable ultra-fast charging speeds, perform flawlessly in extreme weather and deliver unmatched safety thanks to its fireproof properties.
On paper, an all-solid-state battery would have no trade-offs, which would be a dream come true for battery engineers and consumers alike. But making them at scale without defects and at a lower cost than lithium-ion batteries is extraordinarily difficult, battery executives have previously told InsideEVs.
The Donut Labs solid-state cell on display at CES 2026.
Photo by: Patrick George
That backdrop helps explain why Donut Lab’s claims generated such extensive media attention during CES, including coverage by InsideEVs. But before diving deep, here’s a list of the company’s claims:
- The battery has 400 watt-hours per kilogram of energy density, much higher than 200-300 Wh/kg of today’s lithium-ion packs.
- It can charge in as little as five minutes, depending on the size of the pack.
- It can last 100,000 cycles, significantly more than today’s lithium-ion batteries, which last around 1,500-3,000 cycles.
- No toxic or rare earth materials are involved.
- Its operating temperature ranges between -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) to 100C (212F).
- Costs are similar to today’s nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries, according to the company.
- The start-up has been working on the tech since 2018.
What most clearly sets Donut Lab apart from other solid-state battery announcements is its timeline. Many large battery manufacturers say the technology is unlikely to mature before the end of the decade. Donut Lab, by contrast, says its batteries will be on the road in a matter of weeks.
Photo by: Patrick George
Verge Motorcycles’ TS Pro models equipped with its all-solid-state batteries will be delivered to customers in the U.S. and Europe starting this quarter, the company said. The Tron-inspired electric motorcycle claims to offer 370 miles of range and charge to 80% in under 10 minutes.
Battery experts and industry analysts, however, have urged caution.
Why Experts Are Skeptical Of These Claims
“Producing all-solid-state battery cells at high yield and high volumes is significantly more complex than lithium-ion batteries,” BloombergNEF’s Shi said. “Equipment providers have not yet developed standardized commercial production lines for the diverse range of all-solid-state battery technologies.”
Moreover, the company has disclosed little about its battery chemistry or manufacturing process. There are no approved patents tied to the technology, no publicly disclosed production facility and no independent testing for the batteries just yet.
Photo by: Patrick George
Some industry analysts are skeptical, too. “Without detailed chemistry disclosure or independent testing, it’s unclear whether this technology is directly comparable to the lithium-metal solid-state batteries that Toyota and QuantumScape are developing,” Stephanie Valdez-Streaty, the director of market insights at Cox Automotive, told InsideEVs.
At least one large Chinese battery manufacturer strongly rebuked Donut’s claims. “That battery doesn’t exist in the world,” Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of Svolt Energy, told Chinese media last week. “The parameters are contradictory… China’s technology is the most advanced globally. If China can’t produce or perfect it, companies from other countries certainly can’t either.”
Chinese battery manufacturers currently produce some of the world’s most advanced battery packs at a massive scale and low cost. With extensive research budgets and deep manufacturing expertise, several Chinese automakers, including Geely and Chery, seem to be getting close to deploying all-solid-state batteries, but they’re not fully there yet.
BloombergNEF projects that more than 80% of the world’s solid-state battery manufacturing capacity will be concentrated in China in the coming years, so they’re expected to be ahead in developing the tech.
That raises several questions: How could a small Finnish start-up leapfrog the larger companies? Where would these batteries be made? And what technology underpins them? Donut Lab has not provided clear answers, but some clues have emerged from its recent investments and public records.
What Could This Solid-State Battery Chemistry Be?
The Donut Lab battery appears to point toward work done by another Finnish company. Last October, Donut Lab said it made a “significant strategic investment” in renewable energy start-up Nordic Nano, which specializes in nanotechnology—which involves highly precise manufacturing using nanoparticles—for solar and battery applications.
Nordic Nano also said in a report last year that it had developed a “bipolar electrostatic capacitor” for energy storage systems. The specifications described in that report closely resemble Donut Lab’s claims. The capacitor has a similar 400 Wh/kg of energy density and a lifespan of over 50,000 charging cycles with less risk of fire.
Before getting into batteries, Donut Labs developed this hubless rear wheel with an integrated electric motor, a design it claims it pioneered.
Photo by: Patrick George
Capacitors are not new to cars. Lamborghini famously used a supercapacitor in its Sian supercar for instantaneous torque fill and energy recovery. That system, however, was a small hybrid unit paired with a combustion engine.
Capacitors store energy in an electrical field between physical conductive plates, according to a study published on Science Direct, whereas batteries can store energy chemically in small cells. That means capacitors require far more space to store the same amount of energy as batteries, which is why they’re mainly used in energy storage systems.
Nordic Nano also said in that report that it had finished installing pre-production equipment at its facility in Imatra, Finland, near the Russian border in the fourth quarter of last year. Production of its carbon-based solar films and solid-state super capacitors will begin in 2026, the company said.
Donut Labs claims the solid-state battery is not limited to motorcycles. It can be engineered for cars and drones, too.
Photo by: Patrick George
Finland’s local newspaper Yle reported last week that production had started at what it described as a “mysterious factory,” adding that the company had built fencing around the site to prevent “corporate espionage.”
Lehtimaki told The Verge that Nordic Nano was not making this solid-state battery. Nordic Nano did not respond to InsideEVs’ request for comment at the time of writing.
In comments to Yle, Nordic Nano CEO Esa Parjanen said: “We don’t want to reveal where and how we make our products. It’s a trade secret.” He told the outlet that the company was using something called nanomass, which is a carbon-based composite material, in solar panels to collect energy.
The same nanomass technology can be used in battery cells, the report said, replacing lithium with an abundant material common across Europe and the world. “These nanobattery cells can withstand tens of thousands of charging cycles and can hold more energy. They are also fireproof and cannot explode,” Parjanen told the newspaper.
Photo by: Patrick George
According to one theory from EV expert Laycee Schmidtke, who runs the MissGoElectric YouTube Channel, this abundant material could, after all, be sodium. She points to Nordic Nano’s Chief Scientist, Bela Bhuskute, and her research on “titanium dioxide nanostructures” and “carbon nanotubes,” which apparently help prevent dendrites, the sharp needle-like spikes that can damage a battery.
As per her publicly available white paper, the company could be using an anode-free sodium-metal battery instead of the lithium metal anodes U.S. battery start-ups QuantumScape and Factorial are working on. Sodium is indeed far more abundant than lithium, but it doesn’t enjoy the same supply chain advantages as lithium.
If Donut Lab has indeed achieved a breakthrough, it could open a new chapter for the battery world and probably even bring a lot of attention to Europe, which is increasingly relying on Chinese battery makers eager to set up shop on the continent. If not, it could join a long list of failed start-ups that promise bold things and fail to deliver.
The good news is it’s only a matter of weeks, not years, before experts will start tearing down the battery pack and determine whether the solid-state technology is real or not. For now, Donut Lab maintains that it’s the real deal and coming soon: “At Donut Lab, our answer on solid state batteries being ready for use in OEM production vehicles is now, today, not later,” Lehtimaki has said.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com