#4 (EN): 5 Days, WLTP, Camping
Have a nice Sunday. What do you write about the campaign when there are five days left with an option to extend? We could speculate here about all the variants, immediate end and going to solar only, extension, investor yes or no, but we didn't want to speculate. We report on what is. And there was also so much going on last week anyway.
+++ TECH DAY WITH CTO MARKUS +++
The "Guided Tour" from the Tech Day 2023 with Sono CTO Markus Vollmer received a lot of praise. Many facts, in particular also on safety, are presented. Details on the honeycomb structure, rear view camera, Therefore, the video comes for us today on the title place of the column. 30 minutes of first-hand info.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rxvPXtDZZw
+++ CAMPAIGN TRAIL +++
All of us - every single reservation holder out there - we are insane. Almost 45 million in commitments. From an investor's point of view, this is interesting for two reason: firstly because it is "non-dilutive", meaning shares are not diluted, and even more so because it shows how much we stand behind the Sion and the whole concept. Our trust in Sono and the Sion is also a trust in the team. Therefore, at this point, a big THANK YOU to the more than 400 employees at Sono who give everything to keep the Sion going - thank you, on behalf of all reservers for your commitment, especially in these times.
+++ WLTP +++
The Sion passed the first WLTP test preparations. The 305 km range was thus confirmed. The video is in English, subtitles in German are available. WLTP consumption per 100 km: 16.1 kWh. The value is important because the daily solar range is also based on it.
How efficient will the Sion be? First promising test results:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78fAXMSQVk4
+++ BLICK +++
The Swiss "Blick" headlines: Is the Sion saved? Four weeks ago, Sono Motors' Sion solar car project seemed to have failed for lack of finances. Now there's hope again. Blick met Sono Motors co-founder and co-managing director Jona Christians in Zurich.
"We don't have the necessary 100 million euros together yet," Christians said, "but with the help of the funds generated so far, we should be able to close the financing gap by the time the pre-series is ready. And we still have a few days left," he adds with a smile.
Translated with DeepL
+++ HORIZON EUROPE +++
1.4 million from the EU Commission's Horizon Europe project will go to Sono, which is at least a signal. That's not like the 400 million that VW as reimbursement to stick with coal-fired power generation instead of gas, but it's a start. N-TV and DER SPIEGEL report:
Government money for electric car Sion:
+++ BAYERISCHER RUNDFUNK +++
Bayerischer Rundfunk also reports on the project and crowdfunding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JBPnVEgWT0
ARD also offers the contribution:
"Sono Motors made a dramatic appeal for donations to customers and supporters in December: If €100 million in fresh capital isn't raised by the end of January, their solar car SION is toast. What's the status of the rescue campaign?"
+++ GOING PUBLIC +++
An interview worth reading from "Going Public" with Jona Christians, co-founder and CEO, and Torsten Kiedel, CFO, Sono Motors.
Interesting question: Three years ago, before they were listed on the stock exchange, they had already raised around EUR 50 million this way - one of the largest crowdfunding campaigns ever in Europe. At that time, nothing less than the survival of Sono Motors was at stake. So, hand on heart: Is it really "only" about the Sion this time, or isn't the survival of the company as a whole at stake?
https://www.goingpublic.de/die-menschen-wollen-diese-rollende-powerbank/
+++ JONA INTERVIEW II +++
Another interview with Jona: The future of Sono (interview with CEO Jona Christians) with the CleanElectric Podcast. The video is interesting because it is also about the human side of the campaign and of Sono in general.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTtljPtZfBU
+++ CRICITS AND SCEPTICS +++
Of course, there is criticism of Sono and the campaign.
Both sides had their say with Daniel from "nEo", he invited to talk about the Sion. There were three guests: Remo (who some of us know), active reserver has held up the flag, York (former reserver who got his money back) and Vanessa (no reservation).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDP6PUQtTgI
Michael of “Breaking Electric News” YouTube channel publicly doubts that Sono has received certification from the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) to be certified OEM and has inquired with the KBA if this is true. https://www.facebook.com/michael.schmitt.526875/posts/5780416735382898
The KBA itself lists Sono as the manufacturer on the same official government page, let's see what comes out and who is right: https://www.kba.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/SV/sv32_pdf.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4
What is true is, that the current campaign involves risk. The money will only be collected if enough money is raised to get to pre-series production, but there is still a big risk once the money has been collected. The money does still not cover the complete journey, everything can be lost. The EcoReporter summarizes this again:
https://www.ecoreporter.de/artikel/sono-motors-wird-das-solarauto-sion-nie-gebaut/
+++ NEWSLETTER +++
Sono continues to send many newsletters, not everyone gets them all. The reason for this is "segmentation", everyone should only get the content that is relevant and not too many. Here is the list of all mailings:
21.1. 7 days left
20.1. missed Tech Day? No problem!
19.1. test results: Sion range and efficiency
18.1. pass it on!
17.1. the Sion in the endurance test
16.1. your power generator on wheels
Translated with DeepL
+++ JOIN THE REVOLUTION +++
IPO Edge bringt kompakt vieles (engl.) , das wir kennen, betont die Branchenkompetenz der Führungscrew des C-Levels und kommt zum Fazit: "Mit einem First-Mover-Vorteil sind andere Erstausrüster bereits dabei, ihre Autos mit einer Solaroption auszustatten. Sono sitzt in der ersten Reihe, egal was passiert."
https://ipo-edge.com/join-the-solar-vehicle-revolution-with-germanys-sono-motors/
+++ FUN FACT +++
I have to admit, as an electrical engineer I can build a wallbox with “Eichrecht” (the hot shit right now in the wallbox business; a special German legislation for transparent charging data), but I have no idea about camping and trailers.
I'm very glad that we have a campground operator in our Facebook admin group, Wolfgang, who has shown me that camping is much more than wandering back and forth unshaven ("talking hedge") between your private fart capsule (sleeping bag) and alcoholic toothbrush (peppermint liqueur).
To more than 25% of Sion of reservation holders, the trailer hitch is elemental, so it is for us, too. And I'm always fascinated by what can be accomplished with towing capcaity (braked and unbraked).
Werner from our community has brought an interesting new link, the "Bruno", a camper with solar, 1000 W power supply and under 750kg.
https://www.kuckoo-camper.de/bruno/
And with the Sion, you always have enough energy left over for an espresso from the integrated power plug. Here is a live video from Tech Day:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YXEGFvwXaW8
Have a great week. Stay healthy. The coming week will be exciting in any case.
Sebastian, Astrid, Andreas.