Sono Motors kills its solar powered car

Sono Motors kills its solar powered car

A photo of the Sion electric car in New York.

Nearly perfect. Photo: Dan Fox/Jalopnik

Many cars are killed when their time finally comes. The Audi TT will make its final bow later this year, the Toyota CH-R won’t see the New Year and now electric vehicle startup Sono Motors has announced that its solar-powered city car has bitten the dust before hitting the road Taste came the freedom of the open road.

The idea for Sono Motors’ solar-powered car dates back to 2016, but it wasn’t until 2019 that prototypes for the electric vehicle hit the road. Signs were also promising for the startup in 2022, when the startup sent one of its Sion passenger cars to New York where Jalopnik could drive it.

Things looked good back then, and our own Erik Shilling even described the EV as ‘almost perfect’.

But the company has struggled for cash in recent months. Portal reports that the startup launched a campaign last year to raise 100 million euros ($105.76 million) by offering discounts on vehicle pre-orders. The company also began trading on the NASDAQ in November to attract early-stage investors.

A photo of the Sion electric car with the New York skyline in the background.

Bright sun, big city. Photo: Dan Fox/Jalopnik

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At the time, it warned that if its attempts at funding were unsuccessful, it would divert its focus from building a solar-powered passenger car. Instead, it would pour all of its energies into its business, which builds solar-powered attachments for commercial vehicles. Now it takes that step and will kill its Sion city car.

“This pivot marks a significant step in Sono Motors’ business development,” said Laurin Hahn, co-founder and CEO of Sono Motors, in a statement shared with Jalopnik.

“Although we had to end our original passion project, the Sion program, shifting our entire focus to business-to-business solar solutions gives us the opportunity to continue developing innovative products in the solar space. It was a difficult decision and despite more than 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for the Sion, we were forced to respond to the ongoing instability in the financial markets and streamline our business.”

But what are these business-to-business solar solutions?

A rendering of a group of trucks covered in solar panels.

You get a solar panel, you get a solar panel, you get a solar panel. Photo: Sono Motors

Well, last year Sono launched a kit that could power buses and trucks with solar power. The kit added up to eight square meters of solar panels to the roofs of standard city buses or trucks. This, the companies say, would increase the efficiency of commercial vehicles currently roaming the streets of cities around the world.

Now Sono Motors says it will be working on developing its next-generation solar kit. To that end, Sono will be scaling its technology in preparation for a new mass-market kit planned for Q2 2023.

As part of the restructuring, Sion Motors confirmed that it also “plans to lay off about 300 employees”.

As Sono Motors goes through all of these changes, the company has confirmed that there is a payback plan in place for anyone who has pre-ordered one of its Sion city cars. Early adopters will receive 30 percent of their deposit by the end of May 2023, 40 percent will be refunded by June 2024, and the last 30 percent will follow by January 2025.