Car Clinic Video, 13.000 reservations, Matt & Ricky (EN)
Have a beautiful Sunday. Todays teaser image is not the Sion, but a photo from the south of Munich yesterday morning. It has been snowing for days, and many are wondering whether the weakening Gulf Stream has anything to do with it. Whatever the reason, it is worth recalling that climate change is still a thing - and what you can do yourself.
+++ CAR CLINIC +++
Sono continues to work on the Sion and tries to finalize improvements before the “freeze”. There is now a video from the “Car Clinic”last week, two community Members (Wolfgang and Uwe) also a have a say.
There is good news for the REVERSING CAMERA fans. It is finally back! I think that's great news. The rear window is rather small, without a camera there is a large blind spot area in which playing children and other “obstacles” could hide. The camera is an active contribution to safety here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Rw7EjUKdPA4
The start / stop button is also back. Opinions differ greatly on this feature. There are lovers and haters, and hardly any middle ground. Button or no button? The community has spoken clearly, 75% want the button. I have to admin, I am part of the 25%, but of course I follow the voice of the community.
The confirmation of the button was immediately criticized by the Sion followers currently driving a Tesla - the button is soo 2001. Pressing the brake and switch to D is enough, Personally, I don't need an extra button for this. But the “pro-button” faction also has good arguments, you don't have to leave the car key in the car if you have children or animals in the car. The community has spoken, the engineers at Sono have listened - the start / stop head is back in the game.
https://twitter.com/LaurinHahn/status/1382798915792166915
+++ PEPPER AND SALT +++
On Friday, Sono published an update of the development status (week 12; March 21st to 27th). This time it went really deep into the details. The highlights:
The gas struts of the trunk lid are changed, the lid can now be opened to a higher angle (feedback from the community taken into account)
A WLTP test run is made with the SVC2.1 (“Salt”)
The instrument cluster should meet the “ASIL-B” requirement, which means 10-7 failures per hour. This is equivalent to a probability of 0.0000001 fails in one hour of operations. At first it doesn't sound much. When applied to the 257,000 Sions planned, fewer than 22 may have a failure per year (with two hours of operation a day per vehicle). If I haven't miscalculated.
When it comes to design, there is a discussion of “aerodynamics” vs. “compromises in design”. Which design? I am for aerodynamics. When you sit in the car, you don't notice the exterior design anyway, but the aerodynamics and reduced consumption remain.
https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/5715/sono-motors-dev-sprint-review-cw12-21.pdf
+++ 13,000 +++
Obviously, the new referral program has had an effect, the 13,000 mark was broken las week. 13,000 active reservations, with an average reservation amount of 3,000 €.
https://sonomotors.com/en/press/press-releases/13-000-international-reservations-for-the-sev-sion/
Critics on the net have pointed out that the 13,000 reservations were already communicated in January 2020. Now there is a mention of 13,000 “private reservations”.
++ MATT & RICKY +++
“Vice Versa” with Matt & Ricky is an English video format on the subject of e-cars, renewable energies and sustainability. Matt and Ricky became aware of the Sion through Electrek and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Sion:
https://youtu.be/L_zZreYpe5I?t=1151
++ JOBS +++
Four new jobs are advertised, two in vehicle engineering and two in marketing:
Homologation engineer Sion Solar (m / f / x) - approval of solar integration
Senior Cost Engineer (f / m / x) - Cost management for the Sion
Event Manager (f / m / x) - planning and implementation of events.
Marketing project manager (m / f / x)
https://sonomotors.jobs.personio.de
+++ IN THE PRESS +++
Electrek is one of the veterans of e-mobility blogs with global reach. Last week there was a “spotlight article” about Sion and Sono Motors, which was copied over 100 times from other sites and blogs. My Dropbox folder on press clippings was full like it hadn't been for a long time.
Electrek: Electric vehicle spotlight (EVS): Sono Motors
https://electrek.co/2021/04/13/electric-vehicle-spotlight-evs-sono-motors/
Every now and then the Sion has to serve as evidence for assumptions on how the market is evolving, for example with the “Bernstein Group”:
https://bernstein-group.com/de/2021/04/15/regulieren-oder-nicht-regulieren/
Solar technology is gaining momentum, DesignNews reports:
https://www.designnews.com/materials/polycarbonate-shines-solar-vehicles
+++ COMMERCIAL REGISTER +++
For a long time it was quiet in the Federal Company Register and in the commercial register. On April 12th the “new” list of shareholders of Sono Motors GmbH was published. The sole shareholder now is Sono N.V. (international holding under Dutch law, VK 80683568), also with headquarters in Waldmeisterstr. 76 in Munich.
https://www.handelsregister.de
https://www.kvk.nl/english/ordering-products-from-the-commercial-register/kvk-extracts/
+++ FUN FACT +++
Laurin must have rummaged in the archive and picked out photos from the early days. There is currently a picture of the first logo drafts on Twitter. The picture must be old, as you can see on the Macbook's power supply unit, it hasn't been produced like this for years.
https://twitter.com/LaurinHahn/status/1381154132522901506
Stay safe, Stay Sono.