Will This ‘Miracle’ Battery Finally Change Your Mind About EVs?

Some day I will own an BYD with an solid state battery. Until then I can only dream.

Will This ‘Miracle’ Battery Finally Change Your Mind About EVs?

A Finnish startup claims to have perfected a revolutionary new battery. Whether the hype is to be believed, solid-state technology is coming—and it’s a potential disruptor for the entire EV industry.

By Dan Neil, WSJ

March 27, 2026 8:00 pm ET

I hate being right all the time.

For the past 30 years I have championed the adoption of electric cars—not because the technology was perfect but because it offered clear advantages over the fossil-fueled alternative. Among those is what’s known as the economic security argument. To wit: The continued reliance on oil leaves American consumers vulnerable to spikes in the price of gasoline—as might be expected when, for example, the Strait of Hormuz becomes a war zone.

Now that I think about it, I might have a kind of bunker mentality when it comes to gas prices. I currently own two electric cars, which I charge at home, with energy from my solar panels and home battery pack. After all, this isn’t my first Middle East crisis.

But I feel zero vindication. EV haters were certainly not wrong to say the technology was underbaked, overpriced and often inconvenient. All too right, in my experience. Range anxiety was real. For drivers accustomed to the splash-and-dash of gasoline, sitting around for a half-hour at a public charger looked like an act of madness.

Always at the heart of these discontents was the battery—or batteries, because there has been a succession of them, an alchemist’s closet of energy-storing potions in weirdly shaped bottles. None have been nearly good enough to achieve mass-market acceptance. But that isn’t keeping people from trying.

Meet Donut Lab, a Finnish startup that claims to have created the first production-ready solid-state battery (SSB) for electric vehicle production. The talk of the CES 2026 in Las Vegas, in January, Donut Lab says its battery has an energy density of 400Wh per kilogram—roughly twice that of typical lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in production. The Donut batt can charge to full in five minutes, says the company; has a practically unlimited lifespan (100,000 charging cycles); is unaffected by heat and cold (-30C to 100C); and contains no rare earth, precious metals or flammable liquid electrolytes. With all that, Donut Lab says it will be cheaper to produce than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

White GAC M8 minivan with a large grille.

China’s GAC Group, which produces the flagship M8 (seen here), has targeted 2026 for testing its first all-solid-state battery vehicle. GAC Group

It’s fair to say the entire car-making world is deeply skeptical. How did an obscure startup in Finland beat Toyota, Stellantis and the entire nation of China to the holy grail of energy storage? Early polling heavily favors they didn’t.

“If I’ve learned one thing,” said Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of batteries and sustainability, “it’s that most ‘eye-popping’ announcements are more buzz than substance.”

In February Donut Lab created a website called idonutbelieve.com to publish third-party testing results and technical documentation—“not to argue online and not to trade opinions,” said CEO and co-founder Marko Lehtimäki, “but to put measurable evidence in public view.”

“The resistance won’t disappear when we present the proof,” Lehtimäki said in a video presentation. “It will just intensify because this new technology is a threat to the established players in the industry.”

It sure would be. If, as a thought experiment, we plug Donut’s nominal values into the battery pack of a current-model year Tesla Model 3 RWD Long Range, for example, we get a midsize EV sedan with a nominal range of 870 miles, compared to 363 miles for the Donut-free version.

While we’re gedenken, imagine if the canceled Ford F-150 Lightning had a floor pan full of magic Donuts. All else remaining equal, the resulting range would pencil out to a bladder-busting 700 miles. But all things wouldn’t be equal, because solid-state batteries wouldn’t need the extravagant cooling systems required by NMCs. And, because the system would have double the voltage—800V—the wiring loom can use thinner, lighter wire. Between this and that, here and there, the Lightning might weigh as much as 1,000 pounds less with Donuts.

Imagine an electric pickup that could tow a boat from Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe; that could charge in the dead of winter in the time it takes for you to get back from the loo; a pickup that would never die. Would that be worth something to ya, Boyo?

Rest assured, SSBs are coming—if not from Donut Lab then somebody, and soon-ish. A report published in June 2025 by Vantage Market Research forecasts the global market for SSBs will grow from just over $1 billion in 2024 to $56 billion by 2035. But as for Donut Lab’s claims of being first, the world’s biggest battery maker begs to differ. This month the news broke that CATL, which commands nearly 40% of the global market, had filed a detailed patent application for solid-state batteries with the World Intellectual Property Organization, with a reported 500Wh density.

According to the outlet CarNewsChina, CATL has already begun rehearsing small-scale production. In February, the Chinese automaker FAW announced its initial vehicle integration of a “liquid-solid-state” lithium-rich manganese cell, also claiming 500 Wh/kg.

Robotic arms working on an assembly line with a gray vehicle at a FAW-Volkswagen factory.

Robots at an FAW vehicle-assembly line. Getty Images

If it seems like Chinese battery-makers are cramming for final exams, they are. In July regulators will publish new standards, including definitions for what constitutes a semisolid, a “solid-liquid” or all solid-state battery. A government-sponsored consortium formed in 2024 has been aiming for an orderly build-out of the supply chains by 2030, by which time SSB technology will have matured. But the recent outburst of innovation, combined with the heated rivalries among the nation’s battery makers, seems to be moving up the clock.

With Chinese interests reportedly claiming 44% of patents relating to the SSBs, the pace of global commercialization may be set by China and its trading partners. Given the geopolitical terrain, North American buyers may see their first solid-state BEVs badged as Toyotas. In October the Japanese giant announced plans for “the world’s first practical use of all-solid-state batteries in BEVs,” by 2027 or 2028. We’ll see. Toyota—one of the few legacy automakers developing the technology in-house—has been pursuing SSBs since 2010 but has missed a few self-imposed deadlines along the way.

It’s also possible the first SSBs we see will be made in the U.S.A. and arrive wrapped in German luxury. In November 2021, Mercedes-Benz announced a partnership with Massachusetts-based Factorial Energy. In September 2025, engineers fitted a Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan with cells from Factorial. The test car achieved a real-world range of 749 miles, reportedly with juice still left in it.

A few are pumping the brakes on SSBs. Speaking at this month’s China EV100 institute, Ouyang Minggao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cautioned against the “impetuous mentality” in China’s battery industry. While some models with SSBs will enter the testing phase late this year or next, Ouyang acknowledged, testing and mass production are very different matters.

In the meantime, Ouyang said, current LFP technology already meets the needs of most users, calling LFPs a “gift from heaven.” “Today’s LFP batteries can achieve a 1,000-kilometer range, are low-cost, and support 10-minute fast charging. What more is there to ask for?”

In their domestic market, both BYD and archrival Geely have debuted high-performance LFP super batteries capable of charging at up to 1,500 kW, or 1.5 megawatt. BYD says its premium sports wagon, the Denza Z9GT, can charge from 10% to 97% of battery capacity in nine minutes.

Two Verge TS Pro electric motorcycles, one red and one blue, parked outdoors.

Verge Motorcycles, powered by Donut Lab’s solid-state batteries. Verge Motorcycles

In very cold conditions (down to -30C) a full charge requires an additional three minutes, BYD says. Thus the company’s compelling strapline, “Ready in 5, full in 9, cold add 3.” Compare that to the strapline you’d have to write for the erstwhile VW ID. Buzz: “Ready in a half-hour, full in an hour, cold add forever.”

Unfortunately, megawatt charging will probably take its own sweet time reaching the U.S. markets. To use it, a vehicle needs to have a high-voltage battery system, something on the order of 800V; as well as high-capacity silicon-based semiconductors—switches—in the power electronics. That adds cost.

Also needed: a very big piece of charging equipment. With over 4,200 flash chargers already operating in the home market, BYD wants to add 20,000 more in China in 2026 and another 300 in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., most public charging infrastructure tops out around 350 kW.

As promised, the second Trump administration did throttle sales of EVs as well as investment in domestic battery manufacturing in 2025, prompting automakers and their battery partners to put on hold a number of giga-scale battery plants. Several, including Honda, canceled high-profile EV introductions, citing the ill-wind coming from Washington, D.C.

Arriving this year, the new BMW iX3 (left) boasts up to 400 miles of range. The LFP-powered BYD Denza Z9GT from China (right) claims nearly 650 miles of range.

BMW; BYD

But consumer demand is bouncing back, as is the demand for a better deal. Ford’s current Universal Electric Vehicle platform—designed to render a midsize EV pickup starting around $30,000 in 2027—will use LFP tech licensed from CATL. The licensing “allowed us an accelerated timeline to manufacture batteries ourselves in the U.S.,” said Charles Poon, vice president of Vehicle Hardware Engineering at Ford.

GM’s battery gurus are of largely the same mind. “Solid-state has been one or two years away for decades now,” Kelty said. “I’m confident other battery advancements will reach the market first, including our own lithium manganese rich chemistry, which achieves LFP-level costs but with 30 percent better energy density.”

For those wanting more, there’s always next year.