"In Las Vegas at CES 2026, it's time for another bold proclamation about a small team of engineers that have figured out solid state. This time it's Marko Lehtimaki, cofounder and CEO of Donut Lab, an EV technology startup that spun off from Verge Motorcycles (no relation to The Verge). Naturally, I'm skeptical, but there's one key difference that's giving me hope: Lehtimaki says the Donut Battery isn't 24 months away. It's in production right now."
"If you've not been riding the hype wave around solid state, the promise is for a battery cell that is cheap, light, fast-charging, cool-running, energy-dense, and combustion-free. They're still conceptually the same battery design as the past couple-hundred years. That means an anode on one side and a cathode on the other, separated by an electrolyte across which charge-carrying ions can scurry back and forth as the cell is charged or discharged."
CES often showcases bold, near-future promises with a roughly 24-month hype window that generates excitement and investment while allowing missed deadlines to fade. Past promises, such as Henrik Fisker's 2018 claim of mass-produced solid-state batteries for 2020 and the EMotion car, failed to materialize and the company later collapsed. Donut Lab, a Verge Motorcycles spin-off, claims its Donut Battery is in production in 2026 rather than being two years away. Solid-state batteries replace liquid electrolytes with solids, offering potential benefits: lower weight, faster charging, higher energy density, cooler operation, and greatly improved durability.
Read at The Verge
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