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Hi, I'm Marco, co-founder and CEO of Donut Lab. At Donut Lab, we wake up every day with one obsession. Make electric vehicles so good that combustion becomes irrelevant. Not just greener or almost as good, but better in every way.
Last year at CES, we introduced donut motors. And they weren't just a concept or promise. They were a breakthrough in physics and economics. More torque and power per kilogram, but also more torque and power per dollar. A lot of people didn't believe it, but today those motors are real. They are used in everyday vehicles from motorcycles to trucks and more than 100 OEMs globally are currently in the process of upgrading their product road maps.
And that brought us to the next problem. Because even with a revolutionary motor, the entire EV experience is still limited by one component, the battery. Range, charge time, cost, weight, and lifetime. All limitations. So today we are doing what we did with the motor. We are changing the baseline. We are announcing a new battery that reshapes the economics and the experience of electric mobility forever. It's solid state and it's going to transform the industry. And once you see what it enables, combustion doesn't just look outdated, it looks unnecessary.
Before we show you the battery, we want to show you something else. What happened after we revealed Donut Motors in 2025? Let's watch a short film with some of our early partners building exciting products with donut motors.
The Watt EV platform technology coupled with the donut lab in wheel technology opens up so many possibilities to do things quickly with technical benefits that we haven't previously been able to exploit. It's a really exciting future working together with donut lab.
For our next model, the AR5, we're going to use the Donut Lab 12in donut motor. As well as being light in weight, it has a hollow core and that allows us to have the load path going straight through the center of the motor. This is very efficient structurally and simplifies our design.
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The Speedster has four 17in donut lab motors, one in each corner. They're super lightweight, very dense in power. It creates extra space for us to do interesting things with the architecture. So having that extra power, having those lightweight motors in the wheel, and having that ability to really tune the dynamics in a way that people haven't experienced before is going to be really interesting and we're excited to have people try the cap.
So today we are doing what we did with the motor. We are changing the baseline of battery. For the past decade, the industry has been promising the same thing. Solid state battery. You've seen the headlines and you've seen the prototypes. You've heard next year for as long as you can remember.
In theory, solid state fixes the biggest limitations of lithium ion. Energy density, charging speed, lifetime, and safety. But here's the reality. Until today, there are no vehicles in production using solidstate batteries. Not one, not at scale, and not shipping to customers. And it's not because people are not trying. It's because every solid state battery that's been coming soon comes with compromises. Some promise high energy density, but they cannot charge fast. Others promise fast charging, but cycle life falls apart. And some promise to improve safety. But the costs are ridiculous. Some of them can even be built today, but only in limited formats, limited volumes, and limited use cases. So, you don't get a breakthrough. You get a new tradeoff. And trade-offs are exactly what keep EVs from becoming obviously better than combustion. To make combustion irrelevant, electric has to be better in every way that matters.
So we ask a different question. Can we build an all solid state battery pack with no compromises that can actually go into production vehicles? That's the challenge and today we are ready to answer it. Today Donut Lab is presenting a no compromise all solid state battery. Not hybrid, not semi-olid, and not solid state-ish, but all solid state. Engineered as a complete battery system, pack electronics, thermal, and safety, and built to scale. And it does something no one else has done. is the world's only solid state battery pack that combines all of the features that the industry has been forced to trade against each other. Ultra high energy density, the fastest charging time, practically unlimited cycles, extreme safety, and lower price than lithium ion. And not for one premium car or a niche application, but for every use case where batteries are used, from two wheelers to cars to drones to robotics and to grid storage.
And there's one more part because performance alone isn't the full story anymore. The battery is also 100% green, made from materials that are found everywhere, not rare materials and not geopolitically constrainted materials, which in today's world is more important than ever before.
Now, I know that's a lot to take in because if you followed solid state announcements from the big players, you have already seen the pattern. amazing specs tied to timelines like 2030 and beyond. And when you compare what's been promised for the next decade, the truth is donut battery surpasses what most of the industry is still planning to deliver years from now. So the obvious question is are we shipping this in 2029 or 2030? No. These batteries are available today. Not just available for OEMs to look at in the lab and not just available to prototype with, but available for real production. In fact, today we are making history because Donut Battery is the world's first solid state battery in production vehicles shipping to customers.
And to tell you more about the first vehicle in the world enabled by a true solid state battery pack, I'd like to welcome Spencer from Verge Motorcycles.
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Thank you, Marco. At Verge, we do not follow trends. We shape the world of motorcycleycling by using technology that doesn't just improve the ride, it transforms it. Our mission has always been simple, to create the world's best electric motorcycles. And proof of that is the Verge TS Pro. It delivers more performance and more real world range than any other electric motorcycle on the road today. And in 2025, we didn't just claim that. We proved it by breaking the official Guinness World Record for a longest journey by an electric motorcycle on a single charge. 350 km real world riding, one charge.
Then just a few months ago at AGMA 2025, we revealed the next generation of the Verge TS Pro. More than 100 improvements, some small, but some truly category defining. Take our new motor, 50% lighter while delivering the same uncompromising level of performance, 1,000 new meters. A new double display Verge dashboard, transforming the cockpit experience for all of our riders. Everything sharper, everything smarter, everything more refined. But that wasn't the full story. We deliberately kept one little secret. Well, I wouldn't call it a little secret, more of a historydefining one. Because as of today, the Verge TS Pro is officially the world's first production vehicle powered by a solidstate battery from Donut Lab. Let that sink in for a moment. All Verge TS Pro motorcycles will be delivered with a solidstate battery pack. A motorcycle that already redefined its category has now taken the biggest leap forward for electric mobility and what it's been waiting for.
The world famous 35inut charge time is now under 10 minutes. Yes, under 10 minutes. In fact, we found ourselves designing a slower charging speed so riders can plug in and actually have time to drink a latte and enjoy it instead of downing an espresso and rushing back to their bike. And that 350 km real world range that proudly stays a staple on the TS Pro. But if 350 km is not enough for you, then we have another announcement to make. A new long range variant delivering up to 600 kilometers of real world range. Yes, that's nearly double the range that broke the world record. I guess we can truly say goodbye to range anxiety. And there's another breakthrough that matters just as much as charging speed and the range. These batteries are designed to last the lifetime of the vehicle. No need to baby the battery. No need to worry about charging too fast, too often, or too full. Run it to zero. Charge it to 100% every time. Just ride.
And for everyone waiting in the queue for a TS Pro, both in the United States and in Europe, we are automatically upgrading your order to the new generation of the TS Pro, the world's first motorcycle produced with a solid state battery. If you do want to upgrade to the longrange version, send us an email and our team will get back to you and take care of the rest. This is Verge motorcycles. Monaco, back to you.
Thanks, Spencer. In addition to upgrading Verge TS Pro with Donut Battery, Verge is also the exclusive channel partner of donut battery technology for the two-wheeler industry. This means that global OEMs producing more than 60 million motorcycles every year now have access to this transformative technology as well.
So let's go a little deeper into the details of this new technology. Let's start with energy density because it's the foundation. Energy density defines range. It defines weight. With donut battery, we set a new baseline, 400 W hours per kilogram. And that number matters because it changes the design envelope. It means one of two things. You can build an EV with dramatically more range at the same weight, or you can build the same range vehicle with a much lighter and smaller pack. And when you reduce pack size and weight, everything gets better. efficiency, performance, handling, and cost.
Now, let's talk about the thing every EV customer asks about first, charging. The dream has always been charging that feels like refueling. But until now, this has not been possible. With Donut Battery, it becomes the new normal. This pack charges from zero to full in as low as 5 minutes. As low as 5 minutes. and still built for longevity. Because the real breakthrough is fast charging you can do every single day for years without the battery wearing out. And this is the part that quietly changes everything because lithium ion has a life. Yes, you can manage it, you can protect it, but it ages. Donut battery is designed differently. It's designed for 100,000 cycles. Now, that's not just better cycle life. That's an entirely different category. And when cycle life stops being the limiter, it transforms the total cost of ownership. It transforms residual value. It transforms fleets, logistics, and grid storage economics because the battery is no longer the constraint.
Now, here's a limitation almost everybody lives with whether they talk about it or not. Most batteries come with an asterisk. They perform well until temperatures swing. Cold weather steals usable energy and heat brings performance loss and faster degradation. And if you build vehicles for the real world, that matters because the real world is not a lab. It's winter mornings, its desert highways, its heavy loads, and it's hard duty cycles. So we engineered donut battery to remove that asterisk. And at minus30° C, donut battery retains over 99% of its capacity. And if you push in the opposite direction, heating the cells beyond 100° C, that's 200 Fahrenheit, the result stays the same. Over 99% capacity retention. This is incredible. From deep freeze to extreme heat, the performance of donut battery stays virtually untouched, delivering consistent power and consistent range across extreme climates and demanding use cases.
Now, compare that to traditional lithium ion. At 60 to 80° C, the risk of thermal runaway rises dramatically. cells can become unstable and ignite. Which brings us to the next important aspect, safety. Everyone in the industry knows the truth. When things go wrong with lithium ion, they can go very wrong. Donut battery, on the other hand, is designed so that when it's damaged, it won't ignite and burst into flames. And that removes one of the biggest risks historically associated with EVs and any large battery systems. For OEMs, this means something very concrete. Safer products and lower risk of recalls. And safety isn't just about passing a test. It's about building trust in customers, in regulators, in insurers, and in the people who put these batteries into the world at scale.
Now the question everybody asks next is okay but what does it cost? Because if it's amazing but expensive it stays niche and niche doesn't make combustion irrelevant. So we made a decision early. This cannot be a luxury technology. It has to be lower price than lithium ion. Not someday and not as a future promise, but structurally and from day one. Lower cost at the pack level and lower complexity and a path designed for mass adaptation. Because price isn't just affordability. Price determines how fast the world transitions.
Now, there's another reason this matters. Because most battery announcements are designed for one narrow segment, one format, one platform, one application. But the world doesn't run on one segment. Batteries now power everything. So we built donut battery to be platform technology, not one of not just high-end automotive or concept vehicles, but everywhere batteries are used. two-wheelers, passenger vehicles, fleets, drones, robotics, marine, and even stationary storage.
We heard from Spencer how Verge is bringing donut battery to the two-wheeler world. So, the next question is obvious. What about automotive? How long until we see donut battery in cars? And the answer is not long. Because at Donut Lab, we're not building a battery for one vehicle. We are building a battery platform designed to fit into many vehicle programs across many OEMs. And to accelerate that, we are already integrating donut battery into real automotive architectures with our partners. One of the first is what electric. Together, we've been developing a lightweight electric skateboard platform, a modular foundation that can support a wide range of vehicle types on a shared underlying architecture. We already announced that this new platform uses the latest donut motors and today we are announcing the next step. This platform also comes with donut battery built in. OEMs can now fasttrack to build vehicles that were not even realistic before today because the biggest constraints have finally now been removed. And the best part is this skateboard platform is available to OEMs today. So if you're building a car that needs to redefine its category, this may be the fastest way to get there. And that's the new vehicle skateboard platform with donut motors, donut OS, and the donut battery.
This is part of a broader rollout. Donut lab technology integrated through multiple partners into multiple vehicle platforms across multiple categories. For example, heavy transport. A few months ago, we announced Kova Power, a joint venture with Aola Group to bring electrified smart trailers to ground transportation. Kova Power trailers are powered by Donut Lab's compact and lightweight C motor family. and they make it possible to electrify existing trailers in just a few hours. And the impact is massive. Up to 54% savings in diesel consumption and up to 40% lower total energy costs. That's a multi-trillion dollar savings opportunity globally. Europe has more than three million trucks and the US has another three million. And Kova Power is uniquely positioned to electrify them affordably and at scale. And yes, you guessed it. Starting today, Kova Power smart trailers are also equipped with the new Donut solid state battery.
Which brings us to the final piece. Because when you scale batteries from motorcycles to cars to trucks to the entire world, one question matters as much as performance. What is this transition actually built from? So, let's talk about materials. Because if battery materials are scarce or controlled by a few places, this transition slows down and the world stays stuck with combustion longer. And that's why donut battery is built from globally abundant materials. Materials you can source close to where you built and close to where you use. It makes batteries scalable, resilient, and it makes it possible to build these batteries in Europe or in the US with materials that are sourced locally, which in today's complex world is a huge benefit.
So when you put it all together, this is what today is really about. We are not announcing a battery that's a little better. We are announcing a battery that removes the reasons people keep hesitating. Range stops being the concern. Charging stops being the concern. Decradation stops being the concern. And temperature stops being the concern. Safety cost and the supply chain stop being concerns. And when those concerns disappear, combustion doesn't have an argument left. And that's when the transition becomes inevitable.
If you zoom out, you will see what we really building here at Donut Lab. Because last year, we reinvented the motor. And a few months ago, we reinvented EV development with Donut OS. And today, we reinvented the battery. We don't just make components and software, but we are also re-imagining the control units that make it all work as one system. motor control, battery control, and real-time intelligence built together, validated together, and designed to scale. Because the future doesn't need another part, it needs a vertically integrated technology platform that helps reimagine what's possible.
So if you're an OEM, a builder, a team with a bold idea, if you want to create vehicles that redefine their categories, we want to build with you. Motor, software, battery, control units. You can use these incredible technologies independently, but together they create something much bigger than the sum of the parts. We call it the donut platform. And with this battery announcement, it's finally complete. This is the moment combustion stops competing and starts becoming irrelevant. Thank you for your time and welcome to What's Next.
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