Sono Motors fights for its Sion

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

The solar electric car Sion is threatening to fall victim to the poor situation on the financial markets: The manufacturer Sono Motors is having difficulties collecting the required equity 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 will 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 stock," Sono Motors founders and CEOs Jona Christians and Laurin Hahn wrote in a statement. They said the campaign is the first part of a financing strategy for the next 12 months. "We expect that this will enable us to raise further funding and pay for the remaining machinery, tooling and production equipment to reach the planned pre-series production in 2023 and then the start of production in the first quarter of 2024."

So far, 21,000 individuals have reserved a Sion, according to the startup. It also adds 22,000 pre-orders from fleet operators. If all reservations result in a purchase, the current potential net sales figure is circa one billion euros. Testing of the solar electric cars is currently underway. 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 plans to discontinue the Sion program and focus on its B2B solar business. Here, the startup produces 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, Sono Solar and Sono Digital revenues were 138,000 euros - six times the second quarter of 2021. Net loss in the third quarter of 2022 was 43.5 million euros and about 50 cents per share.