Sono Motors is ending its long-awaited electric vehicle program and instead turning to a business aimed at selling solar vehicle technology to other companies.
The German-based company, which went public in November 2022, said on Friday it would lay off 300 employees as a result of a change in its business model. COO Thomas Hausch will also step down.
This shift appears to be driven by a one-two punch of high-cost EV programs coupled with rapidly depleting capital. Sono Motors has been plagued with financial problems for years. At one point it almost closed down completely until it reached out to individuals through crowdfunding campaigns and received backing.
The Sion EV program was the company’s initial focus, but it has consistently squeezed its budget. According to the company, an estimated 90% of the funding needed for 2023 is going toward his $25,000 Sion EV, a five-seat hatchback that is slated to go into production later this year.
Sono Motors will focus on selling the technology it developed for the Sion EV: solar built into the vehicle. The company’s business retrofits and integrates solar technology, including power electronics and software, into commercial vehicles such as buses and vehicles produced by his OEMs.
“This pivot marks an important step in Sono Motors’ business development,” said Sono Motors CEO and co-founder Laurin Hahn in a statement. “Although we had to finish our original passion project, the Sion program, shifting all our focus to B2B solar solutions gives us the opportunity to continue creating innovative products in the solar space. This was a difficult decision, and despite Sion’s over 45,000 reservations and pre-orders, we have been forced to respond to ongoing financial market volatility and streamline our business.”
Sono says it currently has 23 B2B customers who are piloting integrated solar technology in a variety of vehicles, including third-party OEM cars, buses, refrigerated vehicles and recreational vehicles. Sono said it is working with Mitsubishi Europe, Schello, Volkswagen subsidiary Scania and MAN Truck & Bus.
The Germany-based company was founded in 2016 by co-founders Jonah Christians, Laurin Hahn, and Naveena Pernsteiner to explore ways to reduce society’s reliance on fossil fuels, and is partly powered by It all started when we started an ambitious plan to build an electric passenger car. Sun. (Pernsteiner said he left the company in 2020.) From a distance, the Sion vehicle prototype looked like a compact car painted black. Upon closer inspection, the vehicle’s entire exterior was actually made up of hundreds of solar cells embedded in polymer rather than glass.
In January 2021, the company announced plans to license its solar panel technology to other companies. These solar cells convert sunlight into energy and store it in the vehicle’s battery. At the time, Hahn said the technology would make cars less dependent on charging infrastructure. It can also support auxiliary power applications such as power used to power refrigerated trucks.
A product called the “Solar Bus Kit” is expected in the second quarter of 2023.
