AD #4314 - Donut Battery Labeled a Fraud; Honda CEO Asked to Resign; BYD Expects to Double Scale in 5 Years

AD #4314 - Donut Battery Labeled a Fraud; Honda CEO Asked to Resign; BYD Expects to Double Scale in 5 Years Autoline Daily · Jun 9, 2026

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Term

solid state sodium cell

They’re talking about a battery design that’s supposed to use a solid material inside (instead of a liquid) and use sodium chemistry. The big point is that the podcast says the battery wasn’t actually what it was advertised to be.

Term

lithium ion cell

Most EV batteries today use lithium-ion chemistry. The episode says the battery being marketed as something new was actually using the same general type of chemistry as today’s lithium-ion batteries.

Brand

Donut Labs

Donut Labs is the company that marketed a new battery. The episode says experts found it wasn’t actually the advanced battery it claimed to be.

Term

four hundred watt hours per kilogram

This is a way to describe how much energy a battery can store compared to how heavy it is. Higher numbers generally mean more range for the same battery weight, and the episode says the real number was much lower than advertised.

Brand

Verge

Verge is mentioned as the maker of an electric motorcycle that was rumored to use the battery. The host says that plan never materialized.

Company

BYD

BYD is a big Chinese car company. The episode says the U.S. added BYD to a list of companies it believes support China’s military, and it also talks about BYD’s plans to grow very fast.

Company

NEO

NEO is another company named in the episode’s discussion of U.S. accusations related to China’s military. The host says NEO responded that it wouldn’t change anything for them.

Term

Pentagon regularly publishes a list of companies that aid the Chinese military

This refers to a U.S. government compliance-style list used to identify companies considered to support China’s military. The practical effect described is that it doesn’t automatically impose sanctions, but it blocks the U.S. Defense Department from doing business with those companies.

Term

scale

Here “scale” means making a lot more cars and becoming a much bigger company. The episode also says the hard part is doing it without letting costs rise too much.

Term

capacity to make over eleven million vehicles a year

Capacity is how many cars a company can build in a year. The host compares Toyota’s yearly production ability to BYD’s current output to show how big BYD’s growth target is.

Term

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS

IIHS is an organization that tests cars and trucks to see how safe they are in crashes. If a vehicle earns good IIHS ratings, it usually means it performed well in their standardized safety tests.

Term

seat belt force limiters

In a crash, a seat belt can pull very hard. A seat belt force limiter helps make that pull less extreme so the body isn’t shocked as much.

Term

pretentioners

Pretentioners are part of the seat belt system that instantly tightens the belt during a crash. That helps keep you held in place sooner and more effectively.

Term

seat belt reminders

Seat belt reminders are the beeps or lights that tell you to buckle up. They’re meant to increase the chance that people actually wear their seat belts.

Concept

Class three trucks

“Class” is a way of grouping trucks and vans by size/weight. IIHS uses these groups so it can test comparable commercial vehicles.

Concept

automatic emergency braking

Automatic emergency braking is a safety feature that can brake for you if it thinks a crash is about to happen. It’s designed to help reduce how hard the collision is.

Company

Stillantis

Stellantis is a major car company. They’re running a robotaxi testing program to see how ready their self-driving plans are.

Term

Level four tech

Level four is a scale for how automated a car can be. At level four, the car can handle driving in certain situations without you constantly taking over, but it still may not work everywhere.

Place

Luxembourg

Luxembourg is where the robotaxi tests are happening. The idea is to test self-driving tech in real European traffic conditions.

Term

hands free driving

Hands-free driving means the car can steer for you without your hands in certain situations. It usually still expects you to pay attention and be ready to take control.

Company

Lucid Motors

Lucid Motors is the EV maker behind the car being discussed. They’re adding a hands-free driving feature, but the release was delayed due to software and quality issues.

Car

Lucid Gravity

The Lucid Gravity is an electric SUV made by Lucid. It’s designed to carry people and cargo while using electricity instead of gasoline. The podcast mentions it because it’s getting a hands-free driving feature, which helps the car steer and manage parts of driving with less driver input.

Term

over the air update

An over-the-air update is a software update sent to the car wirelessly. It lets the manufacturer add or improve features without taking the car to a shop.

Term

automated lane changes

Automated lane changes let the car switch lanes for you. The car uses sensors to do it, but it usually only works under certain conditions and still expects you to watch.

Concept

assembly plant

An assembly plant is where cars are built. The episode is using factory output capacity to talk about how many vehicles these companies can produce.

LIVE

Speaker 1: This is Utoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Uh oh, turns out that miracle

battery from Donut Labs is actually a fraud electric reports than an investigation from over twenty battery experts found that the so called solid state sodium cell from Donut is actually a lithium ion cell. The investigation uncovered a number

of companies behind the fraud, and it found electrochemical evidence that the battery is nothing like the sensational claims that Donut made at CS in January, which sent shockwaves through the ev industry. Instead of the claim four hundred watt

hours per kilogram, it turns out that it only develops two hundred and ninety eight, no better than today's lithium ion batteries. And remember that electric motorcycle from Verge that

was supposedly going to use the Donut battery. Yeah, well

that never happened either. Twenty five million bucks mostly from

small investors, and no doubt the lawsuits are going to start to fly. President Trump's trip to China last month

was supposed to smooth the waters between the two countries, but now the United States is accusing a number of Chinese companies of working with the Chinese military, including BYD and NEO. BYD immediately denied that it's a military company,

while NEO said this would.

Speaker 2: Not affect it.

Speaker 1: The Pentagon regularly publishes a list of companies that aid the Chinese military, and the two automakers were added when the updated list was published yesterday. That aid includes a

wide ecosystem of technologies, including robotics, chips in biotech. This

does not impose sanctions on those companies, but it prevents the US Defense Department from doing any business with them.

Things got so bad at Honda that several former executives, including a previous CEO, tried to house current CEO Tosha Hero Mibe. They blamed him for neglecting China, a quote,

failed commitment to EVS, and even playing too much golf.

Speaker 2: Writers reports.

Speaker 1: The group started meeting late last year, and in April that former CEO, Nobuhiko Kawamoto met with Meba at Honda's headquarters, trying to convince him to resign, but by that time, the company's board had already made its decision to keep Miba around. However, he could be on the hot seat

if his new three year plan announced in May doesn't start showing returns. As we previously noted at that time,

Mibe is no longer listed as the chairperson of the board of directors. BYD has struggled this year to keep

up with the success it had been seeing, but the company's chairman and president still expects huge growth within the next five years. He predicts BYD will be the largest

automaker in the world by scale.

Speaker 2: Right now, Toyota holds that.

Speaker 1: Top spot with the capacity to make over eleven million vehicles a year including its commercial divisions. Last year, BYD

made about four and a half million vehicles, so it would need to more than double its capacity to pass Toyota.

That would be very impressive, but keeping costs down to maintain profits is key when chasing scale.

Speaker 3: Performance that shines even in the rain. That's what really matters.

Rich don't pretends to tires, improved grip and wet conditions.

Speaker 1: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS, released the results of its first evaluations of commercial vehicles. It tested

nine cargo vans and Class three trucks for things that it considers essential for driver protection, like standard front and side airbags, seat belt force limiters and pretentioners, and effective seat belt reminders. The IIHS found that four vehicles, the

Chevy Silverado thirty five hundred, HD Ford F three point fifty Supercrew, Chevy Bright Drop four hundred, and the Rampromaster twenty five hundred checked all the boxes for driver protection.

The institute says it's evaluating commercial vehicles now because they don't have the same safety requirements as passenger vehicles, and it wants those features to become more common to help reduce traffic desks. In twenty twenty three, sixteen percent of

all road fatalities in the US involved medium and heavy.

Speaker 2: Duty trucks or vans.

Speaker 1: The IIHS will also evaluate headlights in automatic emergency braking in commercial vehicles, and it will test Class four to six trucks as well. Building on a previous partnership with

autonomous company pony Ai and European mobility provider Bolt that was announced last year, Stillantis is launching a robotaxi test program in Luxembourg. They'll use Pougo Expert mid sized vans

to help validate the safety performance and readiness of pony AI's Level four tech for traffic environments in Europe. The

companies hope to be ready for driverless services by the end of the test program, but they didn't say how long the test program will be. After a six month delay,

Lucid Motors is finally adding hands free driving.

Speaker 2: To its Gravity Suv.

Speaker 1: The feature is part of an over the air update that also includes navigation and headlight improvements. Lucid plan to

roll out the updates at the end of last year, but it ran into software and other quality issues, which delayed its release. In speaking of hands free driving, BMW

says customers in Europe using its system have racked up more than two hundred million kilometers or more than one one hundred and twenty four million miles. The feature enables

hands free driving on the highway at speeds up to one hundred and thirty kilometers an hour or eighty miles an hour, along with automated lane changes. We've been doing

some addition lately, and here are some numbers that add up to something interesting. Hundai has an assembly plant in

Georgia that can make three hundred thousand cars a year.

They're going to boost that to five hundred thousand, and then they're going to add another plant that can make two hundred and fifty thousand. Hondai also has a plant

in Alabama that can make over three hundred and fifty thousand cars, and Kia has a plant in Georgia that can make three hundred and fifty thousand as well. Add

it all up and that's over one point four million vehicles.

While they're not there yet, When and if they do get there, the Hondai group will be able to make more vehicles in the US than Toyota or Honda currently do.

And we think that shows the ambition that Hondai has for the American market. By the way, we published an

article on our website that has a lot more insight about those two plants in Georgia. But with that we

wrap up today's show. Thanks for making Autoline a part

of your day.

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0:00

8:54

solid state sodium cell

lithium ion cell

Donut Labs

four hundred watt hours per kilogram

Verge

BYD

NEO

Pentagon regularly publishes a list of companies that aid the Chinese military

scale

capacity to make over eleven million vehicles a year

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS

seat belt force limiters

pretentioners

seat belt reminders

Class three trucks

automatic emergency braking

Stillantis

Level four tech

Luxembourg

hands free driving

Lucid Motors

Lucid Gravity

over the air update

automated lane changes

assembly plant

About this episode

Original notes