#5 (EN): Extra Time, Lightyear, Aptera
Have a nice Sunday. An intense week for solar cars is behind us. Sono extended the crowdfunding campaign into the post-game, Lightyear had to stop building the Lightyear 0, and Aptera launches a bidding platform for the first production seats.
+++ VERLÄNGERUNG +++
Many had expected an extension of the campaign, now it's here. The 100 million campaign is prolonged until February 28, with a good 50 million still missing.
My interpretation: The community has spoken - we help, but we won’t do it alone. Prove, that you are able to attract investors. I don't think that's so wrong. Sono has to cover the entire financial requirements up to production, including financing for the first vehicles. As reservers, we have to trust that it will succeed. And this way, we can ask for at least some kind of proof that it is possible before the money is invoiced. There is still a lot of risk involved anyway.
The most important questions:
Will I be debited now?
No. The account is only debited when the target is reached. If it is not reached, the campaign is over, all pledges expire and nothing is debited.We are in the post campaign period, is there a "Golden Goal" rule?
Yes. If the campaign goal of financial pledges is reached before the 28th, then the campaign is successful at that moment and it will be debited in the days after.What happens if the campaign is not successful?
In this case, Sono wants to switch to the "Solar Only" plan, become a supplier, massively reduce staff and try to pay back all previous reservers.The 104 million counter on the Sono homepage recently shows "Other sources", what is this?
This is the money from investors and other sources according to the T&C, which help to reach the target amount. It's about getting the funding for the next step and everything that pays into it is listed here. We asked Sono to provide a detail breakdown of how that breaks down, either way. Mouseover, Twitter message.Is the extension an easy decision? If the campaign works out, Sono's employees are the most important thing in getting the Sion over the finish line. The extension keeps everyone on board, so you have the full monthly personnel costs of a good four million euros, which come out of the coffers. If it doesn't work out and we continue with "Solar Only," the cut will be all the harder. It was certainly not such an easy decision, even if it seems that way. On the other hand, the finance team has been given more than four weeks, and work on the car can continue during that time. So RIsiko yes, but also opportunity.
The official communication from Sono:
Explainer video on YouTube with Laurin and Jona:
Exact figures from the database (for the techies out there):
https://sonomotors.com/en/api/preorder-data/
On financial transparency:
https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/10257/221220_sono_motors_funding_startegy_ger_vf-1.pdf
+++ CITY TOUR II +++
Looking at the Sion and test driving it is still the best way to experience the vehicle. There are 12 new stops as part of the extension. Starting already Monday in Regensburg, and Wednesday with test drives in Zusmarshausen in the Sortimo loading park, the "Kreuz Hilden of the South", Augsburg, Friedrichshafen, Tübingen, Stuttgart, Saarbrücken, Düsseldorf/Hilden, Essen, Kassel, Leipzig, Chemnitz.
Missing dates/locations will come in the course of the week. The north comes a bit short this time, but it doesn't all go at once. Hamburg was already in round I.
https://sonomotors.com/de/events/
+++ LIGHTYEAR +++
Less than two months ago, manufacture of the Lightyear 0 started at Valmet. Completely unexpectedly, Lightyear announced the end of production this Monday and sent its subsidiary "Atlas Technologies - Valmet's contractual partner - into insolvency. One day later, Valmet itself also announced the termination of the Lightyear 0 at its own plant. After the Lightyear One, this is now the second Lighyear model to disappear.
What was going on?
Lightyear hired 200 more people than Sono, but raised significantly less money. In December, things were still looking good, production of the Lightyear 0 started, and it looked like Tesla's 2008 strategy was still working out for Lightyear 15 years later: get in expensive with a car that investors would also like to drive themselves, and then the cheap car for the mass market.
After less than 10 built cars the ripcord was pulled - the production per car was much too expensive and the assembly took much too long - even 250.000 € per car was apparently not enough to cover the costs.
At this point I have to commend Markus and his team at Sono: To avoid such a situation, the 18 SVC3s at Bertrandt were already built "according to manual" and in exchange with Valmet. Reproducibility is the key to scale and quality.
The parent company "Atlas Holding" is not yet affected by the insolvency. There, they now want to continue with the Lightyear 2; there are over 40,000 free registrations on a waiting list for it. Of course, this is not comparable to the 22,000 advance payments at Sono; at Lightyear, an e-mail address is sufficient. Whether people who have paid for the Lightyear 0 are affected by the bankruptcy is currently unclear.
If the report in AutoWeek is true, Lightyear was only able to sell 150 of the planned 968 vehicles at a price of €250,000. Perhaps the calculation simply did not add up, that he price almost arbitrarily increased battery. Originally the "ONE" was once priced at €150,000 before it became the "0".
At this point we would like to send our best wishes to the Netherlands. Lightyear, Lex and Team: Veel geluk in deze moeilijke tijd. Good luck in the hard time. It's a race and you guys are part of it.
If solar cars make it, people will greet each other on the road, just like e-car drivers greeted each other in 2012/2013, regardless of brand. It wasn't about Zoe or i3 or Leaf, it was about change. As it is again now.
https://lightyear.one/press-releases/bankruptcy-atlas-technologies-b-v-approved
https://t3n.de/news/lightyear-solarauto-insolvenz-1530831/
https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a42634857/lightyear-0-production-halted/
+++ APTERA +++
Tough times also for Aptera, the three-wheeled solar racing car from California: Money is needed, and an "Aptera Launch Edition" is introduced: Whoever invests the most gets first place. Those who have invested so far will only get into the Launch Edition list if he or she adds at least 10,000 dollars, but then both will be added together. Anyone who has invested but does nothing in the current round will slip to the back.
Question for you: what do you think? Who pays a lot, slides to the front? So far this was a no-go at Sono.
The reservation list at Aptera works the way you'd expect from the motherland of turbo-capitalism: a real-time bidding platform, like an auction. Here's the link to take a look, cool stuff, you have to press "Reload" sometimes to get anything:
And here is the explanatory video about it from the management:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMIwhbepXWs
+++ 400 GRÜNDE +++
The campaign not on only decides the fate of the Sion, but also the fate of hundreds of employees. In a new video, they have their say and explain why it is worth fighting for the Sion and the concept of sustainable solar mobility.
"That's us." on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jY8KsnOcF8
https://twitter.com/SonoMotors/status/1619267852984545280
+++ TV +++
"In total, Sono still needs 210 million until production can start in early 2024". N-TV summarizes the project again in 5 minutes. And by February 28, it should be finally determined whether the Sion will hit the road or not.
+++ PRESSE +++
The press reports to the Sono campaign continues to be high in German media, especially in combination with the other news from the solar vehicles:
Stern - The failure of solar cars
Wirtschaftswoche – Sion receives a grace period:
https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/auto/sono-motors-solarauto-erhaelt-weitere-schonfrist/28947238.html
Abendzeitung – Sono Motors gives itself one last chance
MotorLine: The Sion community is engaged in Vienna
+++ MORE COVERAGE +++
instadriver from Vienna
Clean Thinking (before extra time announcement)
https://www.cleanthinking.de/save-sion-sono-motors-crowdfunding-solarauto/amp/
Futurezone (before extra time announcement)
Focus (30 people that provide hope) - Sono ist included:
+++ HABECK +++
It was asked very often from the community why politics does not help. A question about Sono in an open hour came last week at number 1 of a question list, the short answer: The policy helps via funding programs, but not individual companies. It's just stupid when the coalition agreement says that they want to enable solar and bidirectional charging, but not how.
https://www.youtube.com/live/r2lTZERrBzU?feature=share&t=787
+++ FUN FACT +++
Finally, something positive from the sunny side. Since I've been driving electric, I've heard the saying in the supermarket parking lot "but where will all the energy come from if everyone drives electric". If we leave the liquid dinosaurs in the ground and buy only e-cars from now on, we will need 20% more electricity by 2040 than today. What many don't know is that we are adding more than 20% power generation globally every 10 years. If we keep it up, that's not the problem.
And now the good news for Sunday: in 2021, 50% of all new additions were solar, plus 25% wind. So it really seems to be getting into people's heads.
https://assets.bbhub.io/professional/sites/24/BNEF-Power-Transition-Trends-2022_FINAL.pdf
Solar energy and wind are not the cause of our current energy crisis, nothing has become more expensive. By the way, 40 million cars with solar on the roof would be a whopping 48 GW of solar power, as much peak power as 34 nuclear power plants (if I haven't miscalculated, a nuclear power plant has 1.4 GW on average). "Solar on every vehicle" makes further sense, roofs are not everywhere.
Have a nice week, stay healthy
Sebastian, Asti, Andreas, Wolfgang.