Not even a month ago, Lightyear announced the end of the first solar car on the market. Reason? Apparently lack of funds. Now another ambitious solar car project is joining it. The Munich company Sono Motors had to cancel its Sion project relatively shortly before the planned start of production. The reason is – again – finances.
“The end of the Sion project reflects a decision to focus, in light of poor market conditions, on less capital-intensive projects,” Sono Motors said in a press release announcing the end of its flagship. As it reminds, for example German newspaper Handelsblattrepresentatives of the German start-up were still quite optimistic at the end of January regarding financing and the search for possible investors.
Last December, the owners of Sono Motors wanted to solve the lack of funds to start serial production with a campaign called #saveSion, in which they planned to collect the entire purchase amount for a solar car, not just a deposit, from 3.5 thousand potential customers. However, the idea was that the company would only get financing when it actually had enough orders to start production.
At the end of January, the Sono Motors company extended the campaign until the end of February with the hope that the required approximately one hundred million euros will be collected for the start of pre-series production. At that moment, she had about half in her account. As we already know today, neither an investor nor enough interested parties could be found. The start-up then points out that, due to the failure, it will not collect the promised money from this rescue campaign from customers. You won’t lose them that way.
According to the latest quarterly balance report from the beginning of December last year, the company also had approximately 21,000 private orders for a solar car by the end of the eleventh month, each customer paid an advance of two thousand euros on average, about 47,000 crowns. This was before the #SaveZion campaign. Even these customers will not lose money, but they will gradually return to them.
The “installment calendar” provides for 30 percent by the end of May this year at the latest, another 40 percent by the end of June next year at the latest, and the remaining 30 percent by the end of January 2025 at the latest. so it again amounts to an average of 100 euros.
According to the press release, Sono Motors will also embark on a major savings program, approximately three hundred employees will be laid off – that’s three quarters of the total number – and Thomas Hausch, who was responsible for operational issues, will resign. It is also a goal sell the entire Zion programincluding all hardware and software, but Sono Motors has not disclosed the price.
On the other hand, the company’s representatives did not forget to take a dig at the German government. Since 2016, when it was established, it is said to have received about one percent from the state of the total 330 million euros collected. According to Sono Motors, the government does not see sustainable solutions for mobility in the same way as they do.
The start-up as such does not end there, it will only deal exclusively with the installation of solar technologies on cars of other brands. According to the press release, it will cooperate, for example, with Mitsubishi Europe, Scania or the truck and bus producer MAN. Buses are to be a key part of the German company’s business in the future. At the same time, let’s remind that even the Dutch Lightyear did not finish completely, but threw its energies into the development of a smaller and more affordable solar car.
What was Sion by Sono Motors anyway? The 4.3-meter-long hatchback was to be covered with solar panels, which were supposed to provide an average of up to 112 kilometers per week just because of the sun’s rays. The classic battery was supposed to provide a range of about 305 kilometers on one charge. It was also expected that the car would be widely used in car sharing.
Serial production was originally supposed to start next year, so far the start-up has produced eighteen prototypes, which they even let interested parties in Germany, Austria and Switzerland test, thereby gaining potential customers. The price of the finished car was supposed to be around 30,000 euros, or about 700,000 crowns in conversion.
In addition to two promising solar cars, the Slovak flying car project Aeromobil also went bankrupt a few days ago. Again, this was due to a lack of funds.
