I don’t think anybody has a particular lead in solid-state batteries. There is still a lot of good materials-science coming out of many European and Asian countries. BYD has an edge in production, but so far many countries have been able to maintain automobile production by one means or another.
Sodium batteries are probably a solved problem, eclipsed by Lithium for light-weight applications, and limited by lack of compatibility with Lead-Acid and with Lithium. For home storage, there are small players available, but many people don’t want to make a massive investment in unknown technology for their home.
Ford in LatAm and middle-east is (IMHO) stupid enough to do this… here is an about $19k inexpensive Ford SUV, that is really a rebadged JMC Yusheng S330
(earned itself quite fast a reputation of a “turd / hard-pass” vehicle in the local markets - for its CVT-gearbox blowing up often as early as 2.000km.)
… but I am sure the powerpoint-deck of the Ford-MBA, promoting the idea was great …
Surprise! Donut Lab’s battery is a scam. Too bad, I’d been hoping for electric motorcycles that can do more than replace 125cc scooters and dirt bikes.
The summary seems to be that when the batteries were closely analyzed they showed voltage characteristics of high-nickel lithium-ion cells, which is different than what a solid-state battery would show. There was also expansion during different states of charge which matched a cell using a graphite anode, which is not possible with a sodium based solid-state battery.
I guess the takeaway is once again, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. When an individual, or especially a company that’s selling a product is slow to provide such it’s grounds for considerable skepticism.
Though I do want to add a reminder for all, taken from the last major paragraph (and a big thank you to @echoreply for linking it!) -
My biggest concern now is that this damages public trust in solid-state battery technology more broadly. I hope it doesn’t cool people on the technology, because solid-state batteries do appear to be genuinely, finally coming. Toyota has invested over $15 billion and targets production vehicles by 2027-2028. Samsung SDI has the world’s largest pilot solid-state production line and plans mass production by 2027. These are real programs from companies with real technical credibility. Solid-state is coming — just not from Donut Lab, and not with the impossible combination of specs they promised.
I agree w your cautionary quote, but I’ll offer the gentle counterpoint that every significant tech breakthrough is preceded by a hype / con artist with no real product trying to cash in and then cash out.
Then come the legit but not-quite-there products (Palm Pilot?) then finally the early adopter products (Blackberry?), and then the mainstream product (smartphone mobile computer) that every one of us is carrying everywhere today.
Donut’s con will put some few commentators and consumers off the idea of solid state batteries for a bit. But the people who matter at that stage, the scientists, engineers, and investors, will remain all in.
And people should also realize that, when real solid-state batteries really do hit the market, or even when the technology is fully mature, they probably won’t be as good as Donut was claiming. They’ll be better than current batteries in a number of ways, but not that good.
