New Solid-State Battery Platform Production-Ready Battery With 100,000 Charge Cycles Powers Motorcycle

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Up to 100,000 charge cycles, 99 percent capacity at −30 °C (−22 °F), and a production vehicle entering series production with this exact battery in the first quarter. The breakthrough in solid-state batteries seems to have been achieved.

Last year, Donut Labs presented an electric motor at CES that shook up the market. The performance figures made a bold statement. Now the same is happening in the battery segment, but this time without a hole in the middle. The Donut Battery. It has been designed as a universal solid-state battery platform and is being developed, industrialized, and scaled by Donut Labs. Just like the motor, its first use will be in an electric motorcycle.

The Donut Battery achieves a gravimetric energy density of around 400 Wh/kg. Current production-ready lithium-ion batteries typically range from about 150 to 250 Wh/kg. The key factor is that these values are achieved not in the lab, but in real production vehicles.

Equally practical is the charging behavior. The battery is designed to allow a full charge in about five minutes. These charging times shift electromobility from the realm of planning back into the realm of spontaneous use, regardless of vehicle class or application. For the Verge TS Pro motorcycle, this means 350 km (~217 miles) on a single battery charge, which takes less than 10 minutes. A long-range version is expected to offer a range of 600 km (~410 miles). Delivery with the new battery will begin in the first quarter of the year.

Service Life Beyond Today's Standards

A key difference from existing battery technologies lies in aging. The Donut Battery is structurally designed for up to 100,000 charging cycles. Even conservatively interpreted, this means a lifespan that can outlast vehicles, machines, or energy storage systems multiple times over. For fleets, trailers, platform vehicles, or stationary storage, this is not only technically relevant but economically crucial.

Thanks to the completely solid electrolyte, the traditional fire and thermal runaway risk of lithium-ion cells is eliminated. The battery is considered intrinsically safe, without relying on complex cooling or protection systems. Safety here is achieved not through additional technology, but through the chemistry itself.

Material Strategy Instead of Raw Material Dependency

The Donut Battery does not rely on lithium-ion chemistry. It is based on globally available, non-critical materials and is positioned as completely "green." This not only reduces geopolitical dependencies but also enables stable supply chains and long-term predictable costs. However, the manufacturer has not yet disclosed the exact composition.

While conventional batteries lose significant capacity at sub-zero temperatures, the Donut Battery retains more than 99 percent of its capacity even at −30 °C (−22 °F). This makes it suitable for applications previously achievable only with large reserves or additional heating systems.

Perhaps the most important point is that despite higher performance data, the Donut Battery costs less than today's lithium-ion batteries—and this applies immediately, not after years of scaling. This factor precisely makes the technology so attractive for OEMs.

Broad Application Instead of Flagship Project

The first series application is in the Verge TS Pro motorcycle from Verge Motorcycles, but the battery is already being used in smart trailers by Cova Power. Integration into an EV skateboard platform from Watt Electric Vehicle Company will follow shortly, providing vehicle manufacturers worldwide with direct access to the technology.

The Donut Battery is not a promise for 2030 but an industrial product in use. Its significance lies not in improving a single vehicle but in eliminating the battery as a bottleneck in electromobility. (mr)