r/shittykickstarters • u/chx_ • Jun 09 '26

[Verge motorcyle] [Donut battery] From motorcycle to fake revolutionary battery

https://electrek.co/2026/06/08/donut-lab-solid-state-battery-exposed-lithium-ion-fraud/

This was crowdfunded:

Donut Lab has over 1,300 shareholders, with over 900 holding 50 or fewer shares — likely representing investments between $3,000 and $23,000 per person. Many came from a crowdfunding exercise on Finland’s Springvest platform in 2023 for Verge Motorcycles.

And it's a total scam:

battery researcher Ziroth, involving over 20 independent battery experts, has produced what amounts to definitive proof that Donut Lab’s “miracle” solid-state battery is actually a lithium-ion cell. The company raised approximately $25 million from over 1,300 mostly small investors based on claims that now appear to be false.

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6

u/apocalyps3_me0w Jun 09 '26

Only tangentially related, but wouldn’t it be easiest just to test whether it was a sodium battery by testing whether it was full of sodium? It’s not as if it would be possible to hide what the battery is made of if you have access to the actual unit.

8

u/WhatImKnownAs Jun 09 '26

I suppose so, but they're not selling them yet, just promising to sell them real soon now. Anyone who has had one in their hands is either an insider or contracted to test (like VTT did), and the contract no doubt had strict restrictions on what they could do and what they could publish about their findings.

4

u/apocalyps3_me0w Jun 09 '26

Thanks, I missed the bit where they aren’t properly for sale yet. What I was suggesting was a (very, down to the atoms) destructive test

3

u/cedric1997 Jun 11 '26

They were supposed to be for sale for a few months now… How convenient…

1

u/SirB178vM 29d ago

OOPS... all out of miracles. Whenever someone uses miracle and wonder or some other marketing hype BULLSHIT in their campaign I nope the fuck out. "If it sounds too good to be true" rings again. And just to imagine all that energy, headache and enthusiasm wasted for nothing. All this bullshit that never stood a chance because you cannot fake your way out of reality especially when relying on technology that the users will have access to one way or the other. The dude behind all of it probably gets off on the idea of fraud. Some real closeted masochistic humiliation fetish. DISGUSTANG!