Have a nice Sunday! August, and it's raining. Maybe it's my fault for the bad weather, we set up an above-ground pool in the garden in June, and it has been raining ever since.

Let's see if things are going better on the other side of Munich:

+++ ISSUE TRACKER +++

The test drives are going very well. The team is motivated; the visitors have fun, appointments are more or less fully booked, only minimal slots are available.

The window for community feedback closes on on the development side. The validation vehicle, the "Product Confirmation" (SVC3), will be built in autumn. It has already been leaked that the Sion is getting a little longer (16 cm), getting a little bit more solar. The charging flap is being redesigned - it no overlaps the license plate when opened.

I currently get several emails a day with "last minute" requests. Of course, I can't promise anything, except that every issue is recorded and forwarded to the right place. 

The top issues currently:

• Trailer hitch: The community is interested in three values: vertical load, braked tension load, and unbraked tension load.
  It is also unclear what is part of the “acgriculture hook” package. Just the hook? The mounting structure on the vehicle? Wiring? Is a retrofit possible? Can you do it yourself?

• Door handles inside and outside ("look so cheap") and too small (inside)

• The display is very reflective.

• Please allow for customizations (e.g., analog displays, display current consumption larger).

There are many small points that all end up on the list. The feedback is extremely helpful. Who already has 13,000 future customers - who make suggestions on a specific product.

The list of all current questions can be found here; if you have any, please always use the comments on the page:

https://sono.news/testdrives/fragenliste-an-sono-3

+++ TOUR VIDEOS +++

There is a new video from Sono itself with impressions of Freiburg, Stuttgart, and Nuremberg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKyfVlKb-lg&t=47s

"Tommy's Tech Reviews" also provides a very nice insight into the tour. You can see many details, like the infotainment system with all its submenus, including the ones not yet implemented.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wYTM_vqqj48

+++ SPRINT REVIEW +++

It was actually a rule to keep the names of suppliers out of the Sprint Review. Meanwhile, more and more names slip through. The new Sprint Review is still missing, but there are now two documents for the old one? Why? I don’t know. Let's just take another look:

• Highlight: "Welding and gluing: Competence available". It's reassuring to know. Well played.

The infotainment team status light looks a bit yellow-ish to me. But anything with a lot of software in it is always yellow-ish:

• Lowlight: "The number of antennas is driving up cost". More antennas = more costs. Everyone hates if a vehicle key is in the trunk by accident and it is not recognized (if there is still one).

• Lowlight: Burning the midnight LED: "Studying the full CarPlay certification documents". A Carplay integration is not trivial. Apple prescribes everything in detail, right down to the distance between touch elements on display and the driver. And if things go really bad, you have to get a Sion to Cupertino for acceptance tests. There is a backup solution: kill the problem with money and let a service provider do the certification.

• A Highlight for me (not in the PDF) is the current state of the implementation in general. The feedback from the test drives is very positive, it’s clean, it’s fast and has a lot of really new and innovative functionality.

For team onboard charger, there is no vacation time either:

• "SVC2: V2L working, V2V not working"
  - "V2L = Vehicle to Load" is the delivery of electricity for consumers, from the garden grill to the projector and emergency power supply.
  - "V2V = Vehicle to Vehicle" is the bidirectional charging of other vehicles - this is currently not possible with the SVC2.
  
  Before everyone starts to panic: the bar is raised very high, and there is still time to solve this. My verification for V2V is: "My Tesla charges at least 60 seconds with a full 11kW, on video for everyone".

https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/6598/sono-motors-dev-sprint-review-cw26-21-1.pdf

+++ SCHRÄG +++

The e-mobility blogger Frank Hoyer ("Schräg") visited Sono in Stuttgart and asked a whole series of questions. Forty minutes of interviews and impressions. The community listened carefully, and Basti from Sono (who does a really gerat job, even though he's only been there this year - praise at this point!) explains how the development will continue. There was some confusion about the question, where the final prototypes will be built, Munich, Roding, Sweden? Official answer: the pre-series vehicles are built by NEVS in Sweden. On the prototype line, the "Frickeboa". 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzczQi_52o&t=1266s

If you want to know more about "Frickeboa", the legendary prototype track in Trollhättan:

https://saabblog.net/2017/07/10/nevs-elektroauto -pre-series-production-in-der-frickeboa /close

+++ THE CAR CRASH REPORT +++

And another blogger - Jan Weizenecker - has taken a look at the Sion. The video was still recorded in Munich, recognizable by the fact that he was allowed to look under the bonnet, which is usually not allowed during test drives due to safety. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2S-p596szY

+++ SEEDRS +++

The price of the Sono shares at Seedrs has risen to 22 €, more than 1000% compared to the price of 2017. For a short time, It was possible to trade them on Seedrs, and of course, it was exciting to see what happened.

Is a valuation of Sono Motors at 850 million Euros excessive? Are some trying to cash in on their shares? Shares once bought for € 1,000 are now valued at € 10,000. Offers for € 22 did not sell immediately, but everything up to € 20 went away immediately. After a good day of trading, trading was blocked again. Most people hold on to their shares.

On a sidenote: Shares below par value often go well on Seedrs. The short period of time could also have been a test of how investors react to the new price. Nevertheless, it is a bold sign when someone buys a package for € 6,475 that was recently valued at € 1,295. Amazing.

The complete list of transactions here:

https://www.seedrs.com/businesses/sono-motors/sections/market

+++ JOBS +++

We haven't had new jobs for a long time. Seven new jobs have been added on the meantime and, as always, they give a good impression of what new topics are currently to be solved at Sono. For reasons of space, only a small selection:

• the "Cyber ​​Security Engineer Electric Vehicle" and the "Automotive Cyber ​​Security Engineer" - so that the journey remains safe

https://sonomotors.com/de/career/job/?id=414541

• Specialist for spare parts logistics. You will work together with the Business Development and After Sales Team on the design of the process and on the selection of our 3PL partner (a 3PL partner is a logistics partner who takes on the transport but also has its own warehouses and distribution centers).

https://sonomotors.com/de/career/job/?id=363349

+++ FUN FACT +++ 

Many (including me) are still puzzling over how to swap the moss.

Isn’t it a shame to just put moss in the diorama box? Fairy lights at Christmas, Easter eggs on easter, and cobwebs on Halloween. If someone feels like doing handicrafts now, YouTube is full of ideas:

"Magical" luminous mushies in the moss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5LjGFkpApw

On a sidetone: today's cover picture comes - with kind permission - from "Zero Pionier," who discovered the Sion advertising in the Schönhauser Allee shopping mall in Berlin. Here is the little video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QPJYqt-xM

Have a lovely week!
Sebastian.