A Complaint Casts Shadows on Donut Lab's Miraculous Batteries

In recent months, we have covered Donut Lab and its solid-state batteries on several occasions. The company, led by Marko Lehtimäki, announced earlier this year that it could provide the electric motorcycle company Verge Motorcycles with innovative batteries capable of surpassing any previous specifications regarding energy density, charging capacity, and lifespan. These statements were followed by periodic reports on the tests conducted by the VTT laboratory on cells supplied by Donut Lab itself, to demonstrate the truthfulness of such claims. However, these tests did not fully reveal the cards on the table, and now a complaint casts doubt on what has been revealed so far.

We learn this from the Finnish media outlet Helsingin Sanomat, which has published a report on the matter. According to the Scandinavian newspaper, Lauri Peltola, until recently CCO at Nordic Nano (Donut's technical partner), has filed a criminal complaint for false statements regarding the controversial solid-state batteries.

According to Peltola, Donut's promises and those of its CEO have gone beyond the actual capabilities of the company. The report also mentions internal communications between Donut and its technical partners, including CT-Coating, which should be the real manufacturer of the lithium cells in question. According to internal emails, the cells delivered for independent testing would relate to an abandoned project in favor of a more recent one, which is still in initial development. However, Lehtimäki claimed that his company was already ready for mass production.

After this story emerged, Donut Lab and Nordic Nano released a joint statement asserting that they "do not know the exact nature of the complaint" and deny having "committed any crime or deceived investors." They also described the complainant (presumably Peltola, although the statement does not explicitly name him) as "lacking the necessary knowledge of battery technology or a comprehensive view of the development work." The CEO of Nordic Nano, Esa Parjanen, intensifies the accusation, implying outright that this could be an act of revenge from Peltola, whose views were not shared by the company and who had no involvement in Nordic's battery project.