#46 (EN): BOSCH, Sprint Report, Time Magazine
Have a nice Sunday. Thursday it still looked like the column was going to be pretty thin, and then came one news item after another. Better grab the bigger cup, there's a lot of detail today.
+++ TIME MAGAZINE +++
Time magazine has selected the 200 best inventions of 2022.
Two of them come from Munich, and both inventions can currently only be touched as prototypes: The BMW iX Flow (currently at the BMW world in display) - which can change its exterior color thanks to e-ink foiling - and the Sion. The PR effect of such a selection is great. Congratulations to Sono.
https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2022/6226989/sono-motors-sion
+++ BOSCH +++
The Sion is sold online, without a dealer. That saves about 10 - 15 percent margin. Nevertheless, as a customer you naturally want service in case something breaks during the warranty period or something needs to be repaired at some later point. There has been a lot of speculation about which partner it would be, but now the cat's out of the bag: it's the BOSCH service centers - in other words, many independent workshops that are supplied by Bosch.
At the start, there will be 50 partners, and the network will be expanded step by step. One of the reasons for this is that the workshops must have high-voltage training. Not all of them have that yet. The bases are recognizable by a special "Sono Motors Service Partner" sign.
Some were irritated that for all other workshops the Sion manual is only provided "abbreviated". This is currently for legal reasons. The Sono promise - "disclosure of the workshop manual" is deeply embedded at Sono. Some information from suppliers is just not allowed to be freely posted on the web without further ado.
+++ SPRINT REPORT +++
A new Sprint Report is here! There was a long break with the PDF reports from development, only the tech videos could give some insight. Before you open it, you wonder why it's back now - and what's in it. Spoiler alert - it looks okay. Nothing really critical (or I have not found it):
Highlight: pedestrian protection tests carried out. We had the news here last week, the test with the bowling ball hitting the hood.
Manufacturing costs: Making progress on CapEX within projected timeline, still 15% to be cut to be on target: Translated: Cost down measures are on track but there is still 15% to be found To understand this: A car like this is build with many thousands of parts, and the first step is to make sure you get the puzzle together. And then you have to check if you can get the costs down, bit by bit until the time production starts. That doesn't happen overnight, it happens step by step, a month here, a month there. Until you reach the target price. Or not. An example of how this works can be found on page 9 of the report, where it says: Exploration of new supplier for head unit opens up new cost down potential.
General update: Increasing risk of delaying nomination of series production line builder due to dependency on external financing: Translated: if money needed is not provided soon, the nomination of the contract to the production line construction service provider (in German: Fertigungsstraßenaufbaudienstleister) will have to be delayed. The production lines are often built by service providers, at Tesla this was Grohmann Automation, which was bought by Tesla in 2016 and is now called Tesla Automation. "Nomination delayed" does not immediately mean that the SOP will be delayed, maybe the service provider can work faster. And "risk" means that the case has not materialized yet. Not nice, a risk remains.
SVC3-05 production at lower speed than planned. The SVC3-05 seems to be the Monday car, there is always something. Unfortunately I don't know who is the internal "customer" (engineering team) for the SVC3-05, but it will have to wait.
Highlight: add joggle on mounting flange: I imagine I know English quite well, but here I had no idea what this could mean. I'll definitely put that sentence in somewhere sometime. "And here, we added a joggle on the flange," and then grin proudly. I'm sure everyone is impressed, no one would understand. Maybe not funny for the native english speaker, but to a German, it sounds funny.
Lowlight: Glue for the roof panels to be defined (in line with production partner). We could be mean and translate to "it did not work on our side, it did not work at the partner location, but no one wants the buck". Glue is always a nasty issue. I only know this from the carbon parts of the i3, where at the beginning it was said "riveting is the new gluing", because it didn't hold at all, even after SOP.
Interior highlight: Weight almost on target (+1 kg). Interior weight almost on target, one kilo over.
Powertrain Highlight: Coastdown tests to measure vehicle rolling resistance in Spain. Homologation tests continue, a prototype is on the test track in Spain.
Simulation Highlight: Water wading, minimal optimizations needed. "Water wading" is the depth of water you can drive through without damaging the car. Seems to be on target.
AVAS Sound Design: There are several sounds to choose from, let community decide (I know one, it was pretty good, I thought, the engineers thought it could be much better).
Bidi: Lowlight - some DCUs do not work and have to go back to the supplier. Highlight - For communication (PLC - between car / wallbox) the supplier is decided.
Homologation: approvals for test & validation vehicles were obtained. The SVC3 have achieved homologation, special permission to drive on the road.
https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/9035/sono-motors-dev-sprint-review-cw42-22-4.pdf
+++ IAA REVIEW +++
The question came up how the IAA went. We went in search of clues. Before the trade show, Sono summarized the reasons for going:
https://sonomotors.com/de/blog/sono-goes-to-iaa-transportation-but-why/
And after the fair there was a summary:
https://sonomotors.com/en/blog/7-impressions-from-iaa-transportation/
Parallel to the IAA Transportation in Frankfurt, InnoTrans was also held in Berlin. Since Sono addresses both target groups with the Solar Bus Kit, they were at both trade fairs. Why two trade fairs have to take place at the same time, which are aimed at similar target groups, can only be explained by misplanning or corona.
Sono's booth was planned to minimize waste. Almost everything we set up at the show can be reused in Sono's office or showroom.
Solar seems to be a trend not only in the car sector, and therefore several partners are represented with Sono solar technology:
KÖGEL (26 modules, 4.68 kW peak, 11.8 kWh yield per day)
CHEREAU (54 modules, 9.8 kW peak, 21.2 kWh yield per day)
Mitsubishi (26 modules, 4.68 kW peak, 11.8 kWh yield per day)
Wingliner (16 modules, 3.43 kW peak, 8.6 kWh yield per day)
If you don't come from the industry, you completely underestimate the transport business. Until the day before yesterday, I felt the same way. All of a sudden, I received an inquiry (in my company - not from Sono) as to whether we could help build a system to record exhaust emissions of trucks in a single US state - and what hardware and software could be suitable. When I asked how many trucks we were talking about, the other guy said quite dryly: 1.4 million trucks.
That's an incredibly large market.
+++ HEAVY METAL +++
A large part of the capital is needed for the tools for production. More and more series production parts for the presses are appearing in the Twitter feed. Among other things, the molds for the hood, headlights and bumpers have arrived.
https://twitter.com/LaurinHahn/status/1591432083578458112/photo/3
https://twitter.com/LaurinHahn/status/1590955729514815490
+++ LIGHTYEAR +++
Sono wins Time Magazine 2022 for innovation, and Lightyear wins the 2022 Golden Steering Wheel at AutoBild in the "Innovation" section for its "Lightyear 0" solar car. Solar on vehicles is coming.
https://www.autobild.de/artikel/goldenes-lenkrad-2022-die-gewinner-22251345.html
+++ FUN FACT +++
If you want to see how a production line is set up at Valmet (the contract manufacturer from Sono), you can watch a time-lapse video by Lightyear. An area is being prepared for the "Lightyear 0" at Valmet. It's not quite comparable, because the Lightyear is built in a manufactory process, with a total of 964 units. On the one hand, this allows Lightyear to get a simplified registration, on the other hand it means of course higher prices per piece, 250,000 € are called per vehicle.
Have a good week, stay healthy.
Sebastian, Astrid.
PS: Just to put the record straight - todays teaser image with the workshop sign is fictitious, Photoshop. Sono and Bosch surely will create something nice, I just wanted to put this on the cover somehow.