Investigation Finds Donut Lab Made False Claims About Revolutionary Battery Tech

The startup touted a production-ready breakthrough in solid-state battery tech, but the claims collapsed under scrutiny.

In January, there was a lot of hype around an announcement from Finnish company Donut Lab: It claimed to have created the world's first production-ready solid-state battery.

The Donut battery, marketed as the energy source behind the Verge TS Pro motorcycle, was allegedly a "pioneer" in bringing this new battery technology to a production-ready electric vehicle. During CES 2026, Donut Lab's phone-size powerhouse was even a finalist for CNET's Best Transportation category, where we noted that the cell promised "huge improvements in energy density, charging speed and safety."

But it now appears to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. The battery is allegedly using existing lithium-ion technology, not sodium-ion solid-state chemistry, according to new reports following an investigation from battery researcher Ryan Inis Hughes, known for his YouTube channel Ziroth.

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