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#36 (EN): 14.000 reservations, Wallbox, OCPP

Have a lovely Sunday! Fourteen thousand active reservations - and that wasn't even the big highlight. In terms of communication, the last week was characterized by the bidirectional wallbox. 


+++ HIGHLIGHT: WALLBOX +++

One of the most frequent questions is: "which wallbox should I buy"? Sono has now put a lot of content online to cover this question. In addition, Tillmann, the product manager for the wallbox, provides first-hand information in the video. 

Key talking points:

  • Sono will offer a suitable bi-directional Wallbox for the Sion.

  • The wallbox will support 11kW charging and discharging via the standard ISO 15118-20 protocol. So it is also compatible with other bidirectional EVs that support AC discharging and might hit the market in the years to come.

  • Today there is no suitable product on the market for AC-Bidi; no wallbox can currently do that.

  • The price should be 70% below the price of a DC box, i.e., around 1,800 to 2,000 €.

  • The box will be open to third-party systems; it "speaks" Modbus and OCPP. This means that it can be integrated into existing home energy systems for maximum self-sufficiency.

  • The Sono Motors Wallbox is being developed with the German manufacturer Kostal (source: https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/auto/sono-motors-solar-elektroauto-wird-zum-stromspeicher-fuers-haus-/27570426.html )


What can be concluded from this?

  • The wallbox will be available in a year at the earliest. Even if Kostal had the core finished, you have to do all sorts of tests; the housing has to be built, the final product needs to pass the climatic chamber test, survive long-term tests, and obtain certifications.

  • Black is a challenging color for wallboxes. Wall boxes should be sealed so that they can be mounted outside in the rain (IP54). Insulated and black heats up mercilessly on the inside. Yesterday I got a new wallbox for testing (not from Sono), piano black, very chic. In the afternoon sun, the box gave up at a core temperature of 92 degrees.

  • In 2023, the Sion will support bidirectional charging based on the ISO 15118-20 industry standard. This means that every AC bidi wallbox available on the market in 2023 can be used, not just the one from Sono. The problem: there are currently none. Not even a manufacturer has specifically announced one.

  • With the Wallbox offer, Sono ensures at least one suitable product is available for the start of the Sion.

  • The fact that the box can do OCPP is great. OCPP is the standard for remote control of wallboxes. This allows you to integrate the wallbox locally in your home network if you want to keep your data to yourself. Many home energy systems can do this or have it on their roadmap. Alternatively, you can take part in "energy pools" - or in neighborhood electricity sharing projects.

  • OCPP can also transmit the identification of the connected vehicle to a control center. Then you can, for example, activate your wallbox for your own Sion and also a few friends, who can simply plug in and charge, no card or authentication necessary, just the ID of the vehicle.

  • Kostal as a partner is good. Kostal is already doing a pilot project for bidirectional charging with BMW (however, DC - the "wrong" technology) and is, therefore, familiar with the subject. With the Sono-Box, you will, of course, also be able to charge any other electric car. That could be a best seller because the box is also interesting for people who don't have a Sion at all but want to be ready for bidirectional charging.


Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9d2j5-v8E

PDF:

https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/7058/sono-motors-information-sheet-bidirectional-wallbox-en .pdf

Landing page:

https://sonomotors.com/en/bidirectional-wallbox/

Kostal and Sono:

https://ecomento.de/2021/09/02/sono-motors-bidirektionale-wallbox-14000-reservierungen-fuer- sion /July 1st

Kostal and BMW with the BDL pilot project in Munich (since summer 2021)

https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/deutschland/article/detail/T0338036DE/bidirektionales-lademanagement-–-bdl-–-pilotprojekt- starts-the-most-important-phase: -customers-test-the-first-electric-vehicles-that-can-feed-back-their-electricity? language = de


+++ WHY IS BIDI IMPORTANT +++

The baseload in Germany is around 40 gigawatts ( i.e. energy that is constantly needed). Currently, the baseload is often still covered by coal, nuclear, and gas. 

As a "backup" for the time after coal and nuclear power, Nord Stream 2 is being built, for example, to be able to cover the loss of nuclear energy and coal by generating more electricity from gas.

With bidirectional cars, we could provide the entire baseload - with multiple redundancies - just from the car batteries, if they were recharged from solar energy over the day.

To integrate vehicles into the grid, you need bidirectional, connected wallboxes. The Sono Wallbox is ready for it.

+++ WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED +++

There is often the question of what you need to set up bidirectional charging at home - apart from the wallbox. It all depends on what you want to do. Basically, the Sion and the Sono Wallbox are sufficient - and an electricity meter for the house load - so that the electricity supply can be balanced when the Sion feeds in. 

The emergency power operation that many want is not so easy because, of course, the wallbox also fails in the event of a power failure. So you absolutely need an emergency power system with a home storage system that disconnects the house from the grid and supplies the wallbox with backup power to tell the car to feed it in. 

Frankly, that is a lot of effort for 12-15 minutes of power failure per year, but it is feasible if you really want it. The much more significant and cheaper lever is self-sufficiency with just the Sion and the Wallbox.

My feeling is this; we need a (portable) demo wall for the next test drives. A wall with the typical house electrics: switch cabinet, wall box, coffee machine. And then you can see live what you need and how to do it. Hands-on (or "hands-off", because electricity is dangeous).


+++ VOTING +++

No product announcements from Sono without a community voting. Like the car, the wallbox is black. It can currently be agreed whether it will be a spiral cable or a smooth one - and whether the shape should be angular, rounded, or even more rounded. The spiral cable wrapped around the wallbox still looks pretty neat in Photoshop, I don't know if anyone remembers the old landline telephones at home; have you ever tried to wrap the spiral cable around the phone? That always looked like nothing. 

Voting on the shape and the cable

https://www.surveymonkey.de/r/75TX6CV?lang=de


+++ 14,000 +++

The test drives are having an effect; Sono now has over 14,000 active reservations. Hannes Mercker- a well-known artist in the Sono Facebook fan group - produced an anniversary comic straight away.

https://sonomotors.com/en/blog/over-14-000-reservations-of-the-sion/



Bild: https://www.hannes-mercker.de/

I also received an anonymous list from Sono with the new reservations (only postcodes) and imported it into the world map. 

https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=4046307#

There are not all 14,000 entries on the map because I only have the reservations in D / A / CH plus those who manually entered themselves from abroad. The many reservations from Italy, Holland, France are missing. If you want to add yourself, feel free to do so by clicking on "Additions" / "Add Marker Simple".

 

+++ TROLLHÄTTAN +++ 

The Evergrande Auto shares closed the day with a loss of 6.92%. An investor coming to the rescue is still not in sight. The waiting in Trollhättan at NEVS (contract manufacturer from Sono) and other European Evergrande holdings continues. The local newspaper Ttela from Trollhättan reports that Sono Motors is still in production at NEVS.

https://www.ttela.se/jobb-affärer/sono-motors-planer-i-trollhättan-står-fast-1.53761117

https://saabblog.net/2021/08/30/wenn-millionen-verschenken-sono -motors-stands-to-nevs /


+++ PRESS +++

The announcement about the Bidi-Box has again generated quite a bit of press echo. Here are just two examples:

https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/auto/sono-motors-solar-elektroauto-wird-zum-stromspeicher-fuers-haus-/27570426.html

https://www.electrive.com / 2021/09/02 / sono-motors-developing-v2x-wall-box-you-select-the-design /



+++ LEFT AND RIGHT +++

Polestar admited to have underestimated the "no dealership sales" cocept. A few interesting findings can be found in the text - because Sono is also planning without a dealer network. And Polestar had at least a service network with the Volvo dealerships right from the start.

https://ecomento.de/2021/09/03/polestar-haben-den-vertrieb-ohne-haendler-unterschaetzt/


+++ TOUR VLOG # 3 +++

The Tour VLOG #3 is more thoughtful this time, not as fast-paced as the last ones. With a guest appearance by Mr. Schüren, the initiator of the Hilden charging park and a great e-mobility supporter. 

Also, in the video: Anita, the "End of Life Manager" at Sono (5:25). "End of Life Manager"? What sounds like "cemetery organizer" is actually an important element of electromobility, the re-use of used vehicle batteries and recycling. 

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= iUPzfSK6-CYPAID BACK


+++ PAYBACK TIME ++++

2017 Sono collected a loan through WiWin, and the longer you stayed with it, the interest rate was increased. Last year you could extend it again if you didn't need the money and rake in another 6% on it. Now it's over, Sono has paid back all the money, including interest. WiWin financing is now complete.

+++ CHARGING POST +++

There is a new newsletter from Sono on the subject of the new Wallbox. If you want, you can register here and receive an update when the wallbox can be ordered. 

German:

https://sonomotors.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=88a970fc4276d224aaeb9cb99&id=c6a76a5e8d

English: 

https://sonomotors.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=88a970fc4276d224aaeb932b99+


+++ OPEN HOUSE PRESS EVENT +++

Friday, September 10th, 2021, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the press will be a guest at SONO MOTORS in the Sono House in Munich. An "urban oasis" is set up. That will probably also be the setup for the following days. I'll be there from 2 p.m. until evening (actually only because of the banana cake, maybe there is still something left from the press event).

https://www.bem-ev.de/presse-einladen-zum-bem-netzwerktreffen-am-10-09-2021-bei-sono-motors-in-muenchen/


+++ DATES +++

  • Webasto from Stockdorf near Munich ("Werner Bayer Stockdorf", the company for heated seats and sun roofs) is a pioneer for solar roofs in vehicles and manufactures the solar roof for the Ioniq 5, among other things. The first solar roof was installed in an Audi 80 Coupé back in 1989. Experts from Webasto, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar and Energy Systems ISE - and Sono Motors GmbH will talk about the potential of solar power and its automotive future at the panel discussion "Solar energy in electromobility - potentials and limits" on September 8th, 13:00 - 13:30 p.m. at the Webasto booth (Odeonsplatz, OP 430). Webasto even mentions Sono in the press release.

https://www.webasto-group.com/de/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung/solardaecher/

  • Henrik Mitsch, Group Lead Sono Digital at Sono, can be heard as a speaker at the AutomotiveIT Congress on September 30th: "Sustainable mobility for everyone: Rethinking vehicles through solar and digital technology". Details on the vehicle-to-cloud architecture and the underlying Sono backend service ecosystem.

https://www.automotiveit-kongress.eu/agenda/detail/veranstaltung/automotiveit-kongress-2021/date/automotiveit-kongress-2021-09-30t000000z/


+++ FUN FACTS +++

One of my clients once said to me "You still see solutions where others don’t". And that's why I, as an engineer, sometimes get a bit weird inquiries. My top 3 from the Wallbox environment:

  • A horse riding club from Asia has limited parking spaces for its VIP premium customers at the "old clubhouse". But the power grid of the club house was no where near sufficient to charge 10 cars at the same time. Of course, you can not explain to an oligarch that he is the smaller oligarch and therefore not allowed to charge. The funny thing: it did not matter how much they charged, but they wanted their own charging station, “the light must shine blue”

  • An IT manager had complained that he could not charge the loading procedures of his company car, because his wallbox does not send any data from 23:00 to 06:00 in the morning. Several electric inserts were unsuccessful, the third replacement device was already installed. Solution: his WLAN router hung on the multiple socket of the TV and every night he turned off his Internet when he went to bed, so the wallbox was of course also "offline" and could not send charging data.

  • A professor from England optimizes his CO2 footprint down to the last digit. His wallbox had 12 LEDs that light up blue when the car is charging. An additional problem was that he had pedestrians in the garden at night, who thought that the light was the illuminated entrance to the footpath to the university (drunk students?). the light itself was also a waste to him, why twelve lights when he was asleep. He did not want to put a tape over the LEDs, because they would then consume electricity without any use. Solution: Open the box, disconnect the LEDs. Professor happy, no more passers-by in the garden.

Stay healthy, have a nice week!