Sono Motors
Sono Motors GmbH is a German company working on the development of the electric solar car Sono Sion. A special feature of the vehicle designed by the company is solar cells embedded in the plastic body panels on both the roof and the sides. The electricity generated is fed into the traction battery and is said to be sufficient as an energy source for more than 5,000 kilometers per year. Sono Motors has been licensing this technology for use in buses and trucks since 2021. History. Sono Motors was founded by Laurin Hahn, Navina Pernsteiner and Jona Christians  in Karben, Hesse, in January 2016. A crowdfunding campaign on the internet platform Indiegogo served to finance the company. Still in its founding year, the company succeeded in securing funding for two functional prototypes. These were developed and built by Roding Automobile GmbH according to Sono's specifications, and were presented to the public in July 2017. During presentation tours through various European countries, interested parties were able to learn about the special features of the car and the mobility concept and take short test drives with the functional prototypes. In October 2018, Sono Motors raised new equity and debt  capital in another financing round. At that time, the start of production of the vehicle was announced as the fourth quarter of 2019. In March 2019, the company finally presented the (later modified) series design of the Sion and announced the series manufacturer of its vehicle on April 17, 2019. It would be produced by NEVS at the Trollhättan site in Sweden. Saab's former production facility is being reactivated there. Over an eight-year period, 260,000 vehicles are expected to roll off the production line there. According to Sono Motors, the company had 10,000 paid reservations for the Sion  across Europe as of May 2019, up from around 13,000 in January 2020. On December 1, 2019, the founders of Sono Motors stated that they had not been able to obtain the necessary funds through the usual financing route. If they had accepted the terms of the potential investors, they would have had to abandon their own principles and lose the rights to their patents to the investors. The Sono Sion would thus never have reached public roads in the way envisaged. Therefore, the founders returned to the original way of financing, crowdfunding. Through new reservations with down payments of  at least €500, increases in the down payment of orders already placed, donations and letters of intent to grant investment loans, Sono Motors aimed to raise €50 million by December 30, 2019. By the deadline set, around €32.5 million had been non-bindingly pledged, after which the deadline was extended to January 20, 2020, and €53.3 million in pledges were eventually reached. In October 2021, Sono Motors filed for an initial public offering on the American technology exchange NASDAQ. On November 17, 2021, Sono Group N.V., the Dutch registered parent company of Sono Motors GmbH, went  public on NASDAQ. Sono Motors was thus able to raise approximately US$135 million and avert the threat of insolvency. In April 2022, Sono Motors signed up with Valmet Automotive instead of NEVS (announced production partner last 2019) for their solar-powered cars. Furthermore, the company also decided to produce its first vehicles in Finland rather than in Sweden as originally planned. Vehicles. Sono Sion. The Sono Sion is the first vehicle to be developed by Sono Motors. It is an electric car that, in addition to charging via the power grid with Type 2 and CCS plugs, will also  be charged by solar modules integrated into the body. This is expected to generate up to 34 kilometers of additional range per day. The Sono Sion was originally scheduled to go into production in 2019. In June 2021, the start of production was postponed until early 2023.