New Solid State Battery shown at CES - Game Changer??

[nevetsyad]

Except Donut says they don't use lithium. Donut is also partnered with a capacitor company so that seems a more likely technology considering claimed cycle life and charge rates. Would be a massive breakthrough in capacitor energy density though. Ziroth comes to that conclusion:

Donut (with 22 employees, including a serial entertainer and fundraiser) partnered with a solar manufacture for production. They have no battery capacitor production experience, only panels. Combined, they've beat the specs Quantomscape says they'll have ready for production, in 2028. Quantomscape the massive company with over $6,700,000,000 invested in it from major players.

Donut has about 20 million in it, mostly for hub motor production for the dozens of motorcycles they made for the CEO's Brother, that runs Verge Motorcycles.

It's all marketing BS and lies.

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[nevetsyad]

Supposedly a new Verge TS Pro motorcycle with a 33.3 kWh Donut battery will be $34,900.

Compare to a new Tesla Model 3 Standard RWD with a 69 kWh battery at $36,990. Obviously the Model 3 has the much larger battery -- plus thousands of pounds of other hardware that a motorcycle lacks.

Yet the cost for the two vehicles is almost the same. You have to suspect that those Donut batteries aren't inexpensive, at least not yet.

They claim better density than Lithium Ion, cheaper production, 5c charging with no charge curve, and "unlimited" use with no degradation. From a tiny startup partnered with a solar panel production company, making motors for their brother's company that barely has any deliveries to their name.

Scam

 

[nevetsyad]

They could do both. The motorcycle deal with Verge could be an initial "proof of concept". If it works out, then Donut could approach Samsung, Panasonic, Tesla etc., armed with proof that their battery is successful in a real-world commercial product. In that case, it's not just vaporware.

If Donut had tech from the year 2045, they'd have inked a deal last year. But so far, they haven't demoed their tech, written papers, created any patents, etc. They simply want to make a few dozen more Verge motorcycles, apparently.

Donut CEO is the brother of Verge Motorcycle CEO. He's a serial entrepreneur and has a history of raising cash and even starting crowd funding companies. They've delivered a handful of bikes, with the USA delayed almost 3 years. Suddenly they're going to start shipping, with tech that's decades beyond what even Quantumscape plans to deliver in 2 years. It's BS.

Or aliens.

 

[BannedByTMC]

They've delivered a handful of bikes, with the USA delayed almost 3 years.

Are you sure? They have 3 stores in the US:
https://www.vergemotorcycles.com/stores/

Anyone in CA can go test drive one I suppose.

 

[nevetsyad]

Are you sure? They have 3 stores in the US:
https://www.vergemotorcycles.com/stores/

Anyone in CA can go test drive one I suppose.

Check out the thriving online owner groups. Energica, with is bankrupt and basically dead for the last year, 7K users, lots of posts and pictures daily.

Verge, ~400 users. Same 4 people posting the same 4 bikes every few days. Almost professional pictures...

Company won't talk about sales numbers or even hint at them. Same thing Lightning Motorcycles does, "in production since 2009!" With maybe 20 or 30 bikes total made, by hand. While they raise millions.

 

[YDR37]

They claim better density than Lithium Ion, cheaper production, 5c charging with no charge curve, and "unlimited" use with no degradation. From a tiny startup partnered with a solar panel production company, making motors for their brother's company that barely has any deliveries to their name.

Scam

Skepticism is clearly warranted. But at least their claims are testable. Either they deliver an electric motorcycle with 370 miles of range in 1Q 2026, or they don't. We shouldn't be in suspense for very long.

 

[BannedByTMC]

Either they deliver an electric motorcycle with 370 miles of range in 1Q 2026, or they don't.

Important to note that range is at city speeds, so basically irrelevant. The other figure they list is at 56mph, which is 196 miles of range.

 

[Setok]

Except Donut says they don't use lithium. Donut is also partnered with a capacitor company so that seems a more likely technology considering claimed cycle life and charge rates. Would be a massive breakthrough in capacitor energy density though. Ziroth comes to that conclusion:

Fair point on the lithium, if that’s the case. The capacitor theory has been thrown about, almost as a criticism of this. But if they have reached that kind of energy density with a capacitor, it would equally big news. Then with capacitors you also usually get quite rapid energy dissipation. Depending on application, that may or may not be an issue. But energy density certainly is.

 

[Setok]

The same founder appears here last year, launching an Artificial Superintelligence:



Demos were to appear a month after this video, but nothing has appeared since then. Sadly this does make the battery claims less credible.

I have seen their bike a couple times, and know some of the folks connected indirectly with the company. But that was the motorbike side of things. This battery will definitely need some further clarification, but super if true.

 

[BannedByTMC]

This guy has a series of 24 videos of his experience with last years Verge, I didn't watch them all but I think he was loaned one from Verge.

 

[BannedByTMC]

Interview with the CTO, claims that third party testing has been on going, more to come. Interview starts around the 20 minute mark:

 

[J.Graham]

There's a hole in this story. I for one donut buy it

 

[photon]

There has been a battery game changer at CES every year for the last 20 years. Can anyone remember any of those? In the immortal words of Flavor Flav, “Don’t believe the hype”.

 

[BannedByTMC]

Can anyone remember any of those?

Amprius. They've been there before and won the CES Innovation award this year. They've progressed to 520Wh/kg cells which are used in high end drones, and they have a range 300-450Wh/kg cells as well.

https://ir.amprius.com/news-events/...s-recognizes-amprius-with-an-innovation-award

 

[FarAway]

Amprius. They've been there before and won the CES Innovation award this year. They've progressed to 520Wh/kg cells which are used in high end drones, and they have a range 300-450Wh/kg cells as well.

https://ir.amprius.com/news-events/...s-recognizes-amprius-with-an-innovation-award

Interesting, so I looked up the best of CES 2026 awards. I did not see Amprius listed but I did see the Donut listed.

https://www.cnet.com/best-of-ces-2026/

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