She should have crisscrossed the roads of Europe from 2024. But she finally slips away, even before she was born.
Sion, the car running on solar energy developed since 2022, is abandoned by the Munich manufacturer Sono Motors.
His ambition was to produce more than 250,000 of these family vehicles with a body lined with 456 photovoltaic cells over the next six years.
Announced price: 25,000 euros.
Read alsoLe Figaro at the wheel of the first solar car
“Despite more than 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for Sion, we were forced to react to the continuing instability of the financial markets and to rationalize our activities
,” explained Laurin Hahn, its CEO.
Listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, the start-up will resell the program, lay off 300 employees and focus on integrating its solar technology on third-party vehicles.
Mitsubishi Europe, Chéreau transport and two Volkswagen subsidiaries are among its twenty customers.
This failure, despite financial aid from the European Union, illustrates the difficulties of solar autos in getting out of this sector of the automotive industry to emerge.
In January, the Dutch start-up Lightyear also announced the end of its solar sedan project at 250,000 euros.
It is now trying to revive itself with a less ambitious model.
Ditto for the Californian manufacturer Aptera, in financial difficulty.
Read alsoWith Lightyear, the car of the future runs on solar energy
Is the solar car only a utopia?
While waiting to find out, consumers can always fall back on an electric car for rent at “100 euros per month”.
Emmanuel Macron's campaign promise is beginning to take shape.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has just indicated that reservations will open in the fall of 2023, for delivery in 2024.