Yang Hongxin, chairman of Svolt, recently said in an interview that Donut Lab is a fraud for its claim that its all-solid-state batteries are ready for mass production, according to multiple Chinese news outlet reports.

“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.” Yang said.

Yang also pointed out that it is “too early for the industrialization of all-solid-state batteries,” and criticized the excessive hype in the industry and capital markets.

At the CES 2026 this month, Finnish startup Donut Lab unexpectedly announced the launch of the world’s first mass-producible all-solid-state battery with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, can be fully charged in 5 minutes without limiting charging to 80%, exhibits minimal capacity fade over its lifetime of up to 100,000 cycles, and maintains over 99% capacity retention rate within a temperature range of -30°C to 100°C.

The company also claimed to have GWh level mass production capabilities and can supply consumers worldwide.

It’s worth noting that a Donut Lab employee previously stated that the core materials and production processes of the battery could not be disclosed, and that specific technical details would not be published in papers, as this is the company’s proprietary technology. This battery also does not contain rare earth elements or lithium, and it uses a completely different technological approach from traditional all-solid-state batteries. And the cost is comparable to that of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Furthermore, the employee revealed that Donut Lab’s current production capacity is approximately 1 GWh, with plans to increase capacity to 20 to 30 GWh by the beginning of next year.

According to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) developed by NASA in the 1970s that measures the maturity of a technology from laboratory to mass production at nine levels, Donut Lab’s all-solid-state battery is entering the commercial verification stage. The first two major stages are scientific verification and engineering verification.

Currently, no company’s all-solid-state battery has entered the commercial verification stage.

For example, Svolt completed the development of its first-generation semi-solid-state battery (SSSB) cells in November last year, achieving an energy density of 270 Wh/kg. The mass production will start in 2026, according to the company.

Svolt is now working on second-generation semi-solid-state cells targeting an energy density of 400 Wh/kg. Under the new Chinese government standard, the SSSB name is prohibited from being used to avoid confusion, and those batteries are now called “liquid–solid” state.

Other automakers and battery manufacturers, such as Toyota, are targeting mass production of solid-state batteries by 2030, BYD is targeting batch demonstration vehicle assembly by 2027, and CATL is targeting small batch production by 2027. They all expect large-scale mass production will not occur before 2030.

Donut Lab is based in Helsinki and is a subsidiary of the Finnish motorbike manufacturer Verge Motorcycles. Last year at CES 2025, the company unveiled a revolutionary wheel-hub motor with 630 kW. In November, DonutLab unveiled DonutOS, the software platform that aims to revolutionize nothing less than “the conception, development, and realization of electric vehicles,” according to the Finnish company.

“After a long wait, we finally get to present the next generation version of the most important component of our technology platform. Its performance capability is out of this world. Our donut motor has now also expanded into an entire motor family, which includes size options and performance classes for various uses,” said Marko Lehtimäki, CEO of Donut Lab, at CES last year, as reported by Electrive.

About Svolt

Svolt originated from the power battery division of Great Wall Motor (GWM), and has been conducting preliminary research on power batteries since 2012. In 2018, it was completely spun off from GWM, and officially renamed to Svolt Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Headquartered in Jiangsu, China, the company specializes in the research and manufacturing of automotive power battery materials, cells, modules, battery management system, and energy storage products.

Source: Mydrivers, Sohu

Updated 2026/01/20 23:36 – Added industry context on solid-state battery mass production schedule expectations