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Yes—but only in the narrow sense supported by the test. VTT reported charging a single 26-Ah Donut Lab cell from empty to 80% in 4.5 minutes at an extreme 11C rate, or approximately 286 amps. The same testing reportedly reached full charge in just over seven minutes under the broader test conditions.
That is meaningful evidence that the tested cell can accept an exceptionally high charging rate. It is not proof that a complete car can charge in 4.5 minutes, nor does it independently confirm Donut Lab’s claims of approximately 400 Wh/kg, 100,000-cycle life, unusually broad temperature performance, low cost, or mass-production readiness.
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The fairest current verdict is promising but incomplete. The fast-charge result should not be dismissed simply because critics have questioned the battery’s chemistry and specifications. But one cell-level charging test does not validate the entire commercial story—or establish that the technology is a scam.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteWhat VTT actually tested
VTT’s first reported measurement concerned a single 26-Ah battery cell, not a vehicle battery pack. The test used a constant-current/constant-voltage charging protocol up to approximately 4.3 volts. The cell was discharged at 1C before and after charging so the testers could assess how much capacity remained available.
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Donut Lab commissioned the work, and VTT reported the measurement. That makes the result useful independent laboratory evidence for the specific charging behavior tested, but it does not mean VTT validated every specification on Donut Lab’s product page.
According to Donut Lab’s announcement and reporting on the test, the cell reached:
- 80% charge in 4.5 minutes at 11C
- Full charge in just over seven minutes in the same broad test context
- Approximately 80% in 9.5 minutes and full charge in just over 12 minutes at 5C
The test used controlled laboratory conditions and passive cooling configurations. It was not a simulation of a road car repeatedly arriving at a public charger, charging its pack, and returning to normal driving.
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What does 11C mean?
C-rate expresses charging or discharging current relative to a battery’s nominal capacity. At 1C, a 26-Ah cell would theoretically charge at 26 amps and take roughly one hour to charge fully under idealized conditions. At 11C, the arithmetic implies a current of about:
26 Ah × 11 = 286 amps
That is an exceptionally aggressive rate. A 5C rate corresponds roughly to 12 minutes for a complete charge; 11C corresponds to about 5.5 minutes in idealized arithmetic. Reaching 80% in 4.5 minutes is therefore broadly consistent with the reported rate.
C-rate is not the same thing as the charging speed a driver will experience. It describes what happens at the cell. Vehicle charging speed also depends on pack voltage, the number and arrangement of cells, battery-management limits, temperature, the charger, the charging curve, and the infrastructure supplying power.
The approximate power requirement is enormous
Using the reported current and cell-voltage range, the instantaneous electrical power at the cell level would be approximately:
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- 286 amps × 3.6 volts = about 1.03 megawatts
- 286 amps × 4.3 volts = about 1.23 megawatts
This is an estimate, not the exact power requirement of a production vehicle. Cell voltage changes during charging, and a real system has losses in wiring, power electronics, connectors, cooling equipment, and the charger.
A vehicle pack contains many cells. Depending on its architecture, those cells may be arranged to raise pack voltage while preserving or increasing pack capacity. The resulting pack power could be far beyond what an ordinary public charger can provide. It would require high-current conductors, compatible connectors, balancing controls, substantial power electronics, and a charging site capable of handling the demand.
In other words, “11C at the cell” does not mean “a car adds 80% of its range in 4.5 minutes at any fast charger.” It means the cell accepted a very high rate under a defined laboratory test.
The thermal result is the crucial qualification
The test’s heat data make the result more informative—and less simple—than the headline suggests.
At 11C with two heat sinks, the cell reportedly reached 80% in 4.5 minutes while its surface temperature rose to approximately 63°C. In a separate 11C configuration using a single heat sink, the cell reached VTT’s 90°C safety cutoff, and the test had to be interrupted.
That matters because Donut Lab has promoted the battery’s ability to operate without conventional active cooling. “No active cooling” does not mean “no thermal management.” Heat sinks are thermal-management hardware, and their size, contact quality, placement, and ability to reject heat affect the result.
Nor does a cell-level passive heat-sink test establish that a complete pack would need no cooling system. A vehicle pack introduces cell spacing, modules, enclosures, busbars, sensors, structural components, ambient-weather variation, and uneven heat paths. Repeated charging can also produce a very different thermal condition from one isolated charge.
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The 90°C interruption does not disprove the fast-charge result. It shows that heat remains a meaningful constraint in at least one maximum-rate configuration. To judge practical performance, readers would need repeated charging curves, internal and surface temperatures, ambient conditions, cooling details, and results after aging.
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Why the result matters if it scales
If similar performance could be reproduced across production cells and integrated into a safe, affordable pack, the benefits would be significant:
- Less time spent charging.
- Potentially smaller batteries for applications where charging access is convenient.
- Higher vehicle and fleet utilization.
- Possible advantages for motorcycles, drones, specialty vehicles, and industrial equipment.
A motorcycle or other compact vehicle may be a more practical early application than a large passenger car because its battery contains less total energy and therefore requires less total charging power. Even so, a vehicle demonstration would not automatically prove every cell-level claim. It would still be necessary to establish the battery’s actual chemistry, capacity, durability, safety, and production consistency.
What the VTT test did not prove
| Claim | What the available evidence establishes |
|---|---|
| Approximately 400 Wh/kg | Donut Lab markets this as a capability, but the first charging report did not independently establish it. |
| 100,000-cycle life | Donut Lab says the battery is designed for this figure; the reviewed material does not show an independent 100,000-cycle demonstration. |
| Operation from approximately −30°C to above 100°C | These are company claims not validated by the first fast-charge report. |
| Low-cost or lithium-ion cost competitiveness | A charging test cannot establish material cost, manufacturing yield, supply-chain cost, or production economics. |
| Non-lithium or specific alternative chemistry | Charging behavior alone does not chemically identify the electrolyte, electrodes, or other materials. |
| Mass-production readiness | A single-cell laboratory result does not show manufacturing scale, yield, quality control, certification, or customer delivery. |
| Vehicle-pack performance | The initial announcement explicitly cautioned that the test did not directly simulate cell behavior in a battery pack. |
Energy density
Donut Lab’s public battery page markets energy density of up to approximately 400 Wh/kg. The first VTT charging report did not independently confirm that number.
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Cycle life
The phrase “designed for 100,000 cycles” needs context before it can be compared with another battery. A credible cycle-life result should specify the depth of discharge, charge and discharge rates, temperature, rest periods, end-of-life capacity threshold, sample size, and whether calendar aging was included.
Without those details, 100,000 cycles is a company design claim rather than an independently demonstrated result. A battery that survives 100,000 shallow cycles under gentle conditions is not equivalent to one that survives 100,000 full cycles at high charging power in a vehicle.
Chemistry and the solid-state label
The fast-charge measurement demonstrates how the tested cell behaved electrically and thermally. It does not, by itself, prove that the cell uses an all-solid electrolyte or establish that it is free of conventional lithium-ion components.
Donut Lab later announced a charge-retention test intended to counter suggestions that the device was actually a supercapacitor. The company said a cell charged to approximately 50% and monitored for 10 days retained battery-like charge behavior before discharge measurement. That may address the narrower supercapacitor theory, but it is not the same as complete independent chemical characterization.
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The available evidence therefore supports a careful distinction: the cell appears to have shown battery-like charge retention according to Donut Lab’s announced test, while the exact chemistry and the “all-solid-state” characterization remain separate questions requiring direct, independently reviewed evidence.
Why some critics called it a scam
The word scam is an allegation made by critics, not an established conclusion in the available evidence.
Electrek reported that SVOLT chairman Yang Hongxin described Donut Lab’s published parameters as contradictory and called the technology a scam. The underlying concern is understandable: very high energy density, extremely long cycle life, exceptionally rapid charging, broad temperature performance, and low cost are each demanding goals. Achieving all of them at once would require unusually strong evidence.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchTransport Evolved reported further criticism from battery experts. The discussion included questions about whether the reported voltage curve resembles conventional high-nickel lithium-ion cells, whether a feature in an expansion curve is consistent with a graphite anode, and whether the reported capacity and cell mass support the advertised energy density.
Those points should not be collapsed into a single claim. A voltage curve or expansion feature is an observation or interpretation; concluding from it that a cell must use a particular chemistry is a further step. The strength of that conclusion depends on the quality of the underlying data and whether alternative explanations have been ruled out.
Donut Lab’s June 9, 2026 statement said the company stands behind its technical data, that the circulating criticism recycles previously addressed allegations, and that some critics do not have current access to the development program. The company also disputed the relevance of comments from former Nordic Nano employee Lauri Peltola and said Nordic Nano had filed a police report concerning Peltola’s activities.
Those are company assertions, not adjudicated findings. A police report does not establish wrongdoing, and a company denial does not independently verify technical specifications. Both the technical criticism and the rebuttal should remain attributed.
Donut Lab’s later announced tests
Donut Lab’s press-release chronology lists additional tests after the initial February 23 announcement:
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- February 23, 2026: charging speed and thermal behavior.
- March 2, 2026: high-temperature performance.
- March 9, 2026: charge retention intended to distinguish the cell from a supercapacitor.
- March 16, 2026: a special battery-pack performance test.
- March 23, 2026: a damaged-cell safety test.
More tests are useful, but the existence of company-announced tests does not automatically validate every headline specification. The relevant questions are what each test measured, how many samples were used, what protocol was followed, whether complete reports and raw curves were published, and whether independent parties can reproduce the findings.
Cell result versus vehicle result
A reader seeing “80% in 4.5 minutes” may reasonably imagine a car pulling into a charging station and receiving 80% of its battery capacity in that time. The VTT result does not establish that scenario.
A production vehicle would additionally require:
- A charger and site capable of supplying the necessary pack power.
- A high-voltage architecture, suitable busbars, cables, connectors, and contactors.
- Battery-management software capable of controlling thousands of cells safely.
- Cell balancing and fault detection.
- Pack-level thermal control.
- Safety certification and protection against crash, overcharge, and damaged-cell events.
- A charging curve that remains useful as the pack approaches a high state of charge.
- Repeated-cycle validation under real ambient and driving conditions.
The distinction between cell C-rate, pack charging power, charger rating, and actual vehicle charging speed is essential. Even if every cell in a pack could accept 11C, the vehicle might still be limited by its charger, wiring, thermal system, grid connection, or software.
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What evidence would settle the controversy?
The most persuasive next evidence would be transparent, repeatable testing across more than one selected prototype cell:
- Independent energy-density measurement: Publish cell mass, usable energy, voltage limits, test rate, and full accounting of what is included in the mass.
- Complete chemistry characterization: Identify the electrolyte and electrode system through direct analytical methods, with enough information for independent scientific review.
- Long-duration cycle testing: Report depth of discharge, rates, temperatures, end-of-life definition, sample size, and calendar-aging results.
- Pack-level fast charging: Show charging data from a representative module and complete pack, including current, voltage, temperatures, cooling power, and safety limits.
- Repeated high-rate testing: Demonstrate how several cells perform after repeated 11C charging—or explain the lower rate that is intended for normal use.
- Realistic thermal testing: Include hot and cold ambient conditions, cell spacing, enclosure design, and sustained charging rather than only a short laboratory run.
- Production samples: Test cells taken from a normal manufacturing run rather than only hand-selected development units.
- Independent safety certification: Provide results for abuse, overcharge, crush, puncture, thermal propagation, and damaged-cell scenarios.
- Commercial evidence: Show customer deliveries, warranties, field data, manufacturing yield, and consistent specifications over time.
Is the battery available to ordinary car buyers?
Not in the normal retail sense shown by the available information. Donut Lab’s public battery page presents the platform as available for development programs and directs interested parties to contact the company. It does not establish a standardized consumer battery pack with a published price, capacity options, warranty, delivery schedule, or retail checkout.
The commercial story is currently more relevant to OEMs and technology developers than to ordinary car buyers. Donut Lab lists vehicle, trailer, drone, and defence applications. It says it supplies battery, in-wheel motors, and software for Cova Power’s smart-trailer platform; Cova Power’s official site is covapower.com. Donut Lab also lists tactical buggy and drone development with ESOX Group, whose official site is esoxgroup.com.
These development and integration relationships may demonstrate commercial interest, but they do not by themselves verify every battery specification or prove that a mass-market car using the technology is available.
Verdict
The strongest defensible statement is precise: VTT reported that a single 26-Ah Donut Lab cell reached 80% charge in 4.5 minutes at 11C, approximately 286 amps, under controlled laboratory conditions. That is a notable fast-charging result, and the reported full-charge time of just over seven minutes makes the result technically significant.
But the test also exposed the importance of thermal management: one 11C configuration reached a 90°C cutoff. It did not prove a car could charge in 4.5 minutes, establish pack performance, confirm approximately 400 Wh/kg or 100,000 cycles, identify the complete chemistry, or demonstrate low-cost high-volume production.
Critics have raised serious questions, and Donut Lab rejects them. The evidence currently supports neither an unqualified “breakthrough proven” verdict nor an unqualified “scam” verdict. The fast-charge claim has meaningful laboratory support; the broader commercial battery story still requires independent, transparent, pack-level and long-term validation.
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