I almost regret posting this - it's almost certainly BS - but it's worth seeing what's "hot" in the battery world.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/sci...te-could-double-ev-range-and-run-extreme-cold

Note a key sentence at the end: "Despite the high performance at room and low temperatures, the team said there were still issues to be addressed to increase the high-temperature performance of the electrolyte."

One thing that raised an eyebrow for me was that they published in Nature. In my previous life Nature was a highly respected journal. Is that no longer true? It's easier for me to believe that Nature has sold out than to believe the extraordinary claims of the authors.

My understanding is that Nature is still highly respected, but they have fallen prey to a number of poor-quality articles that have made it through their review process -- and they are not alone in this even among top-tier journals. Many people believe that the general trend toward favoring flashy, "impactful" articles over work-a-day, advance-the-body-of-knowledge articles has made this a bigger problem for everyone.

Another thing to keep in mind is that what gets published in a popular rag may have little resemblance to the vetted article -- notice that they only say that the team published their findings in Nature, not that the findings that they published have anything to do with the grandiose claims made in the rag.

 

I almost regret posting this - it's almost certainly BS - but it's worth seeing what's "hot" in the battery world.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/sci...te-could-double-ev-range-and-run-extreme-cold

Note a key sentence at the end: "Despite the high performance at room and low temperatures, the team said there were still issues to be addressed to increase the high-temperature performance of the electrolyte."

One thing that raised an eyebrow for me was that they published in Nature. In my previous life Nature was a highly respected journal. Is that no longer true? It's easier for me to believe that Nature has sold out than to believe the extraordinary claims of the authors.

Hi,

Unfortunately, that's the way things seem to be going and I don't see any end to it. Publish anything true or not, as long as it attracts readers. Make money.
Now it's almost like if you are not cheating at least a little, you are not surviving. That's what it came to thanks to a lack of regulation with some things, and over regulation on too many stupid things.

 

 

 

 

I'd say it's a little premature to claim that solid-state batteries are ready for commercial applications, but here it goes anyway:

Flying car industry turns to solid-state batteries for commercial takeoff

​

According to his outlook, the industry is expected to establish a sustainable commercial ecosystem by 2030, supported by technological progress, regulatory approvals, and the gradual rollout of low-altitude transportation services, CarNewsChina reported.

 

I'd say it's a little premature to claim that solid-state batteries are ready for commercial applications, but here it goes anyway:

Flying car industry turns to solid-state batteries for commercial takeoff
View attachment 368122​

"Flying car industry..."

Can one even call it that?

 

One could argue it's a latent industry. In its gestation phase at least. With quite a few companies working on realistic, viable prototypes at this point.

 

There is no such thing as a flying car. If it flies, it can't be a car it has to be an aircraft.
If it's low altitude it's still an aircraft, at least until it crashes

 

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/TechnicalNotes/NIST.TN.2365.pdf

 

There is no such thing as a flying car. If it flies, it can't be a car it has to be an aircraft.
If it's low altitude it's still an aircraft, at least until it crashes

Mean Automakers Dash Hope For Flying Cars

 

https://electrek.co/2026/06/08/donut-lab-solid-state-battery-exposed-lithium-ion-fraud/
Donut Lab’s ‘solid-state’ battery exposed as regular li-ion in damning investigation

Electrek’s Take
We called this one early. When I sat across from Marko Lehtimäki in January and told him that he was either going to revolutionize the world or destroy his credibility, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt. The short timeline to delivery, the willingness to stake his reputation, the logic behind guarding the chemistry — it all made a certain kind of sense at the time. But the evidence is now overwhelming: the “miracle” solid-state battery was a lithium-ion cell, and the claims made to investors and the public were false.

 

I wonder if there's a decent company out there truly making progress on this technology

 

I wonder if there's a decent company out there truly making progress on this technology

The real money (government, VC, etc.) comes from making claims.

There is always progress, but not as much, nor as far, nor by whom, as advertised.

 

I wonder if there's a decent company out there truly making progress on this technology

Snake oil salesmen have always been around and always eager to co-opt and corrupt any emerging technology. But with the advent of the Internet and YouTube and all of the ad-supported websites out there, people are exposed to a lot more of it and the claims are, or seem to be, getting more and more blatant and extreme as they try to outdo each other with their wild promises, especially with all of the AI-generated crap. One would hope that the result would be a greater degree of skepticism and vetting, but I don't think we are seeing much evidence of that.

 

People falling for scams worry me less than people shutting their eyes and ears when they're shown a blatant, time-proven truth. And the latter seems to be more common nowadays than the former.

 

The real money (government, VC, etc.) comes from making claims.

There is always progress, but not as much, nor as far, nor by whom, as advertised.

They were lying about making a battery out of plain donuts the whole time. The secret is Bavarian creme.

 

Mean Automakers Dash Hope For Flying Cars

OMG that was really funny thanks for posting that video. Also informative.

One part that was really interesting was like: "There was a study that said that flying cars are just not feasible". Finally. And they also acknowledged the degree of the very possible collateral damages when something goes wrong.

 

I wonder if there's a decent company out there truly making progress on this technology

https://www.ilika.com

 

Toyota is claiming they're launching a car based on solid-state batteries next year. Maybe. A bit less believable is a whole bunch of Chinese companies claiming to be launching solid state EV batteries and vehicles in the next few months.