Sono Sion: Dream of an ambitious solar car is scrapped

Bad news for fans of the Sono Sion. The ambitious electric car, which was to rely on photovoltaic technology, will not be launched on the market. This is due to the failed financing campaign. Investors are to get their money back piece by piece, however.

The dream of the Sono Sion is over

Sono Motors once stood for a revolution in the field of electric mobility. Thus, the expert in the field of mobile photovoltaic solutions not only wanted to launch a serious car for the city with the Sono Sion. On top of that, the young start up presented its planned fleet of commercial vehicles as recently as August 2022. Apparently, nothing will now come of the ambitious vehicles, which were to rely on the permanent generation of solar energy. This is the case at least for the Sono Sion compact runabout. Since the startup was unable to secure financing for the electric car, the project has now been summarily scrapped. However, this does not mean that the Munich-based startup is giving up. According to the company, it intends to continue equipping vehicles with the appropriate solar technology in the future. Here, however, Sono will only serve as a supplier and not manufacture the entire vehicle.

Severe consequences for the workforce

Now Sono Motors seems to have no choice but to make a fresh start. Unfortunately, this will require a clear cut in the workforce as well as at the management level. With Thomas Hausch not only the head of Sono Motors resigns. On top of that, an estimated 300 employees will have to be laid off. According to Hausch himself, however, he does not want to step down until the necessary formalities have been clarified. Sion itself, which had hoped for a promising revolution in the field of electric mobility with Sion Motors, is naturally also crestfallen. From CEO and founder Laurin Hahn come depressed words. He even describes the Sion as the startup’s original “heart project.” And apparently it wasn’t just the company itself that was convinced by the concept. Hahn states that they were able to unite “45,000 reservations and pre-orders” on the driving photovoltaic system. The first test production even started in March 2022 and unearthed 18 vehicles.

But the general economic situation seems to have opened up only one way out for Sono as well. For example, Sono’s CEO goes on to say that they were forced to “respond to the ongoing instability in the financial markets.” In this case, the only sensible decision was probably to cancel the Sono Sion. But the dream of a car developed entirely in-house does not seem to be over. At least the cancellation sounds like a temporary step with no alternative. After all, Sono’s announcement states that it now wants to concentrate “on a less capital-intensive business model. And that seems to envision serving as a supplier to other automakers for now. Perhaps this can also be beneficial, as it will allow the company to further test and improve its own PV technology for cars. Should the economic situation then improve again, Sono Motors may therefore start afresh.

Investors to get money back from Sono Motors

While the demand for the “solar car” was immense, unfortunately so were the costs. For example, Sono Motors goes on to say that “around 90 percent of the financing requirements for 2023 […] were caused by the Sion program.” Sono Motors collected corresponding funds for the Sono Sion with the help of a crowdfunding campaign. In order not to disappoint its investors, the startup wants to pay back the investment in installments. Those who were part of the #savesion campaign, on the other hand, should also not worry about the money they invested. Sono Motors does not want to collect this money at all.