Sono Motors fights for its Sion

Sono Motors needs 3,500 more reservations for its solar electric car "Sion". Otherwise, the project is on the brink of collapse.

The Sion solar electric car is in danger of falling victim to the poor situation on the financial markets: The manufacturer Sono Motors is having difficulties collecting the equity required for the project and is now launching the "#saveSion" campaign. For the next 50 days, interested parties will receive a discount of up to 3,000 euros on the final price of their Sion, which is around 25,000 euros net. The campaign target is 3,500 cars. Customers only have to make the down payment if this target is reached.

"#saveSion is our solution for financing a large part of the Sion program without further diluting the share," write Sono Motors founders and managing directors Jona Christians and Laurin Hahn in a statement. The campaign is the first part of a financing strategy for the next twelve months. "We assume that we will be able to raise further funds and pay for the remaining machines, tools and production facilities in order to achieve the planned pre-series production in 2023 and then the start of production in the first quarter of 2024."

According to the start-up, 21,000 private individuals have reserved a Sion so far. There are also 22,000 pre-orders from fleet operators. If all reservations lead to a purchase, the current potential net revenue is around one billion euros. The solar electric cars are currently being tested. Engineers are testing the electrics and electronics, driving dynamics and various accident scenarios. Load tests are planned for the winter.

If the campaign fails, Sono Motors would like to discontinue the Sion program and focus on its B2B solar business. The start-up manufactures solar technology for buses, e-transporters and refrigerated vehicles. Sono Motors already has 23 corporate customers. In the third quarter of this year, four additional letters of intent and twelve orders were added compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the turnover of Sono Solar and Sono Digital was 138,000 euros - six times higher than in the second quarter of 2021. The net loss in the third quarter of 2022 was 43.5 million euros and around 50 cents per share.