Donut Lab promised in January a revolutionary solid-state battery for motorcycles, but a YouTuber and 20 specialists discovered it was a conventional lithium battery. The fast charging and high energy density were smoke and mirrors. The startup sought million-dollar investment with a typical clean energy fraud: selling non-existent technology to capture public funds and from the unwary.
How They Sold a Pig in a Poke Tech 🧨
The specialists analyzed the battery and found standard lithium cells, with no solid electrolyte or ultra-fast charging capability. Donut Lab used terms like energy revolution and record density to hide that their prototype was a setup. The YouTuber and the 20 experts who uncovered the lie were not saints: some were competitors or paid by other interests. But that doesn't change the fact that the battery was fake.
The Business of Promising the Impossible (and Getting Paid) 💸
The best part of this story is not the fraud, but that Donut Lab's founders are already setting up another similar startup while the government wonders how to recover the millions in subsidies. Real solid-state batteries will arrive in a decade, but in the meantime, some prefer to live off technological fairy tales. The taxpayer foots the bill, and the magicians walk away with the cash.