#savesion, a deep dive

Sion 3,500

"We failed. This could be the end of the Sion. You decide."

— Laurin Hahn, CEO and co-founder of Sono Motors. ( link )

Sono Motors announced yesterday that they have failed to raise the ecessary capital (probably what their US tour was about), and its investors are saying they should close down the Sion solar EV project, lay off 70% of the people, refund the community and focus on their solar technology offerings instead.

With this backstory, Sion launched a #savesion campaign inviting its 22,000 reservation holders (and others) to put in payment for the car in full (€26,900 ($28.3k)) or contribute what they can. The ones that do pay for the car get a €3k discount.

I also wonder if some of its claimed 22,000 B2B pre-orders come into play

The co-founders share in this (emotional) video that if they can get 3,500 people to pay for the car in full within 50 days (which would be north of $90M?), they will be able to go on towards production:

Looks like they have a tracker on their website , which currently says 165.43 of 3,500 paid Sions have been reached. 48 days to go:

Just a few hours ago, the company also dropped a video of the CFO, Torsten Kiedel, answering most community questions about the finances:

 The stock $SEV is down 36.59% over the past 5 days, currently hovering at ~76.8M market cap. ( link )

Sono Motors is one of the most community-involved EV startups I've seen so far and has raised significant funds from the crowd before - like the €53M in 50 days back in early 2020. Back then, 75% came in from Sion reservations ( link ). This is how I see it:

Story: ✓
Community: ✓
‍Chance they'll make it: ✓

Since this is our EV spotlight section, we can't go without some specs and pics of the Sion.

Cofounders

The co-founders of Sono Motors

  • Range: 190 miles (306 km) WLTP
  • Battery: 54 kWh; LFP battery supplied by BYD, 400V architecture.
  • Solar: claims 112km (70 mi) average added range per week (245km (152 mi) max) on ideal conditions. At peak performance, the cells can generate up to 1.2kW.
  • Charging: 75kW DC; 11kW AC (bidirectional coming as OTA).
  • Speed & power: top speed 140 km/h, 163 hp,  0-100km/h in 9 seconds.
  • Dimensions: length 4470 x width 1830 x height 1660 at wheelbase 2830mm.
  • Features a tow bar (surprisingly), and processed (not living) moss in its interior.
  • Production: set to start in 2024 (after several years of delays) in Valmet Automotive plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland (link). That's the same plant where the first solar EV in production, Lightyear 0 rolled off the product line last week.

Here's a 29-page pdf if you want to dig deeper into anything about the car. I also applaud Sono's transparency. Here's their development roadmap with a lot to geek out on (link).

Pictures:

The best video I've seen of the car so far is with Carl from Munro Live interviewing the COO Thomas Hausch next to the car. They call the Sion "the Swiss pocket knife, not the Gucci handbag" ( video ).

I personally hope this is not the end of Sion. Their dedication in bringing an electric car to the market at a lower price than others is admirable, and the 'quirks', along with several smart design moves of the car, are a sure bonus.

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