Happy Easter! Here are the little, inoffiail Sono Motors news of the last week. This time with updates from development, news from the referral program and an update to the community map.

+++ EASTER SEARCH HUNT +++

Cleanliness in the workshop is important. Unfortunately, the intern left some debris - and moss - in various places while building the new trunk (looks much better now!). How many chunks of moss do you find in the image that do not belong in the Sion?

+++ REFERRAL PROGRAM +++

The referral program is back, limited until the end of April. This time, there is € 125 awarded for each new customer, both for the referred person and the referrer, up to a limit of € 750. Small drawback compared to the last offering: the new reservationist also has to buy in the end, as well as the one giving the referral code, only then is the award given (see terms and conditions).

https://sonomotors.com/de/referral/

PS: By the way, my code is sebastian163632 :-)

+++ RESERVATION HOLDER MAP +++

A few weeks ago we restarted the reservation map - and received over 350 entries instantly. Thanks to everyone who signed up! Many have signed up and placed little hints that you can find each other. Last Thursday, Sono gave me an anonymized list of zip of the active reservations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the permission to import them. I did it. It took my laptop 32 hours to enter the data on the map using reverse geocoding. Just in time for the this Sunday column, every single data set is now imported. 

If you want, you canstill register yourself, even if an automatic marker is already included. Unfortunately, everyone from abroad has to do that anyway, I only got the data form D/AT/CH. Amazing to see where all the people live.

https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=4046307#

+++ DATA ANALYSIS: ZIP CODES +++

You can't just give a data nerd me a list of ZIP codes. I had to run some tests, just for my inner Monk. Most of the Sions - exactly 30 - were reserved in “67813 Gerbach”. People following the project long enough will remember: In 2018 there was a press release that “WiWin” reserved 30 Sions for the “Quartier an den Römersteinen from Mainz”. At the time, I wasn't sure if this was just a PR stunt, so I am really happy to see them in the list. The real estate project should be implemented in 2019 and has been postponed, as has the Sion launch. The reservations are still there so this seems to be alive and kicking.

https://www.electrive.net/2018/10/22/mainz-30-sion-modelle-bereichern-autarkes-wohnquartier/

Second and fourth place of the “Sion hotspots” with an incidence of 14 is the “sausage and bacon belt “ of Munich: Weilheim and Planegg. The typical Sion reservationer seems to live in the suburbs and surrounding areas. This is also confirmed by the evaluation of the survey that was attached to the last newsletter. 3rd place in the list is Landau in the Palatinate. Innsbruck (Austria) is also among the top 10, ahead of Vienna (9th place). Reinbek in the north of Germany and the area around the Arendsee in Saxony-Anhalt are also strongholds.

+++ UPDATE FROM DEVELOPMENT +++

This time it doesn't slip throug again. Sono posted the update from development on Twitter. What do you notice this time?

• “Appointment made for WLTP test. Range and consumption test”. This will be interesting!

• “First meeting with NEVS after the series development break”. That generated some comments on social media and the question of whether they really haven't talked to each other for a long time. The important message here is that NEVS is still in the race, and stronger than ever it seems.

• “Next to none participation in group retro”. Whatever the “Group Retro” is supposed to be, participation is evidently not popular. Sounds like the preparation of a slide evening with pictures from last year. I can happily do without looking back to 2020. So whatever “Group Retro” is, I feel you guys!

• The suppliers need more time for their commitments to deliver for SVC3 because they still have to coordinate with their sub-suppliers. 

• Nice picture of the trunk on page eight! A significantly improved loading area. Straight surface, flat finish. I used the new image as the teaser image for todays news. Go then! Did you already find how many pieces of moss are hidden in the picture?

https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/5707/sono-motors-dev-sprint-review-cw10-21-1.pdf

+++ A BETTER ROUTE PLANNER (ABRP) +++

Sono has already announced that the infotainment system will be based on the open source version of Android Automotive. One vehicle that is already on the road with Android Automotive is the Polestar 2 EV. There was great enthusiasm in the Polestar community last week, because “A Better Route Planner” (ABRP) became available in the vehicle appstore, the all-purpose weapon for load planning.

Now comes the kicker! “ABRP” already has the Sion in it as a placeholder, based on preliminary data. Even in the Polestar you can change the vehicle from Polestar to the Sion under “ABRP Settings”. You are still sitting in the Polestar, but ABPR is planning your trip with the Sion battery and the charging speed. You need a 4 hour break from Munich to Rome with the Sion according to ABRP. Go then.

This already solves a problem, route planning and charging station search.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com

+++ JOBS +++

Five new job listings have been added to the list:

• Manager Showroom & Receptionist

• Cleaner

• Management Strategy Research Coordinator (coordinating research at team level, representing the company in lobby groups, associations and discussions, writing of EU and national proposals)

• Homologation engineer overall vehicle (responsible for approval)

• Senior Embedded Software Architect - Development of the Bluetooth interface to the CanBUS (so that you can open the door with your mobile phone, for example). 

https://sonomotors.jobs.personio.de

+++ COMMUNITY ON SITE +++

Four happy reservations are allowed to take a close look at the SVC2 on Tuesday in Memmingen at FaktMotion. Congratulations to the chosen ones and have a great day. The Sono video crew will be there, which means we will all be able to take part in it later in the form of a video. 

(via e-mail)

+++ VIRTUAL TOUR +++

As part of a “virtual technology tour”, various companies guide you through their research activities in the context of the energy transition. Sono is also represented there, Matthieu explains the advantages of solar integration.

https://energiewende-tours.com/listing/sono-motors/

+++ FUN FACT +++

April fools jokes get difficult, as everyone can post Fake News anytime these days. Volkswagen inadvertently published its April Fool's joke in March (“renaming to Voltswagen”). So everyone was very careful with their jokes. The April Fool's joke from Sono was clearly recognizable, the “Sono Solar Roll”.

https://twitter.com/SonoMotors/status/1377519555266940928/photo/1

“Voltswagen”:

https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/vw-voltwagen-101.html

NEVS can dance! Jerusalema has now also arrived in the north and they wish you a happy Easter. At the same time there are, among other things, a few insights into the NEVS production facility. 

https://www.facebook.com/587239634622410/posts/4369239456422390/

Sunny week. Enjoy the days off, if you have any. Sebastian.