Honestly, I've kept a skeptical distance on Donut Labs' new solid-state battery, as while I'm appreciative of small companies pushing technology forward, the company's history of marketing technical specifications in the best light possible is one to be sus about at first. The most egregious of them all being the brand's "world-record" range test that occurred at just 12 mph through London in stop-and-go traffic.
I'm pretty sure anything would get ridiculously good mileage that way.
So when Donut Labs and its partner Verge Motorcycles announced that it had finally figured out solid-state batteries, something much of the rest of the automotive and electrification world has been working toward for decades, and slapped it into a motorcycle, my Spidey-sense kicked in. Then the companies started dropping supposed "third-party" tests that backed up a host of pie-in-the-sky claims. RideApart, and myself, have remained skeptical, though.
And that tends to give us the advantage, as parroting wild claims can lead to accusations of shilling for a company. But in this case, it could also mean that we were complicit in something nefarious, as a whistleblower has come forward and has gone to the police in Finland and stated that Donut Labs and Verge Motorcycles' claims aren't what they appear to be, going so far as to say, "I want to emphasize that these are really serious matters. Donut Lab’s operations do not fit with my own moral concept."
Woof.
The report was dug up by our homies over at The Autopian, who saw that there was a story about Donut Labs and Verge's battery claims in a local Finnish newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat. And according to the outlet, the whistleblower is Lauri Peltola, the former Chief Commercial Officer at Nordic Nano, a small battery startup in Finland, which was working with Donut Labs on the solid-state battery project.
The Autopian did the translating, but the Finnish outlet states, "According to Lauri Peltola, it has become clear to him over the spring that the promised battery properties, such as energy density and charging cycles, have not been achieved. The readiness for mass production has also been misrepresented, he says. According to Peltola, the company does not have the promised capacity for mass production and large production volumes of batteries. He says that the production line is not scheduled to be completed until later this year and its production capacity is not as large as Lehtimäki claims."
Verge Motorcycles was started by Tuomo Lehtimäki, Marko Lehtimäki, Ville Piippo, and Henri Vähäkainu.
“I want to emphasize that these are really serious matters. Donut Lab’s operations do not fit with my own moral concept," Peltola says. Moreover, while a criminal report has been filed, so too has a report to both the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Chancellor of Justice offices, which will push through the whistleblower complaints. But here's where it gets interesting, and directly takes shots at Donut Labs and Verge's claims.
"HS Visio has previously reported that Donut Lab’s battery technology comes from a small German company called CT-Coating," states Helsingin Sanomat's report, adding, "Donut Lab has not publicly stated this. HS Visio has seen email correspondence between Donut Lab, CT-Coating and Nordic Nano Group from the end of March. The content of the correspondence supports Peltola’s claims that at least some of Donut Lab’s promises have been misleading or exaggerated."
It further states, "The emails give the impression that Donut Lab’s battery technology relies entirely on CT-Coating. The division of labor is roughly that CT-Coating develops the technology, Nordic Nano is responsible for battery production, and Donut Lab acts as a productizer and commercializer of the technology. In the emails, Donut Lab asks CT-Coating for measurement results that would match the promises made to investors and customers regarding charging rates. Based on the emails, these were not provided. It seems that the cooperation between the companies is not entirely straightforward. A CT-Coating representative complains, among other things, that the messages of the Las Vegas battery announcement were not all agreed upon."
But according to the paper, CT-Coating stopped working on the battery's development, i.e., the solid-state unit that Donut introduced in January, and the one they sent to that third-party testing organization I mentioned above. Yet, CT-Coating is supposedly already on a version two of the battery, but hasn't disclosed any of this.
Most worryingly, however, is that Helsingin Sanomat's story also interviewed Verge's Marko Lehtimäki, who disclosed that not only are the current "solid-state" batteries being delivered to customers not the 100,000-cycle units promised, nor are they the 400 Wh/kg units either. And the former number is one not even tested in a laboratory setting either, as it was worked out by using lower figures and extrapolating up. In other words, none of their claims hold water. At least, that's what this report lays out.
The interview with Lehtimäki alone would be eye-opening and wild, but to have the whistleblower complaint, too, there's some serious shadiness going on. What happens next is anyone's guess, as the complaints have to work through the proper channels, while Donut Labs and Verge have issued the following statement:
Donut Lab and Nordic Nano Group have today been informed that an employee of Nordic Nano has filed a criminal complaint against Donut Lab. The companies do not know the exact nature of the complaint. In addition to the complaint, the individual has contacted media representatives and provided confidential company information to the press. Furthermore, the individual has made claims concerning Donut Lab, despite not having the necessary knowledge of battery technology or the overall picture of the development work. The individual is not a shareholder of Nordic Nano Group, nor are they involved in the working group developing Donut Lab’s battery. Nordic Nano Group does not share these views of a single individual.
Donut Lab takes the allegations seriously, denies having committed any crime or misleading investors. Donut Lab and Nordic Nano Group are working closely together on the development of battery technology, and both companies strongly stand behind the previously announced information regarding battery properties and production. Donut Lab is currently conducting tests measuring battery properties with a third party, and more research results will be published during the spring. Regarding the increase in production capacity, the company has publicly stated that the goal is to reach one gigawatt this year.
Donut Lab and Nordic Nano Group are currently investigating the matter together with the legal advisors of both companies. The companies naturally view such matters with extreme seriousness. Any unsubstantiated reports that aim to negatively influence the companies’ business operations and brand are handled with the same rigor.
It's signed "Marko Lehtimäki, CEO, Donut Lab." So I guess stay tuned.
