We’re Back
We’ll get to Donut Lab and its controversial announcements in the next segment, but first:
Following several weeks of medical treatment for a gangrenous toe, angioplasty to open blood vessels in the leg, and doses of antibiotics, the threat to your editor’s foot seems diminished, and things seem to be tending slowly toward health and wellness. All praise to modern medicine and caring physicians.
Meanwhile, In Finland
Facing more pain than your editor has experienced in the (moderate) throes of illness, a battery maker making world-class claims contends with world-class skepticism.
Donut Lab, a small Finnish company, claims to be accomplishing something few of its much larger competitors have not, coming out of relative obscurity with a full range of advanced electric and electronic products. In January, at the latest Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, they unveiled their latest breakthrough: solid-state batteries with 400 Watt-hour energy density per kilogram – double that of many competitors.
Immediate Skepticism
Bill McKibben, as part of his weekly report on the climate crisis, recounts Donut Lab’s claims as reported in Electrek as reported by Fred Lambert:
“Donut Lab lit the EV and energy storage industry on fire last week with its announcement of a 400 [Watt-hour per kilogram] solid-state battery cell that can last for 100 years. At face value, if true, we are looking at the single most disruptive announcement in the history of the electric vehicle industruy and energy storage as a whole. We aren’t just talking about a better motorcycle battery. If the claims of a 5-minute charge, 100,000-cycle life, and ~400 Wh/kg energy density are accurate and scalable, as Donut Lab claims, this is the holy grail of energy storage.
“Now, we have interviewed Donut Lab’s CEO and investigated the technology. At this point, it looks like either this battery changes the world within the next 3 months, or if it will make the CEO look like a fool.
“If this is real, the internal combustion engine didn’t just die today, it was buried 100 feet deep, and every other battery is not far behind. But, and this is a massive “but”, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and Donut Lab has yet to release that proof. I promise I’ll report more when it is known.”
Many other reporters had similar skeptical comments, but we should know, along with this week’s VTT (the Finninsh national laboratory) report, whether the remaining claims are reasonable. We await more news with appropriately cautious, but hopeful, anticipation.
Skepticism remains strong. Chinese battery manufacturer Svolt’s head, Yang Hongxin, made his wariness clear. “That battery doesn’t even exist in the world; all the parameters are contradictory… Any person with even a basic understanding of the technology would think it’s a scam.”
Guinness Awards the Long Ride
Countering the pervasive scepticism, Guinness, arbiter of all things record setting, awarded a record for the “longest journey by an electric motorbike on a single charge.” The Estonioan bide has a Donus Lab wheel motor where a rear axle would normally center rotation, and the travelogue-like video makes much of the bike’s national origin. With Finnish batteries ostensibly providing the motive power for the journey, that part of the claim seems cloaked in mystery, to borrow a cliche’.
This still leaves unanwered questions. Did Guinness examine the batteries or simply accept the fact that they were on the bike? Did Verge or Donut Lab received any details on the battery’s composition? (Your editor guesses not, with Donut probably claiming proprietary discretion.) Remember that unlike petrol-powered vehicles, electric ones don’t need to idle when at a stop – something that was a bit disconcerting to your editor when he observed stopped propellers at the 2011 Green Flight Challenge competitors. This of course saved Verge’s batteries during the long tour of London. In case this seems remarkably slow, your editor drove a Morgan 4+4 through the City after a tour of England and Scotland. Traffic was even in 1974 more stop than go. Idle consumes gas at an inefficient level, while electric vehicles face no such penalty.
The Electruc Viking Still Has Questions
The Electric Viking, reviewing the latest claims by Donut Lab, has further queries about the battery. As the blog has pointed out, the difference between cell-level and pack performance is always different because of the loads imposed by cooling, battery management systems, and even weather. Our Danish Australian pushes sevcral issues. with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland tests. Since only a single cell was tested in labroaroy conditions, ow will similar tests in real-world conditions shake out?
Donut Lab’s seemingly implausible (if not impossible) claims merit investigation, and further test results promised in the near future may provide answers, or further controversy. We await the next series of outcomes with great anticpation. There’s a lot more to uncoverwith the firm’s Watt EV platform, which includes motors, batteries and controllers as part of their ostensibly real-world answer to critics.
Donut Lab’s WattEV platform will be available soon for real-world, customer-based tests that will include a full battery pack, controllers, and operating slystems in ostensibly practiclal demonstrations of the Lab’s capabilities
As a tabloid newspaper used to claim, “Enquiring minds want to know.” The level of interest in Donut Labs couldn’t be higher, and we look forward to more answers.