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Donut Lab's miracle battery found to be a fraud, investigation claims
(interestingengineering.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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Technology
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Does this mean the technology is impossible at current then? Or just that the company didn't deliver?
There are several companies making great leaps right now. It is still far from commercially viable yet.
Which is why it seemed so far fetched for Donut to claim they had this battery without anyone knowing they were working on it. It was immediately suspicious.
Solid-state sodium is still in the laboratory stage. People assumed Donut was claiming to have developed a solid-state sodium battery due to their "no lithium" statement, but they never specifically claimed they were using sodium.
All solid-state lithium is a bit further along. Korea has pilot plants producing full-sized EV batteries that are being used for testing before they do the final scale up to production. Chinese manufacturers are also basically at the same stage. Those will likely be available in production EVs by 2030.
Just this company that didn't deliver. There's still a lot of other companies doing research for solid state battery
Who will all have a harder time finding investor money and will meet with more skepticism as development proceeds.
Like all other aspects of our greedy scam culture, the possibility of this new battery chemistry and some of the remaining social trust has been monetized and traded for cash to line somebody’s pockets.
You can buy a solid state battery right now on Digikey for 5 bucks. Lithium-ceramic. They suck ass. But cool tech.
Impossible outright? No. Not possible currently? Most definitely.