Donut Labs Battery Debunked

[The Weatherman]

Here is an informative and telling video about the state of things with Donut Labs Miracle Battery.

It’s pretty long and sometimes technical, but I found it extremely enlightening.

 

[ElectricShitbox]

I believe my initial stance was "things at CES aren't real".

 

[phidauex]

Not at all surprised. As I said during the first posts about this, there are liars, damned liars, and battery suppliers.

The technical detail is interesting, it looks like they are doing what a few people guessed - repackaging a probably-off-the-shelf NMC battery (not even a cheap off the shelf solid state!) so that it appears to function well in the test, but doesn't have the characteristics they were claiming.

 

[nstrains10]

 

[Yukon Cornelius]

An article from Elecrek that references and expands upon the Ziroth video above.
The takeaway:
The Finnish financial authorities and criminal authorities are both reportedly looking into this. Good. The battery industry doesn’t need another Nikola."
Electrek donut fraud

 

[tubes]

30 odd years ago I was helping with a demo at a trade convention presenting data over fiber optic. We were using Windows 3.1 or or maybe 95, showing a video. It was working so well.

Some guy comes up and says we were faking it, because the video was cached. Holy shit, he was right! We actually had him twiddle some parameters to kill the cache and help prove we had nothing to hide. The video still worked, thankfully, and he was happy, but man we looked so damn stupid.

 

[E90400K]

Wait! You mean none of it was true? Who'd a thunk!

 

[ScooterAsheville]

I still have my popcorn out happily watching the show with zero emotional investment pro or con. No dog in that fight.

I do have one observation to offer about this story, but it's not really about Donut Labs proper. It's about media cowardice and laziness. A click-generating trend these days is for one content creator to actually research a story. Then make an attention-grabbing headline - usually saying something highly provocative. Fine - totally cool with that. That content creator had some balls.

What bugs me is all the no-balls outlets that then publish attention-grabbing headlines where the body says "So and so said this". They don't say "This" themselves. They say "So and so said 'this' ". And that is the gutless way to generate clicks and avoid slander lawsuits in the event that "so and so" was wrang.

We're surrounded by lazy, gutless media unwilling to do any actual investigative journalism or stand behind what they say. Just a giant echo chamber these. days. It's an online version of "Sally said Janet slept with Carol's husband".

 

[E90400K]

I still have my popcorn out happily watching the show with zero emotional investment pro or con. No dog in that fight.

I do have one observation to offer about this story, but it's not really about Donut Labs proper. It's about media cowardice and laziness. A click-generating trend these days is for one content creator to actually research a story. Then make an attention-grabbing headline - usually saying something highly provocative. Fine - totally cool with that. That content creator had some balls.

What bugs me is all the no-balls outlets that then publish attention-grabbing headlines where the body says "So and so said this". They don't say "This" themselves. They say "So and so said 'this' ". And that is the gutless way to generate clicks and avoid slander lawsuits in the event that "so and so" was wrang.

We're surrounded by lazy, gutless media unwilling to do any actual investigative journalism or stand behind what they say. Just a giant echo chamber these. days. It's an online version of "Sally said Janet slept with Carol's husband".

In the other threads on Donut, I think many of us went through the details and reasoning as to be very skeptical of Donut's claims. I for one said it was BS from the get go. The "no patents" situation told the story. That was the key in my mind.

 

[KevinRS]

So what is the conclusion on what the point of the whole exercise was? Did someone actually make some money on it or something?

 

[1yeliab_sufur1]

i was optimistic but after watching several videos i to see it as false but still have a sliver of hope it is real just in case. there counter for the next video drop is still active as of 10:50mst 6/9/2026 so i am very curious on what will happen ether they do not talk about the accusation(most likely), they prove the accusation is false (meaning showing proof such as saying what the battery is made of in detail, least likely) or they give in and tell the truth (saying it is made up, also not likely)

 

[phidauex]

So what is the conclusion on what the point of the whole exercise was? Did someone actually make some money on it or something?

I think the point was to raise money from uneducated private investors, then spend that money on a lavish lifestyle while never delivering anything tangible. The perpetual founder is a con as old as time...

 

[phidauex]

i was optimistic but after watching several videos i to see it as false but still have a sliver of hope it is real just in case. there counter for the next video drop is still active as of 10:50mst 6/9/2026 so i am very curious on what will happen ether they do not talk about the accusation(most likely), they prove the accusation is false (meaning showing proof such as saying what the battery is made of in detail, least likely) or they give in and tell the truth (saying it is made up, also not likely)

They will vigorously deny everything as long as some investors are willing to give them a dollar. Once no investors are willing to give them anything, they will go dark (and then pop up somewhere else in a few years with another amazing innovation that will blow your mind).

 

[ElectricShitbox]

They will vigorously deny everything as long as some investors are willing to give them a dollar. Once no investors are willing to give them anything, they will go dark (and then pop up somewhere else in a few years with another amazing innovation that will blow your mind).

Following CES every year will let you know all the current tech scams.