Sono Motors: series production has failed

Sono Motors: series production of the Sion has finally failed

In the end the money ran out after all: the Munich start-up Sono Motors has officially abandoned its goal of building a solar electric car it developed itself. The company is withdrawing into the pure solar business. Everything about the background and the concept of the Sion.

• The idea of the Sion: a spacious electric car for sharing
• Innovations: solar cells, bidirectional charging, sharing app
• Sono Motors: only the solar business will continue

It has happened: the Munich electric car start-up Sono Motors is burying the Sion project. The plan to build a self-developed solar electric car in series has finally failed.

The press release published on 24 February states: “For Sion reservations paid before the #savesion campaign, the company has a repayment plan. It provides for repayment in several instalments plus a bonus over the next two years, starting with the first instalment in May 2023. Sono Motors will not collect the amounts of any payment pledges made since 8 December 2022 as part of the #savesion campaign.”

In the end, the really big money was missing after all. The plan to start series production with a significantly reduced financing budget did not work out.

As if the founders of Sono Motors and their comrades-in-arms had not already been through enough ups and downs. New challenges kept arising: in technology, the battery, suppliers. In production, because a factory in Sweden that had been thought certain suddenly turned out not to be available after all. In finance, because yet another cost factor became more expensive.

But they had always somehow fought their way through. Most recently with a successful listing on the New York stock exchange. And so CEO Laurin Hahn was very relieved in November 2021: “This takes us a big step further towards delivering the Sion to our community.” All that is now history.

Retreat into the solar business

The problem: by the end of 2022 almost nothing was left of the Sono Motors share’s issue price, and the money raised had been spent; existing investors did not want to put more money into the project. They demanded that the Sion be abandoned and that the company concentrate fully on its now profitable solar business, which should be run separately.

Laurin Hahn explained only recently that this could be done, but that it was not what Sono Motors had set out to do. Instead he explained: “We would have to restructure Sono Motors completely, perhaps even invent a new brand. In any case, only a third of our 400 employees would remain. We don’t want that.”

When it became clear that the second big crowdfunding campaign, contrary to all hopes, had not raised enough money, Sono Motors finally had to pull the plug on the Sion. About 300 employees will have to look for another job. The main investors’ demand is being met. From now on, the start-up around Laurin Hahn and Jona Christians will concentrate solely on the solar business.

Report by ADAC (German)