#13 (EN): Summer Solstice, Valoe, Auto Summit
Have a nice Sunday! Daylight saving time. I hope you are all awake, and if not - never mind, it's Sunday. The first quarter is already over with this report - unbelievable how fast time flies. But we are approaching summer - when all components should be merged into the validation Sion.
+++ SPRINT REPORT +++
A new Sprint Report is out - calendar week 10 ( as always with a small time offset, it covers end of February). 37 pages of highlights and lowlights, here are the most important (from our point of view):
"Kick-off Production of Wiring Harnesses". The wiring harness is produced. The startup e.GO had real problems to find someone to produce the wiring harness, because the volume was low. In addition, many OEMs are currently affected by the war in Ukraine, Leoni produces wiring harnesses there for many companies in Europe. Who builds the one for Sono? We don't know, but production has been kicked off.
"ADAS: hired two people for test & validation engineering". Team ADAS is growing - ADAS are the assistance systems - anti-lock braking systems (ABS), electronic stability programs (ESP), brake assist, parking assist, cruise control or adaptive light assist.
New logo integrated on the tailgate and rear after tuning.
E-Coating: E-coating protects the surface, edges and cavities of the body from corrosion. The report states: "Strategy change of E-Coating drain holes (Because of new know-how input, we changed from the opinion "We can have dry areas in the profiles" to "It is not possible to seal the inside of the profiles")". Let’s just hope it does not affect long runner press tools. As the engineer says "water finds its way...".
Infotainment is feeling good: the VCM (Vehicle Control Module) should be fully functional by solstice at its core. Solstice? Are they working to the Mayan calendar? Solstice is on Tuesday, June 21. Should that be the day of the validation vehicle presentation? This is how rumors get started. Otherwise, it's infotainment as usual, no lowlights - solstice performance.
Crash & Safety has corrected the typo :-). The list reads very well, impressive five pages of topics in works, many small improvements, one topic is especially interesting: "Charger Lid - requirement "functional after ls crash" - "ls" could be "Low Speed". So if you accidentally park head-on into the charging station instead of just in front of it, you should at least still be able to charge somehow (on your own responsibility of course).
https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/7588/sono-motors-dev-sprint-review-cw10-22.pdf
+++ NINGI +++
An anonymous person or group calling itself "NINGI Research" published a PDF report on Sono last week - with the stated goal of lowering the share price to make a profit. 26 pages, many things published by Sono are put under the microscope. There is nothing really new in it, everything is collected from public sources and GoingElectric - provided with opinions. Some considerations are good in my opinion - but ignore the fact that Sono is working on it. Example: Sono has always said that money needed should be collected later this year or next year, and that Sono is are examining various options for this. Of course, you can complain that in March this year is not yet known how it will be done. Fair enough. But it’s no scandal. Grass doesn't grow faster when you pull on it
Since a lot of work went into the report and it's about Sono, of course it deserves a place in the column - here's the link to the PDF. Combined with a word of caution, as with everything where you don't know who is writing - and why they don't want to be recognized.
https://ningiresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Sono-Group-SEV-short-report.pdf
https://twitter.com/NingiResearch/status/1506257750761820165
By the way, Bafin (Federal German Financial Supervisory Authority) has started to investigate NINGI because "stock recommendations" are given anonymously - and that is not allowed. The investigation was apparently triggered because of the other company it had reported on - not Sono.
+++ STALLSTREET +++
Another underground prophet (or the same one, you never know with the anonymous texters), has also dealt with Sono. On the one hand I find the work that is put in here quite respectable, many considerations are also good. Others are outdated. Otherwise, the same warning applies as with NINGI above.
https://stallstreet.substack.com/p/sev-the-money-sieve
+++ VALOE +++
Valoe is the partner that manufactures the solar integration on behalf of Sono. Apparently Sono has put the order out here as well, Valoe is happy and puts out an announcement right away.
+++ AUTO SUMMIT +++
The vehicle of the future will always be online - what does that mean for the user experience and what new business models will this create for manufacturers?
Henrik Mitsch talks about this at the "Auto Summit" in Hamburg. I know that many have reservations, but the topic is super exciting and really offers many advantages. The important thing is that users have the choice of what data they want to share.
https://autosummit.de/speaker/49-henrik-mitsch
+++ BRAKE DISCS +++
The Sion consists of over 1,500 components, all of which are sent to Munich for the validation fleet. One important component for this is the brake discs. The Sion gets special ones, on Twitter there are some pictures of the first models produced. A small discussion breaks out at the question why no "Carry Over Part" was used here, and you therefore get brake discs from third party manufacturers. The reason given was that the special requirements necessitated an in-house development. Assumption: It could be due to the weight and the necessary performance.
https://twitter.com/SonoMotors/status/1506220052823121930
+++ FUN FACT +++
Spring is coming to Munich, and the first crates of beer are being shipped towards the Isar river by the locals. Sono is already rehearsing how many crates you can get into the Sion, and there are quite a few.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=660669798325397
Stay healthy, have a nice week!
Yours, Seb, Asti, Andreas.