The Artemis II mission successfully launched into space on April 1, at 6:35pm Eastern time, from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will take NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day trip around the moon. This mission is the first crewed Artemis flight and will lay the groundwork for future trips to the moon itself, the first flight with a crew onboard the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft system and our first foray into deep space since the Apollo program.
A few hours into their journey, and the astronauts could already see majestic views of our planet. However, the astronauts also reported a problem with their waste‑management system, which is the first real toilet installed on a deep-space mission. The astronauts thankfully have a backup option: Waste collection bags that Apollo crews had used and had previously discarded on the lunar surface.
The Orion spacecraft successfully separated from the upper stage of the rocket, and the "proximity operations" test is underway. The Artemis II astronauts are manually piloting Orion similarly to how they would if they were docking with another spacecraft. pic.twitter.com/RWW4RSyaoq
By 10:43PM Eastern, the Orion spacecraft carrying the four astronauts successfully separated from the upper stage of the Space Launch System rocket. Glover then started manually piloting the capsule to demonstrate and test how Orion would move and dock with the future lunar landers that will be built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. You can watch the events that happened within the first few hours of the mission below. The crew and their Orion capsule are expected to slash down into the Pacific Ocean on April 10.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/the-artemis-ii-mission-has-started-its-10-day-journey-around-the-moon-033412865.html?src=rss
Copper weighs 8.96 grams per cubic centimeter. Brass comes in at around 8.5. Those densities mean something when you’re holding a pencil for hours at a time, and Nicholas Hemingway has built an entire design philosophy around that fact. His clutch pencils are machined from solid metal bar stock rather than hollowed-out tubes or plastic barrels wrapped in metallic finishes. The result is a tool that sits differently in your hand, one that uses its own mass to reduce the pressure you need to apply to the page. Hemingway calls it a “gravity-feed” approach, where the weight of the copper body does the work, allowing for longer, more comfortable creative sessions without the hand fatigue that comes from gripping too hard or pressing too firmly.
The 10th anniversary collection includes three pencils, each one a celebration of a decade spent refining manual lathe craftsmanship. The 5.6mm Copper and Brass Hybrid is the heaviest at 58 grams, designed for shading and life drawing, with a built-in lead sharpener in the push button. The 2mm Precision series comes in brass or copper, each weighing around 30 grams, and is aimed at technical drafting and fine-line illustration. Hemingway ships the brass version with an HB lead and the copper version with a 2B lead (the 5.6mm version gets the darkest 5B lead), a pairing he uses in his own studio to avoid having to swap leads mid-workflow. Both are standard clutch formats, fully compatible with any lead brand you prefer.
The clutch mechanism is simple, proven, and deliberately old-fashioned. Press the top button to release the jaws, advance or retract the lead, then release the button to lock it in place. There are no springs to fatigue, no ratcheting internals to gum up with graphite dust, and no plastic components to crack under pressure. The 5.6mm version includes a sharpening chamber machined directly into the push button, a detail that keeps the pencil self-sufficient without requiring a separate pocket sharpener. The mechanism works identically whether you’re using the factory-supplied HB or a softer 6B lead you’ve swapped in yourself. Hemingway designed these pencils to accept any standard 2mm or 5.6mm lead on the market, which means you can dial in exactly the hardness and texture you prefer without being locked into proprietary refills.
The 5.6mm Copper & Brass Clutch
The material choice drives the entire experience and stands as a direct antidote to disposable culture. C101 copper is a high-conductivity grade typically used in electrical applications, chosen here for its density, workability, and willingness to develop a rich patina over time. The 360 brass, a free-machining alloy, delivers a brighter, more clinical aesthetic and holds its finish longer before tarnishing. Hemingway leaves both materials raw, with no lacquer, no powder coating, and no protective sealant. The copper will darken and mottle as it reacts to the oils in your skin and the humidity of your studio. The brass will develop a warmer, more subdued tone, though it resists the transformation longer than copper does. This is slow design in practice, where the aging process becomes part of the design language, carrying the visible marks of its owner’s journey rather than something to prevent or hide.
The 2mm Brass
The 2mm Copper & Brass
Dimensionally, the 5.6mm Copper and Brass Hybrid measures 115mm in length with a 12mm diameter barrel, while the 2mm Precision series comes in at 140mm long with a 7mm diameter. The 2mm pencils are slimmer and longer, built for precision linework and extended drafting sessions where fine motor control matters. The 5.6mm version is shorter and thicker, designed to sit further back in your hand for broader, more gestural strokes. At 58 grams, the 5.6mm Hybrid has real heft, the kind of weight that anchors your hand to the page and makes you slow down, think about each mark, and commit to your lines. The balance has been engineered around the nib, shifting the center of gravity forward so the pencil glides across the paper rather than requiring constant pressure from your wrist.
Hemingway machines every pencil in-house at his London workshop on a manual lathe, hand-finishing each piece and inspecting it personally before it ships. The production model is bespoke and made-to-order, which eliminates the supply chain drama that plagues most crowdfunded EDC launches. If 100 people order a pencil, Hemingway machines 100 pencils. There are no minimum order quantities with overseas factories, no shipping containers stuck in customs, and no quality control surprises three months into fulfillment. Every tool is built to the same standard Hemingway uses for his own work, and the track record backs that up. This is his 17th Kickstarter campaign, and all 16 previous projects delivered on time. These are engineered to be the last drawing tools a creative will ever need to buy, true heirlooms designed for a lifetime of use and capable of being passed down.
Whether you opt for the copper or brass variant, or even the 5.6mm or 2mm model, Hemingway’s set the pricing at £59 ($79 USD), discounted off its £85 MSRP. Each pencil comes with its own lead, along with a hand-written note in a wonderful gift box. International shipping starts July 2026, and Hemingway packages everything in recycled cardboard with zero single-use plastics. All waste metal from the workshop gets collected and sent back to be melted down and reused, keeping the production cycle as tight and sustainable as the pencils themselves.
Before smartphones killed the dedicated handheld, before the Switch made portability synonymous with Nintendo again, there was a brief window where Sony owned mobile gaming’s premium tier. The PSP launched in 2004 as a technical powerhouse wrapped in sleek industrial design, a device that felt expensive in your hands and looked like it belonged in a gadget enthusiast’s bag. It ran PlayStation 2-era games, played movies, supported WiFi multiplayer, and became the go-to modding platform for tinkerers who wanted every emulator ever made on one device. The PSP’s legacy is complicated, but its design has aged remarkably well.
This LEGO interpretation, shared on Reddit, proves that good hardware design translates across mediums. Reddit user Embarrassed_Map1072 has captured the PSP’s essential character using bricks: the wide landscape format, the glossy black shell, the satisfying asymmetry of controls flanking a dominant screen. The printed XMB interface behind transparent elements brings the build to life, while the removable UMD disc adds a playful interactivity that feels right for a gaming device. Small touches like the curved edges, the recessed shoulder buttons, and the memory stick door’s yellow tab demonstrate real attention to the source material. This thing looks like it could slide into a PSP case and nobody would notice until they tried to boot up Lumines.
Designer: Embarrassed_Map1072
The build’s proportions are spot-on, capturing that distinctive wide-bodied stance that made the PSP feel substantial without being bulky. The face buttons render Sony’s iconic shapes (circle, cross, square, triangle) in rounded LEGO elements, while the D-pad on the left maintains its classic cruciform layout. The analog nub sits where your thumb expects it, a small circular detail that any PSP veteran will immediately recognize. Up top, smooth tiles create the volume controls and power switch, with printed detailing that suggests the original’s labeling. The headphone jack makes an appearance at the bottom edge, because what’s a portable gaming device without a way to plug in your earbuds during a commute?
My favorite detail is the UMD disc itself. The builder recreated the distinctive white-and-gold casing that held your games, complete with the circular window that let you glimpse the tiny disc inside. It slides into the back of the unit just like the real thing, a mechanical function that elevates this from display model to something tactile and engaging. The memory stick slot retains that pop of yellow that broke up the PSP’s otherwise monochrome palette, a small design flourish that Sony used to signal where your saves lived. This is LEGO building that understands its subject, translating not just shapes but the experience of holding and using the actual hardware.
Most mountain cabins treat the landscape as a backdrop. Mork-Ulnes Architects’ Staggered Cabin treats it as a collaborator. Completed in the summer of 2024 and situated at an elevation of over 6,000 feet where South Lake Tahoe meets the foot of the Sierra Nevada, the project doesn’t fight the slope it sits on — it moves with it. Four dark-stained cedar-clad volumes shift and step down the alpine terrain, preserving existing granite boulders and Jeffrey Pines rather than displacing them, a decision that sets the entire design logic in motion from the outset.
The staggered footprint does more than navigate the slope. As the volumes shift against each other, they carve out compact exterior courtyards between them, creating protected outdoor pockets that catch the sun and shelter from the wind. These aren’t residual spaces. They extend daily life outdoors for much of the year, whether that means a morning coffee in a snow-framed clearing or children moving freely between the cabin’s interior and the forest edge. It’s a quiet but considered move, one that turns the gaps in the architecture into some of the most usable square footage on the site.
The exterior reads as restrained and deliberate. Rough-sawn western red cedar is clad in a deep dark stain, with boards running diagonally to emphasize the pitch of the roofs and reinforce the sense of directional movement down the hill. Standing-seam metal roofs cap each volume, with engineered snow guards holding a continuous layer of snow in place through winter, adding insulation and moderating melt. Over time, the finish will weather toward the tones of bark and shadow, letting the cabin settle further into the forest rather than announce itself against it.
Inside, the 1,400-square-foot plan organizes sleeping quarters around a central living and dining space that opens to the outdoors on either side. Douglas fir plywood runs continuously across walls, ceilings, and custom cabinetry, creating a unified warmth that glows under Sierra light. The steeply pitched shed-roof geometry is put to work capturing mezzanine spaces above, with a plywood ladder accessing a compact home office tucked beneath the roofline. Clerestory windows frame the pine canopy overhead, drawing the eye upward and making the 1,469-square-foot footprint feel considerably more generous than its dimensions suggest.
The work of Mork-Ulnes has long bridged Scandinavian and Northern Californian sensibilities, and the Staggered Cabin sits squarely within that lineage. The shed-roof silhouettes recall Nordic precedents while nodding to the A-frame tradition of the Sierra. Designed as a full-time residence for a young family of four, it’s a cabin that doesn’t ask you to trade comfort for place. It offers both, at 6,000 feet, without compromise.
In a design landscape increasingly obsessed with clarity, function, and hyper legibility, Stretch Color resists the urge to explain itself. Instead, it lingers in ambiguity, somewhere between object and illusion, material and mirage. What at first glance appears to be a series of vases slowly reveals itself as something far more elusive: a study of perception itself.
The collection operates in a delicate tension between two dimensions and three-dimensional form. From certain angles, the pieces flatten into what feels like a planar artwork, almost painterly, like gradients suspended on an invisible canvas. Shift your position slightly, however, and the illusion collapses into volume. The vases re-emerge as sculptural objects, reclaiming their presence in space. This oscillation is not accidental; it is the core language of the work.
Designer: Bo Zhang
Crafted through a combination of acrylic layering and spray coloration, each vase carries a gradient that transitions from dense pigment to complete transparency. But this gradient is not merely decorative; it performs. Color appears to stretch, almost as if pulled across the object’s surface and into the surrounding space. The deeper hues anchor the form, while the fading edges dissolve it, creating a visual tension between presence and absence.
This local disappearance is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the collection. Portions of the vase seem to vanish, not through physical subtraction, but through optical diffusion. The structure is still there, yet it evades the eye. What remains is a ghost of form, an outline that flickers between visibility and invisibility. In doing so, the vases challenge one of the most fundamental expectations of objects, that they should be fully knowable.
The three varying sizes in the series amplify this effect. Rather than simply scaling the object, each size interprets the idea of stretch differently. Smaller forms feel more concentrated, their gradients tighter and more immediate, while larger pieces allow the color to breathe, elongating the visual pull across space. Together, they create a rhythm, a sequence of expansions and dissolutions that feel almost cinematic.
What makes Stretch Color particularly resonant today is its subtle commentary on how we experience objects in an increasingly mediated world. Much like digital interfaces that flatten depth or augmented realities that overlay perception, these vases blur the boundary between what is physically present and what is visually perceived. They invite the viewer to move, to question, and to reorient themselves in relation to the object.
There is also a quiet emotional undercurrent to the work. The fading gradients and disappearing forms evoke a sense of ephemerality, of things slipping just beyond grasp. Yet, this is not a loss; it is a transformation. The vases do not vanish entirely; they redistribute themselves into space, into light, into perception.
Stretch Color moves away from the idea of the vase as a static container and leans into it as a shifting experience, something that unfolds only when the viewer participates. The object does not simply sit in space; it negotiates with it, stretching color, dissolving edges, and quietly asking the viewer to look again, and then look differently.
You know exactly where this is going the moment IKEA hands you that little L-shaped hex key. You use it once, maybe twice, cross your fingers the furniture doesn’t wobble, and then it disappears into the junk drawer, a kitchen counter corner, or the bottom of a tote bag you haven’t opened since 2021. The allen key has never been a thing anyone kept on purpose. Until now.
IKEA Singapore, working with creative agency The Secret Little Agency, has reimagined the brand’s iconic flat-pack tool as a piece of wearable jewelry. The ALLËNKI, as it’s been named (and yes, the umlaut is doing a lot of heavy lifting there), is the humble allen key redesigned to hang from a chain as a pendant. It leans hard into an industrial aesthetic, the kind that lives somewhere between a Depop vintage find and something a contemporary menswear designer would slip into a lookbook without explanation. Raw, utilitarian, and surprisingly chic. I did not expect to want a hex wrench around my neck. And yet, here we are.
What makes the ALLËNKI genuinely interesting as a design concept isn’t just the novelty of it. It’s the fact that it remains fully functional. The piece isn’t a replica or a decorative prop styled to look like the real thing. It’s the actual tool, shaped into something you’d wear. That framing, which the designers describe as “hardware meets heirloom,” is doing a lot of the creative work here, and it does it well. There’s a real conversation happening in contemporary design right now about the objects we use every day and why we’ve decided some deserve beauty and others don’t. The ALLËNKI is a pretty sharp response to that question, even if the response comes with a chain and a studio-lit campaign.
The branding also knows exactly what it is. The campaign leans into humor and self-awareness, which is the right call. A jewelry line built around a furniture tool that most people lose within 48 hours of unboxing a bookcase doesn’t need to take itself too seriously. The Secret Little Agency managed that balance well, keeping the design itself genuinely considered while letting the concept breathe with a bit of absurdity. That’s harder to pull off than it sounds. Most brand stunts either try too hard to be funny or take themselves so seriously that the joke lands flat. This one sits in the right place.
Now, the catch. The ALLËNKI dropped on April 1st, which puts a fairly significant asterisk on the whole thing. Whether it was an April Fools’ stunt, a concept piece, or an actual product in development isn’t entirely clear. Store availability, if any, has not been confirmed. And while part of me wants to be cynical about that, the other part of me thinks the ambiguity might be intentional. It functions as a piece of cultural commentary either way. If it becomes real, great. If it doesn’t, it still made people stop and look at a two-inch hex key like it had something worth saying.
And maybe that’s the bigger point. The ALLËNKI asks you to reconsider what makes something worth keeping. We’ve watched fashion absorb work boots, industrial hardware, and construction aesthetics for years. Luxury brands have put carabiners on bags and charged several hundred dollars for the privilege. In that context, turning the allen key into a pendant feels less like a joke and more like a logical next step in a long line of utilitarian objects getting a second life. IKEA has always understood that good design shouldn’t be reserved for expensive things. Extending that thinking into wearables, even as a concept, feels genuinely on-brand.
Whether or not the ALLËNKI ever lands on store shelves, it’s already doing what good design work does. It’s got people talking, reconsidering a mundane object, and maybe feeling just a little possessive over something they used to throw in a drawer without a second thought. That’s a win, April Fools or not.
Racing Bulls arrived at the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix wearing a livery that had nothing to do with sponsor placement optimization or brand color refresh cycles, and everything to do with sakura. Designed by Bisen Aoyagi, one of Japan’s most accomplished calligraphers, the Cherry Edition wrapped Lawson and Lindblad’s cars in white, red, and silver calligraphy that treated the F1 car as a medium for cultural expression rather than a rolling billboard. The team introduced it to Tokyo at Red Bull Tokyo Drift in Shibuya before the Suzuka weekend, generating the kind of organic enthusiasm online that no marketing campaign can manufacture, and the cars then backed the visual statement with a double points finish in the race.
That specific convergence of art, culture, and competitive result is what F1 Authentics and Memento Exclusives have captured in a limited edition motion simulator now available at f1authentics.com. The simulator replicates the Cherry Edition livery from official team data, ensuring the calligraphy and colorwork match what appeared on the actual cars at Suzuka, while haptic actuators, front pivot configuration, and rumble feedback handle the physical side of the experience. Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer framed the Cherry Edition as part of a broader commitment to engaging meaningfully with the cultures that host each race, which makes the simulator less a piece of merchandise and more a physical artifact of that philosophy in action.
Designer: Bisen Aoyagi
The livery itself deserves more than a passing description. Aoyagi’s calligraphy does something that most F1 livery design cannot, which is carry genuine visual weight at both highway speed and standing still. The white base gives the red and silver calligraphic strokes room to breathe, and the result reads differently depending on your distance from the car. At speed through Suzuka’s Esses, the Cherry Edition reads as a bold, high-contrast graphic. Parked in the Shibuya streets during Tokyo Drift, it operated as something closer to a gallery installation on wheels. That duality, between kinetic graphic and considered artwork, is exactly what makes the livery a strong candidate for the simulator treatment, because you actually want to sit inside it and study the surfaces around you.
The simulator itself is built by Memento Exclusives’ in-house team of engineers and mechanics, people who have spent decades working in professional motorsport environments and understand the difference between a product that looks like an F1 simulator and one that behaves like one. The haptic actuator system and front pivot configuration work in tandem to replicate the physical signature of cornering forces, while the haptic rumble feedback layer communicates road surface texture and kerb strikes with enough fidelity to make the experience genuinely instructive rather than merely theatrical.
Memento Exclusives has built simulators for other F1 teams through the F1 Authentics platform before, and the Racing Bulls Cherry Edition continues that technical standard while raising the aesthetic bar considerably.
For the sim racing community, which has already made the Cherry Edition one of the most discussed liveries of the early 2026 season across forums and social channels, the simulator represents an opportunity to own the physical version of something they have already been racing virtually. For collectors with a longer view, it represents a documented moment: a calligrapher’s interpretation of Japanese spring, painted onto an F1 car, raced at one of the sport’s most mythologized circuits, and preserved in a numbered, limited run that will not be repeated. Available now at f1authentics.com, and given the trajectory of interest since Suzuka, the window to secure one is likely shorter than a sakura season.
It’s not easy to create a workstation that reflects your personality, and it’s even harder to keep one organized. While the former is entirely a personal choice involving handpicked equipment, the latter depends on readily available solutions that make decluttering possible. Kakao, an all-in-one PC that utilizes the space behind the monitor for storage, presents itself as a godsend for achieving just that.
At the rendering stage at the time of writing, Kakao has a long way to go, if ever, to see the light of day. But from how it appears in pictures shared on the internet, this is a desk setup of the future, which draws some inspiration from the past when monitors or all-in-one PCs were more than slim panels we own these days.
Conceived on two metal stands, this all-in-one PC appears in a boxy form with storage and computer innards tucked behind the monitor. If you are someone who is often bothered by the awkward space behind the monitor, which has no purpose because it’s either too shallow to store something or too cluttered with wires, and you don’t want to add to the visual displeasure, then the Kakao is what you should be looking at with interest.
It turns the often-ignored space behind the monitor into a useful space with its design that is a combination of a PC and a storage cabinet. The furniture integrated all-in-one PC reimagines how the monitor looks and functions: instead of leaving the space vacant, Kakao extends the screen into a horizontal enclosure that houses computer parts along with storage for everyday things.
I am not definite about how we are supposed to use the Kakao on the desk with all that bulk, but once it is there, there is definitely going to be less clutter. I can already see my Bluetooth speaker, power strip, gaming controller, pen stand, and other stationery disappearing from my desk into the cabinet.
I’m not sure about the monitor’s screen size or the computing components we are getting with it. However, that the PC has a mirror-polished stainless steel frame with PVD finish. The horizontal cabinet is completely closed on the side where the computer innards sit, while the other half has a mesh panel that ensures the heat can flow out and there’s no hindrance in using the computer.
On the front, the monitor slides sideways to reveal or conceal the storage shelves inside. The Kakao speakers and power slot are placed on the bottom panel, while the connectivity ports are seen on the side. The latter I believe, is a terrible idea. Ports on the side of the storage cabinet will end up allowing cables to clutter outside the all-in-one PC, defying its actual purpose. I think overall it is a decent idea, and the designer will think about getting the ports on the inside with cable cutouts to ensure decluttering.
Resident Evil legend Shinji Mikami's new studio, Unbound Inc., has been acquired by Shift Up, the company behind Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke. Unbound's unannounced games will be fully supported and distributed by South Korean publisher Shift Up, which is led by CEO Hyung-Tae Kim.
Mikami is an icon of Japanese horror as the director of Resident Evil, its 2002 remake and Resident Evil 4, as well as a founder of PlatinumGames and Tango Gameworks. Tango was responsible for The Evil Within series, Ghostwire Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush. Shift Up recently developed the hit action game Stellar Blade, with Kim as director.
Even with an adorably grotesque introduction video, it's unclear exactly what Unbound is working on at the moment, but the studio is targeting the global PC and console market. Its concepts involve plenty of monsters, as is tradition.
Consider even the surface-level possibilities here: The campy horror of Resident Evil blended with the melodramatic beauty of Stellar Blade. The frenzy of Hi-Fi Rush amped up by the anime stylings of Goddess of Victory: Nikke. The Evil Within III, but make it sexy. These are jokes, but the sentiment remains — this partnership makes a lot of sense and it'll be exciting to see what shakes out.
“We believe we can respect each other as creators and make games together,” Mikami said in a Shift Up blog post about the deal. “And I think with Hyung-Tae, we can even enjoy the hard parts.... Seeing my own vision and ideals come into focus like this, and finding someone whose direction aligns so closely is something I’ve rarely experienced before in my career. I hope we keep building together for a long time.”
It's also heartening to see stability for Mikami's new studio. His previous team, Tango Gameworks, was acquired by Microsoft in 2021, and Mikami left in 2023 after the release of Hi-Fi Rush. Microsoft shuttered Tango in 2024 during a period of mass game industry layoffs, and its remaining team was eventually sold to Krafton. Mikami has been quietly building up his own studio since 2022.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mr-resident-evil-signs-a-deal-with-mr-stellar-blade-180158872.html?src=rss
In January, a Finnish-Estonian startup proclaimed it had developed a truly solid state battery, a holy grail for the technology industry. Donut Lab's cell wasn’t just solid state, however. It claimed it was made from cheap and easily available materials, would charge to full in a few minutes and last for hundreds of years. If real, such a device would change the face of the world, which is why plenty of people don’t think it is. And, as the company makes more effort to demonstrate it is telling the truth, the more holes people are finding to poke their fingers into. So, what the hell is going on with Donut Lab's battery? After many weeks of research, I’m throwing my hands in the air, tired of the endless dog and pony show the company is putting on.
Solid state batteries
Conventional batteries have improved a lot in the last few decades but remain imperfect in many ways. Cells found in electronics and EVs commonly use liquid or gel polymer as an electrolyte. These electrolytes are the cause of thermal runaway, where the heat of a battery increases exponentially, and can become a primary cause of battery failure and fire. Plus, they’re pretty fussy, requiring a consistent temperature for peak performance and to be treated pretty delicately. It’s why the industry has raced to develop a solid state battery that eliminates the liquid or gel polymer.
Because of their higher energy density, solid state batteries should be lighter and smaller per watt than conventional batteries. These benefits would be enjoyed widely but are vital for an EV where weight and size dictate so much of how it operates. Solid state batteries are at far less risk of thermal runaway, and should work in a much wider temperature window. Now, we are already seeing plenty of semi-solid batteries coming into the market, with fully-solid cells expected in the near future. Chinese battery giant CATL told BatteriesNews at the end of 2025 that its first small-scale production of solid state batteries is anticipated to begin in 2027. However, those first production runs are likely to be limited rather than global rollouts.
Donut Lab
Enter Donut Lab. The startup is a subsidiary of Finnish motorcycle maker Verge Motorcycles, famous for its Tron-style hubless (in-wheel) rear-wheel motor. Verge says it has built the “world’s most powerful electric motor family,” and that it made “all the components needed to build an electric vehicle.” Verge’s motors have since been incorporated into Longbow Motors’ recently announced Speedster EV.
At CES 2026, Donut Lab announced it had built the world’s “first full all-solid-state battery.” It said this wasn’t just a prototype, but was “ready to power up production vehicles now.” In a glossy promotional video, the company said it had solved the issues the whole industry had been working to solve for decades. There was nothing but upside, with none of the trade-offs its competitors had been forced to make while developing their own solid state batteries. And, it was ready to be incorporated into EVs starting today. Verge Motorcycles announced it would add the battery into its TS Pro, with shipments expected to begin Q1 2026.
Donut Lab's battery
The company’s extensive list of claims begins by saying the cell has an energy density of 400Wh per kilogram, roughly twice the energy density of the best lithium ion battery on the market. Right now, you should expect to get around 1,000 charge and discharge cycles out of any half-decent battery. Donut Lab is promising its cell will last for a whopping 100,000 cycles, even if you’re fast-charging the cell. The company promises users will be able to reach an 80 percent charge from zero in around five minutes, and get to full in under six. Donut said the cell offers a “clay-like” freedom of design, adapting to the specific needs of a specific product, rather than the other way around.
Naturally, pumping all of that power into such a small cell will mean it’ll need a lot of babying, right? Not according to Donut Lab, which says its battery will operate in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius (-22 Fahrenheit) or as hot as 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit). And, to top it off, it’s made from common, easily-available and cheap materials which are “geopolitically safe,” rather than from rare-earth minerals sometimes held by rival nations. All of that means the cell will be cheaper to produce than the equivalent lithium ion cell and, best of all, Donut said the battery is ready for scaled production.
A battery that promised some of these features would be world-changing; one offering all of them would be world-shattering. It would upend supply chains, shift the global balance of power, potentially eliminate reliance on so-called rare earth minerals and supercharge EV adoption. But Donut Lab offered no proof for its claims, no hint as to what its process was based upon, and no sign it had the manufacturing capacity to deliver on its promises. Naturally, a lot of people just didn’t believe what they were seeing and hearing, and called BS.
People are suspicious
Yang Hongqin, CEO of Chinese battery maker Svolt, was quoted by CarNewsChina as saying “any person with even a basic understanding of the technology would think it’s a scam.” Finnish newspaper Iltalehti reported that CATL’s venture capital head Ulderico Ulissi described the matter as “clearly fake.” That comment prompted Donut CEO Marko Lehtimäki to respond on LinkedIn, saying that Ulissi would “regret the arrogance.” Tom Bötticher, CEO of battery startup Litona, posted on LinkedIn his belief Donut’s technology is actually tied to a company Donut invested in, Nordic Nano. Bötticher found a pitch deck, which is no longer available (but is here at the Internet Archive) which described Nordic’s energy storage technology as a supercapacitor.
Some have pointed out that Lehtimäki has a track record of making strong claims about his products. On May 15, 2025, he announced an AI startup, ASILAB, and said in a similarly glossy launch video that his team had created a “synthetic counterpart” to the human brain. Its first product, ASINOID, Lehtimäki said, is a “dynamic self-developing organism designed to grow in capability and in consciousness.” The company said it would open up access to ASINOID, but I’ve been unable to find any evidence that any such access has been granted. ASILAB has not responded to our request for comment.
In response to the minor social media backlash, Donut Lab went on the offensive. It launched the website IDonutBelieve.com promising a weekly drop of so-called evidence to support its claims. In a polished video introduction, Lehtimäki said the criticism comes from parties with vested interests, such as competitors. He addressed the above attack lines directly, saying people have been assembling theories from scraps of online data to create an untrue picture. He also denied claims the battery was a supercapacitor.
In the same video, Lehtimäki said the media has amplified “so-called experts” from the battery industry, taking their opinions at “face value.” Naturally, rival researchers who would stand to gain by taking down a potential challenger have a natural desire to rubbish Donut’s claims. But because many of them are credentialled experts in the field, their authority was elevated above his own.
Crucially, Lehtimäki said Donut didn’t publish validation tests at the time of announcement as it would have been similarly dismissed by those same biased voices. By holding the proof back, he said it forced Donut’s competitors to essentially show their hand, making it easier to refute them. To do so, Donut engaged VTT Finland, a government-owned research organization which offers testing services to third parties. VTT has conducted specific tests on cells supplied by Donut, the results of which the company has released piecemeal over several weeks.
It’s important to note that VTT’s reports don't make any statements which could be seen to support Donut’s claims. For instance, it says it was asked to “conduct independent charging performance tests on the energy storage devices supplied by the customer, which the customer identified as solid-state battery cells.”
The tests
Donut Lab published a test for five weeks, each one each one designed to show off one key feature of the battery. Test One saw VTT fast charge a cell beyond the limit of a regular battery, after which it still had close to 100% of its charge available for use. In Test Two, VTT charged the cell to full, and then discharged it in high-temperature environments. Once that was done, the cell was charged again at a normal temperature, but researchers noted that the pouch lost vacuum. Donut Lab later said the vacuum loss was caused by the packaging materials not being able to withstand the temperature, rather than an issue with the battery itself.
A VTT spokesperson told me “during the final stage of manufacturing, all gases are removed from the cell, and the cell is sealed tightly under vacuum conditions. The cell feels firm. If the cell loses its vacuum, it usually becomes slightly soft and swollen.” Essentially, if a battery loses its vacuum, it means it’s started swelling, which is visible in the photos from the report. Swelling is fatal to a traditional lithium ion battery and, potentially, the device it’s connected to.
Test Three purported to disprove the idea that Donut was secretly selling a supercapacitor, so VTT charged the cell to full and let it sit idle for 10 days. At the end of that time, the charge level of the battery appeared to hold steady, with a small drop commonly seen in all batteries. Which appeared to confirm the cell was a battery, rather than a capacitor which may struggle to hold its charge over longer periods of time. Test Four was conducted by Donut Lab itself, taking a prototype of its battery in a Verge motorcycle to a fast charger. The cell had a rated capacity of 18kWh and it was charged from 9 percent to 80 percent — around 14.5kWh — in 12 minutes.
Test Five focused on the cell from Test Two which lost its vacuum, to prove it was not broken. VTT’s report says it cycled the broken cell 50 times (up to 90 percent of its full charge) to see what happened. VTT’s researchers said it was possible to cycle the cell, but that its capacity began to degrade after the first few, and by the end of the process, it had fallen to nearly half of its original figure. The cell itself had swelled, however, with VTT saying “the cell thickness had increased by 17 percent, and the cell pouch was firm.” Donut Lab boasted that while a lithium ion battery in this condition would likely explode, its own cell still worked.
When contacted, VTT said it did complete an assignment for Donut Lab but declined to make any specific comment on confidential client assignments.
On March 31, Verge Motorcycles posted a video claiming the TS Pro Gen 2, the first to carry Donut’s solid state battery, was ready to ship. Given March 31 is the last day of Q1, it’s the latest possible day the company could announce this and say it has honored its promise. The accompanying write-up said the bike will ship with either a standard-range 20kWh battery with a range of 350km (217 miles) or a long-range 33kWh battery that should run for 600km (372 miles).
April 1
Then, on April 1, the company posted a video beginning with a fakeout scene of Lehtimäki admitting the whole thing had been a scam. One hard cut later, and the clip pivots into a Q&A, with an off-screen interviewer asking why anyone would believe Lehtimäki on April Fools Day. He dryly responded that people don’t believe him the rest of the time, but that the ambiguity provided by the occasion was a benefit. He would be able to speak more freely with less fear of censure, or so he claimed.
Lehtimäki said the series of I Donut Believe tests already published were another part of his “3D chess” strategy to get battery rivals to show their hand. And that the tests undertaken by VTT were on a first-generation battery while the company was already working on the second. He did concede that the claims around cycle life were based on estimates, and that if they wanted to prove it, they would have needed to start testing a decade or more ago. But he batted away questions about energy density, weight and size, saying you “wouldn’t ask a woman her age, and you never ask a battery its weight.” He added those questions would be answered in future, in more episodes of the I Donut Believe “complete multimedia experience.”
Donut Lab (YouTube)
Consequently, the weekly video series will continue until the full details of the first generation battery have been revealed. Lehtimäki then teased that this cell would be shipping, and the videos will shift focus to the second-generation cell with far better specs. But producing the I Donut Believe series — which, it’s worth mentioning is a marketing function of the company trying to sell us a new product — was costly, and had run over budget, which has led the company to open its own merch store, including $70 t-shirts and $141 hoodies.
If you’re already facing credible accusations of perpetuating a scam, and your big reveal is to double down on misdirection, it’s not a good look. Lehtimäki ended the video by talking about how much better Donut Lab’s second-generation battery was, with a staged outtake showing a notepad listing the specs for a third-generation battery with 1,000 Wh/kg energy density, 100C charge speed and durability for a million cycles — due to be announced at a future CES.
Analysis
The release of these tests has seen interested parts of the internet engage in a near-Zapruder level of interrogation. People have pored over every facet of the reports and videos trying to work out what exactly is inside Donut Lab’s battery. A number of prominent YouTubers have produced deep dives on the matter, each one claiming the cell is real, or not. There are countless Reddit threads where people are picking apart the voltage graphs and claims in the reports. And it seems every week there is a new revelation about what Donut’s technology is and where it came from. Plenty of people online are chasing down threads tied to energy technology companies like Holyvolt and CT-Coating, or examining the charge graphs against a nickel manganese cobalt cell. I’ll spare you the details (for now). Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti decried the results of the fifth test, saying the cell didn’t lose its vacuum. It quoted Finnish battery expert Juho Heiska, who said the company has just used a traditional cell that is sufficiently hardy to withstand this abuse in the short term.
Donut Labs (YouTube)
Even to a non-expert, there’s clearly a gap between what Donut promised and what its tests are showing. For instance, the company said it would be able to fast charge a Verge TS to full in less than 10 minutes. But, in Test Four, it took 12 minutes to get from 9 percent to 80 percent — not a bad charging time, but certainly not as swift as the company pledged. That said, if we take the company’s claims at face value, then being able to fast charge a battery at that sort of speed with just air cooling is noteworthy. At least, it will be if you can do that regularly, and one or two trips to the charger don’t leave you with what Reddit likes to call a Spicy Pillow afterward.
Unfortunately, it’s been difficult to find battery researchers willing to go on the record about Donut Lab. I sought out experts in academia who were not tied to industry backing, and so wouldn’t be accused of having a vested interest in the matter. But all of them refused to go on the record. More than one I contacted said they were well aware of the saga, and had plenty of feelings about the matter. But they were unwilling to expose themselves to the potentially intensive social media scrutiny that comes from weighing in.
I’m Donut skeptical
Personally, I’ve been suspicious of how Donut Lab has gone about demonstrating its technology. After all, if you were actually confident about your product and its technology, you would surely be able to share basic information about it. Table stakes stuff, like the weight and size of the battery cell you handed over for testing. As ElectronicDesign notes, data like that would help us all see if its energy density claims hold water. Instead, the company has engaged in an ornate kabuki which only serves to further undermine its case. You can go a long way on the back of very little trust, but the grander the promises get and the less eager you are to share evidence, the faster that trust evaporates.
And, you know how someone spends a lot of time talking around something, so as to not be caught in a deliberate lie? Donut Lab’s videos can feel a lot like that, since there are so many things it’s intentionally not making clear. Rather than taking the chance to offer even a small amount of substantive evidence to support its initial claims, it has instead moved the goalposts. So, rather than talking about the efficacy of its first-generation product, it’s dangling the second and third in front of us to hopefully distract us.
Look, I want to be even-handed, and give the company the fairest shake that I can, and obviously if the cell can deliver on its promises, I’ll be overjoyed. But we’ve all seen scams before, and until Donut Lab starts offering up a lot more data, it hasn’t earned anything close to the benefit of the doubt.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/whats-going-on-with-donut-lab-173007121.html?src=rss
