Sono Scraps Plans For Solar Electric Car Sion For Good

• Sono Motors will not be going ahead with solar electric passenger car Sion's production
• It plans to sell the resource-intensive business and focus on supplying its solar technology to 3^rd party players
• Sono will train its lens on buses and 3^rd party OEM cars, and launch its Solar Bus Kit in Q2/2023

German solar mobility solutions company Sono Motors has laid to rest its plans to produce its Sion solar electric passenger car for good citing the 'resource-intensive nature' of the business. It will instead exclusively work on retrofitting and integrating its solar technology to 3^rd party vehicles.

Had Sion plans gone ahead as expected, it would have been in production in H1/2023 with monocrystalline silicon solar cells from Finland's Valoe Oyj integrated into the body to power it with help from German research institute ISC Konstanz (see European Solar Car To Use Finnish Solar Panels).

Management counts to have secured over 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for the car but said it was 'compelled to react to the ongoing financial market instability and streamline our business'.

It said plan to scrap the project altogether reflects a decision to focus on a capital-light business model in light of depressed capital market conditions. It explained that an estimated 90% of the funding needs for 2023 were generated by the Sion program. Sono will also sell its Sion program.

"Even though we had to terminate our original passion project, the Sion program, shifting our entire focus to business-to-business solar solutions provides us with an opportunity to continue to create innovative products in the solar space," stated Co-Founder and CEO of Sono Motors, Laurin Hahn.

It now targets to launch the Solar Bus Kit calling it the next generation of its mass-market-ready retrofit solution for clean public transportation in Q2/2023 and stressed that talks with potential investors will now exclusively focus on solar technology. It has 52 patents filed or granted out of which 42 are for its proprietary solar technology.

The focus will be on buses and 3^rd party OEM cars for Sono that counts Mitsubishi Europe, Chereau and Volkswagen subsidiaries Scania and MAN Truck & Bus as its customers.

The change in the business model comes with COO Thomas Hausch stepping down and supporting the company's transition. Sono will also let go of some 300 employees.