Donut Solid State Battery

[AKLBear]

Donut Labs just released what they’re calling the first commercially available true solid state battery with no drawbacks at CES 2026. If LTT Labs can get their hands on some of these batteries that would be an amazing opportunity to test what donut claims is a game changer. The batteries have not been independently verified so this would be a great opportunity. 

 

[Levent]

There are couple of red flags about the company/product already.

 

[ewitte]

Didn't CATL or BYD (the BIG Chinese EV companies) already release something?

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!
Interesting. Big if true. Traditional Lion batteries are ~200Wh/kg so doubling that would be nice. I do notice that they don't seem to have cited volumetric energy density which is a deeply important part of battery tech. And while they list a frankly unbelievably large number of charge cycles, they don't list an expected lifetime. 

[Timme]

Solid-state batteries would revolutionize the world. And the company that'll create a commercially viable real thing wouldn't use the tech to upsell their bicycles or cars, instead of ... dominating the world as the sole producer of batteries.

[manikyath]

36 minutes ago, AKLBear said:

what they’re calling the first commercially available true solid state battery with no drawbacks

imagine announcing something at CES and say "but it has drawbacks".

 

i'm extremely skeptical here, especially because this company is *very* new, and not only making some outlandish claims, they are making several outlandish claims that some big players in the space have been researching for decades.

 

one detail i did catch is the claim is 400Wh/kg.. with no mention what so ever about volume.. so this may be a very lightweight battery, so you'll need MUCH more volume for 400Wh than you'd need with li-ion for example.

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

I would be really surprised if this is real. 

[wanderingfool2]

While I hope this is real, I'm going to bet that there is likely some drawback that they haven't said.

 

For example, charging cycles while they say is good...they don't mention how they define it...or what about the time vs battery example.  For lets say LFP batteries if you keep it at an optimal charge and only charge it on occasion after 10 years the battery still will have lost a lot of the capacity compared to someone who charged it 10x more simply because the batteries degrade with age.

 

Other considerations, how much capacity is lost simply by it sitting without power usage etc.

 

I do hope it's true the claims they are making, but the lack of numbers and evidence being presented while they are trying to raise capital makes me skeptical until I see it

[Lurking]

1 hour ago, AKLBear said:

Donut Labs just released what they’re calling the first commercially available true solid state battery with no drawbacks at CES 2026. If LTT Labs can get their hands on some of these batteries that would be an amazing opportunity to test what donut claims is a game changer. The batteries have not been independently verified so this would be a great opportunity. 

Welcome to the forum!

 

To me, available means, i can walk to the dealership down the road, and buy a car with that battery installed and drive it off the lot. Or I order a new phone online and it arrives tomorrow with that battery. Anything different isn't "available". 

 

All i see in the video are tales about some company allegedly putting it on a road map. Fusion reactors have been 20 years away for the past 50 years. 

 

Solid state batteries have been the "next year's future" for the past 10 years. Toyota was (or is) behind on the EV business. But no problem! Already in 2011 Toyota hinted that they will skip the standard batteries and will develop superior solid state batteries and then just take over all the other fools that wasted time with old battery technology. That will happen for sure in the 2015-2020 time frame. If my calendar app is correct, it is 2026. And IRL Toyota has an abysmal EV offer and no solid state anything and still is far behind other EV manufacturers, who also don't have sold state. 

 

I believe it when I see it. If this is a real thing, some billionaire will invest big, or Tesla/CATL will buy them. So, we should know soon if they have a real thing. 

 

I don't know that company... but there was a semi truck EV company called Nikola. they showed a film about their "for real" EV semitruck pulling a trailer at high speed. It turned out, everyone on the film crew had to sign an NDA for a very good reason. The reason - the truck didn't have a motor at all and was towed up a hill and just rolled down the road from gravity alone! and what impresses me most, they somehow still exist - so you can invest your money! 

[cmndr]

I'm excited for a future with solid state batteries. 

Emphasis on FUTURE. We aren't there yet. 

I'm hoping that future is soon. 

[Thomas53]

To me, "Future" is online magazine.

[StDragon]

Cheaper, Better, Faster. Can only pick 2.

If you can have all 3, you've broken the universe.

[Lurking]

43 minutes ago, StDragon said:

Cheaper, Better, Faster. Can only pick 2.

If you can have all 3, you've broken the universe.

I guess we need to fix the Universe then...

 

Because 1996 EV was very expensive, slow and not good at all. Now EV aren't perfect, but undoubtedly cheaper (inflation adjusted), faster and many have a great track record to longevity. 

 

I suspect (or hope) in 5-10 years price, longevity, and capacity will make some good progress again. 

[cmndr]

23 hours ago, StDragon said:

Cheaper, Better, Faster. Can only pick 2.

That's usually only at one moment in time. 

 

Today, a modern CPU like a 9950x is cheaper, better and faster than an Intel i486 in the past ($1000 before inflation, $2500 with inflation factored in). 
Clock speeds are 50x faster, IPC is WAY up, 16x the core count, substantially lower price, far better performance/watt, systems with it are far more reliable. 
If you care about absolute lowest power draw there's an ARM or atom choice out there as well. 

 

Technological advancement is AMAZING. 

[StDragon]

3 hours ago, cmndr said:

That's usually only at one moment in time.

Correct.

 

However, battery technology is a bit different in that regard. There's a lot of pros and cons with each type of formulation. The ultimate goal is a super capacitor with the densitity of a battery, cheap, AND is safe. I can tell you for a fact that will never happen.

 

The most realistic approach that will be used is dual chemistry, or tiered battery technology. Basically you use something like LTO or NTO cells for their rapid charge and discharge ability with low resistance; perfect for quick acceleration and regenerative braking. On the back-end, you use standard LFP or Li-ion where the draw is metered to reduced stress induced current draw which otherwise would shorten the life.

[cmndr]

2 minutes ago, StDragon said:

Correct.

 

However, battery technology is a bit different in that regard. There's a lot of pros and cons with each type of formulation. The ultimate goal is a super capacitor with the densitity of a battery, cheap, AND is safe. I can tell you for a fact that will never happen.

 

The most realistic approach that will be used is dual chemistry, or tiered battery technology. Basically you use something like LTO or NTO cells for their rapid charge and discharge ability with low resistance; perfect for quick acceleration and regenerative braking. On the back-end, you use standard LFP or Li-ion where the draw is metered to reduced stress induced current draw which otherwise would shorten the life.

The ideal future state will likely involve multiple technologies and trading off between their strengths and weaknesses dynamically. 

 

With that said battery tech IS evolving and relatively fast. Lithium Ion costs are down around ~20x over the last 20 years for example.