Earlier in December, the cofounders of Munich-based Sono Motors announced to their reservation holders and supporters that their new-generation solar-electric Sion prototype will be launched at the virtual CES 2021, taking place from January 11 to 14. The German-language, English-subtitled recording of the live stream can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwyNur5vnac. In showing the next-generation prototype at CES, the company wants to garner international attention to present its technology to a wider audience and get feedback.

The vehicle’s development was kick-started by one of Europe’s largest crowdfunding campaigns in January 2020. Backed up by subsequent financial resources and the support of the community, the company started the new prototype project at the beginning of 2020. In less than a year, the company built the latest prototype, despite most of the development taking place during a time of global transformation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For the first time, we integrated parts in a prototype that will also be installed in the series vehicle,” said Denis Azhar, Sion Group Lead at Sono Motors. “The successful assembly is the result of strong partnerships with suppliers and employees from the facility in Roding.”

The team spent most of the year working toward the planned milestones for its second prototype in 2020. Those key steps included a program restart in the spring, CAD handover in the summer, and the completion of the second prototype generation in the winter. The manufacturing of the prototypes takes the company another major step toward series production.

“Our work reality has changed completely due to COVID-19, but our vision has not,” said Laurin Hahn, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Sono Motors. “In the midst of a global health and economic crisis, we have focused even more on our vision—determined to alleviate another global crisis, global warming.”

“The successful completion of the crowdfunding campaign has made us aware once again that we have created an unstoppable movement that people are willing to support with compassion and confidence,” added Jona Christians, Co-founder & Co-CEO. “This gave us the energy to continue our work more committed than ever.”

 

Company and ‘community’ on a mission

Sono Motors was founded in 2016 with the mission of enabling a mobility system where every electric vehicle is solar, shared, and independent from fossil fuels. Co-founders Hahn and Christians (and recently departed third Co-founder Navina Pernsteiner) lead a team of more than 100 people that combines new and veteran talent including former employees from BMW, Nissan, Chrysler Group, DaimlerChrysler, Mercedes-Benz, FlixBus, and myTaxi. They include “key operatives:”

The company released its first-generation Sion prototype to the public in 2017. The electric car is being designed and developed for daily use with integrated solar cells and innovative mobility services to enable users to access clean mobility, harnessing solar energy, and reducing CO2 impacts.

In December 2019, Sono Motors announced a strategic reorganization of the company’s finances “to protect its values and technologies,” hoping for a vote of confidence from its “community” to continue “project, Sion.” Less than two months later it successfully closed one of the biggest community crowdfunding campaigns in Europe.

It completed the extension of its campaign to finance the company, exceeding its target of €50 million. An average of €1 million a day was invested in the campaign over a period of 50 days, of which around 75% stem from reservation holders of the Sion, 19% from existing and new investors, and around 6% from loans and donations. Proceeds from the campaign are being used to finance the construction of series prototypes and to set up production.

The “53 million euros, invested by the center of society, for the forward-looking and sustainable mobility concept of a startup is a clear signal, also directed at politicians to make adjustments,” said Hahn at the time. “Electromobility and the support of young companies in Germany has to be pursued faster and more vigorously. We at Sono Motors now see it as our responsibility to live up to the trust placed in us by our supporters. Together with the community, we will continue on our path to bring the Sion into production as quickly as possible.”

Since its foundation, the company has raised more than €100 million through reservations and funding.

 

Polymer body panel cells

The Sion’s designers wanted to create a spacious front-wheel-drive car for its modest proportions. Key dimensions are 4290-mm (168.9-in) length, 2100-mm (82.7-in) width (with mirrors), and 1670-mm (65.7-in) height, with a cargo volume of 650 L (22.9 ft³) expandable to 1250 L (44.1 ft³) with the rear seats folded. The wheelbase is 2770 mm (109.1 in).

A primary means of car charging is through the power of the sun thanks to 248 solar cells integrated into the Sion’s body. An innovative manufacturing process enables the seamless integration of solar cells into the body and other surfaces. This enables the Sion to generate an additional range of up to 5800 km (3600 mi) per year using only solar energy—completely free of emissions and cost.

Unlike other solar modules, the car’s solar body panel cells are embedded in polymer rather than glass. This makes them at least 20% lighter than comparable metal body parts. For comparison, in mass per area (kg/m²) for body panels, the viSono solar material clocks in at 4-8 vs. 5-12 for sheet metal, 10 for flexible PV (photovoltaic), and 20 for glass PV and Vi (vehicle integrated) PV.

Innovative solar-cell technology ensures maximum efficiency, with higher energy per area numbers (W/m²) for the viSono solar material at 200-220 vs. 180 for flexible PV (photovoltaic), glass PV, and Vi PV.

The company has developed an intelligent energy forecast model for predictions of solar range based on meteorological data and car location. For example, in the company’s home base in Germany, up to 34 km (21 mi) of additional range per day can be generated purely by solar energy.

The car can also be charged at a public charging station or at home. At a fast-charging CCS station, it usually takes about 30 min to charge up to 80%, with another 30 min to 100%. It takes 2.5 h for 80% and 3.2 h for 100% with Type 2 charging. With a European household (SchuKo) plug, completely empty to 100% charge takes 13 h.

Bidirectional charging technology enables the use of the Sion as a mobile energy-storage source while camping, on the construction site, or at home. A regular household plug can be used to power all common electric devices with up to 3.7 kW. The car can deliver even more power when using a Type 2 plug, powering high-voltage devices with up to 11 kW. The bidirectional onboard charger even enables the car to share its power to recharge other electric vehicles.

The Sion’s liquid-cooled battery pack has a capacity of 35 kW·h, which enables 255 km (158 mi), according to the WLTP standard, on a single charge—the perfect range for everyday use, according to the company. Power comes from a maximum 400-V operating voltage and a 120-kW, 270-N·m motor. Performance numbers include a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of less than 9 s, a 140-km/h (87-mph) top speed, and 750-kg (1650-lb) tow-bar maximum ratings.

Designers focused the car’s understated interior on intuitive useability, with a highlight being the island moss built into the dashboard that provides a pleasant indoor climate by regulating humidity. The infotainment system and related connectivity and mobility services can be controlled centrally via the 10-in touch display.

With just a few clicks, an integrated Sono app will enable users to share power, a ride, or the car. With Car Sharing, it will be totally up to the owner to decide for how long and with whom the Sion is shared. If the owner does not want to ride alone, Ride Pooling can offer other users a ride. Power Sharing makes sharing the energy stored in the Sion easy, with the owner deciding on how much electricity to share and at what price.

A three-step maintenance system keeps repair costs as low as possible. For DIY-ers, standard replacement parts can be changed without needing much prior knowledge. A workshop handbook will be published to enable an extensive network of independent mechanics. For repairs involving high-voltage or body parts, Sono Motors will cooperate with a well-known European service provider.

 

Partnering for production

Sono is working with some well-known industry partners including Arrk, Expleo’s Automotive Solutions Germany, Continental, Elringklinger, NEVS, and TRE (Team Rosberg Engineering)

In 2018, Sono Motors announced a long-term partnership with Continental’s powertrain division to build the electric drive unit (EDU) for the Sion over the vehicle’s full life cycle. The EDU integrates motor, power electronics, and transmission into a single system unit to reduce size and weight to just 80 kg (176 lb). The highly integrated axle drive saw start-of-production in Q3 2019 in Jiading, China, for Chinese and European customers like Sono.

Also in 2018, the company announced a partnership with ElringKlinger in the area of battery development and production, and another with Automotive Solutions Germany for custom LED headlamps.

The most recently announced supplier collaboration involves TRE, for Sion chassis development including the steering system. The partners are working on the design of a safe and robust subframe, which provides frontal crash safety while meeting installation space requirements. Founded by Formula One world champion Keke Rosberg, TRE—a joint venture with IAV GmbH—has been involved since 2018 in axle-concept selection and development.

The cooperation “delivers positive outcomes in several aspects,” said Christians. “TRE is a leading player in chassis development, incorporating specialist knowledge from racing engineers into passenger-car manufacturing. Furthermore, with a German supplier, we have short delivery distances and short delivery times.”

“As a sustainability entrepreneur, it is a particular concern of mine to contribute our expertise to the development of Sono Motors’ Sion and to further develop the future of alternative mobility concepts,” said Nico Rosberg, TRE shareholder and son of founder Keke Rosberg.

“We are pleased that we can contribute our profound know-how and TRE’s more than 20 years of experience in chassis development to the development of the Sion and thus help shape technological progress in future-oriented mobility concepts,” added Eckardt Döhrer, TRE CEO.

Prototype parts, such as subframes, wheel carriers, and stabilizer bars, already largely correspond to the properties and functions needed for the future production vehicle. In October, finished parts were transported to the prototype production facility in Roding, Germany. The chassis systems are already installed in the next-generation prototypes to be shown at CES. The prototypes will be used for tuning runs and road tests.

Sono Motors plans to produce a total of 260,000 Sions over an eight-year period in collaboration with NEVS in Trollhättan, Sweden, at the previous Saab factory. To reduce Sono Motors’ and the Sion’s carbon footprints to a minimum, the car will be produced with 100% renewable energy, and unavoidable CO₂ emissions produced throughout the manufacturing process will be entirely offset by the company.

The company currently has 13,000 reservations for the Sion, with down payments from €500 going toward a final estimated €25,500 total price including German VAT. The basic price for the vehicle is €16,000, plus the cost of the battery. The Sion is expected to have the lowest TCO (total cost of ownership) in its category at the time of production.

The company is planning to offer the battery at a one-time purchase price—expected to be around €9500—or with the option of renting or leasing it. The company will calculate the final price for the battery based on market rates for battery cells at the time of production.

The first Sion is scheduled to roll off the production line in September 2021. These vehicles will be used for type approval and process quality assurance. Delivery of customer vehicles will start at the beginning of 2022.