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Prototype with no future:
The Sion from Sono Motors will not go into series production
Photo: Bernd Feil / MiS / IMAGO
The Munich company Sono Motors pulls the plug on its solar car Sion.
The program will be discontinued, Sono Motors announced on Friday.
In the future, the company will focus exclusively on the solar business with business customers.
Around 300 employees would be laid off, and Thomas Hausch,
the manager responsible for operational business,
would resign from his job.
"We couldn't convince investors to invest in a capital-intensive hardware product given the ongoing instability in the financial markets," said Sono co-founder
Laurin Hahn
.
At the end of January, Sono was still confident of finding investors for the Sion program.
A reservation campaign should save the solar car.
Of the good 100 million euros, however, commitments were only received for around half.
Anyone who has reserved a car should now get their money back, it said.
Several installments plus a bonus are planned over the next two years, starting with the first installment in May.
Actually, the cars should be produced on a larger scale from 2024 and come on the market at a unit price of around 30,000 euros.
Sono now wants to focus on the business with solar cells for buses, refrigerated trailers or cars from other manufacturers.
Discussions with potential investors focused exclusively on this from then on.
The Munich-based company works with Mitsubishi Europe and the two Volkswagen subsidiaries Scania and MAN on their solar roofs for buses.
cr/Reuters
