#43 (EN): East coast, tech video, children's book with Sion
Happy Sunday. Whoopi Goldberg was quoted as saying "I'd buy the Sion right now” when she visited Brooklyn. “But no one will sell me one". Welcome to our world. But that was not all that happened this week:
+++ US TOUR UPDATE +++
The US tour took a little break. There is a truck to move the Sion from coast to coast - and it will take some time. The next stops:
Monday (24.10): Oakland "Hangar One". Oakland is located across from San Francisco on a former military airfield. Friends of the series "MythBusters" know the fallow site from numerous experiments.
Tuesday (10/25): San Francisco. 505 Howard Street. Very moneyed corner, Blackrock, the NASDAQ branch, PwC (auditors) and headquarters of Slack (software) are located here. Golden Gate and Cable Car are further down the street.
Wednesday (10/26): San Jose (Silicon Valley) at Sibros - from 19:00 to 21:00 (our time) livestream on YouTube, with live demo of connectivity. Sibros is Sono's tech partner for over-the-air integration.
Thursday and Friday (10/27 and 10/28): Last stop is Los Angeles at the Tuxedo Warehouse Film Location, one of Heidi Klum's favorite sets for series like "Germany's Next Pot Model" and "Making the Cut." Fun Fact: Last year Gucci was a guest here with its fall collection, this year the Sion.
This ends the tour, and the following week we welcome everyone back.
https://sonomotorscelebratethechange.as.me/sanfranoakland
https://sonomotorscelebratethechange.as.me/la
Link to the stream at Sibros (YouTube will be available later)
https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6985842902346158080/
+++ ZWISCHENBILANZ +++
If someone does a trip, he can tell something. Thursday Sono publish a travelogue with the highlights and quotes from visitors.
"Sono Motors is pushing the boundaries of what's possible and showing people what new, avant-garde transportation could look like." (Professor Kevin Krizek).
https://sonomotors.com/de/blog/nasdaq-whoopi-motown-the-most-exciting-us-tour-moments-so-far/
+++ TECH VIDEO: Noise & Vibration +++
The Sion in the USA is a marketing vehicle, other SVC3s from Bertrandt are currently being used here in Europe to prepare for homologation.
E-cars must make a noise at slow speeds, and not be too loud at higher speeds. Meeting the limits is not difficult with e-cars in general; the challenge is the tires: The Sion is supposed to get "all-season" tires, and the rolling noise is louder than with summer tires. Incidentally, the limits only apply to the "original equipment" with which the car is delivered; after that, customers can put on any tires they like. In order for the Sion to pass homologation, you have to test beforehand that all limits are met, and that's where the new tech video #17 came from. Greetings at this point to Marie from Sono, who makes sure that we pass homologation well.
For the tech video from Memmingen, it was wet and cold, raining non-stop - that's why no live tests were possible. When the road is wet, you only measure the water. Since cameras are not welcome on the site - other OEMs are also testing here - we had to use the short time slot in the rain.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WMPcfHtsYXM
+++ MUNRO +++
Sandy Munro earns his money by disassembling cars to determine strengths and weaknesses in vehicle production. For a lot of money, you can buy a list of what it costs to produce a particular vehicle, what cost-cutting measures have been used, what new ideas have been incorporated - in order to draw conclusions about profitability. Big OEMs use that to get info on their competitors.
Munro achieved notoriety outside the scene with a "teardown" video of the Model 3 - in which Tesla's workmanship was described "like Kia from the 90s." But at the time - to the shock of established OEMS - that Tesla was producing the Model 3 quite profitably.
Sandy himself unfortunately did not come - but Carl from his team did. With COO Thomas he talked in detail about carry over parts, protruding plastic parts in the Sion, missing eyelets, injection molds and solar integration. A nice video with lots of detail.
The natural enemy of solar yield is "partial shading". So it is exciting to see how the cells are interconnected. Thomas explains that the door handle sits a bit lower so that a long row of solar cells could be wired together from front to back in the "kink" above. A nice example of the knowledge Sono is building with the combination of vehicle and solar. From min. 13:30 in the video it is explained, worth listening in
Here is the link to the Sion video on the Munro channel.
https://youtu.be/ub1OEKVvEqU?t=751
The web portal "E-Engine" took a close look at the video and commented on it - and wrote a small Sion special to go with it. Conclusion on the Sion: "Technically, the car is something of a revelation - but from an aesthetic point of view, in our opinion, it's an absolute disaster." Ouch.
+++ DRIVING +++
The SVC 3.9 drove on the A9, the 3.10 "Neptune" can be seen in the USA. All prototypes ("series validation vehicles") have a planet name next to the number. You can see in the Twitter video that the "Neptune" can drive:
https://twitter.com/LaurinHahn/status/1583183052108627969
By the way, the SVCs are not built in order, but the numbers indicate which "squad" gets the vehicle after completion. They are built according to urgency, 3.9 is for E/E - they were among the first. The numbers 3.11 to 3.16 are built for crash tests.
+++ MARKET WATCH +++
Solar-powered, bi-directional cars are the future, they are sustainable, energy-saving and enable independence. "E-Vehicle Info" lists the top 5, the Sion is on the list. Why the Fisker is missing, I'd be interested to know,
I've never heard of the "Humble One" in the lis befoert. The Humble "only" has a solar roof, no solar on on the sides or on the hood - but claims to generate up to 90 km of range per day.
https://e-vehicleinfo.com/top-solar-powered-ev-electric-car-with-solar-panels/
EnBW also lists the upcoming solar cars:
https://www.enbw.com/blog/elektromobilitaet/fahren/die-solarautos-kommen-lightyear-one-und-sion
+++ SONO CARSHARING +++
Some of us were contacted who use the sharing app and asked for an interview. Dates are all in November. This time there are still a lot of appointments available.
I deliberately don't share the link here because I don't know what criteria was used to invite here, probably you have to have a car registered in the app.
The mail came Thursday (20.10) at 15:20 with the title "Sono Motors needs your help - invitation for an interview".
+++ PRESS CLIPPINGS +++
The press response in the USA about the tour is surprisingly low. I had to turn on my USA VPN to get any significant results at all. The country is big, marketing in the USA is big, something significant has to happen to make it into the "headlines". There is coverage, nonetheless, especially on Social Media.
An example of coverage:
https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a41714351/sono-motors-25000-dollar-sion-ev-for-europe/
In Germany, there is more going on:
Abendzeitung: Munich start-up Sono Motors in New York: Hollywood star Whoopi Goldberg is a fan
Spiegel Online: How Germany is screwing up the electric turnaround (insight: it's not us with the Sion)
+++ EVENTS +++
A new date has just surfaced, Sono will appear at the "Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum" on November 28 in Frankfurt.
https://ir.sonomotors.com/events/event-details/sono-group-participates-deutsches-eigenkapitalforum
+++ FUN FACT +++
You can buy an umbrella for four euros, or for 1,200 euros. Both protect against rain.
With premium products, emotions are needed to justify the price premiums. At the next poetry slam, all you have to do is read out the Audi advertising text from AD magazine and you're sure to win. Great suburban cinema. We envision the tomorrow already today! Well, we hope so, that’s how envisioning generally works.
"Movement as an immersive experience in the fusion of digital and analog."
A new children's book by Hans Schörle is much more down-to-earth, explaining the advantages of e-mobility and solar on the basis of the Sion - with very loving illustrations, even the moss made it into the book. On the homepage you can click through some pages for free. Link to the children's book in the first comment.
AD-Magazine: https://www.ad-magazin.de/anzeige/article/die-zukunft-des-designs
Have a great week, stay healthy.
Sebastian, Astrid.