Sono Motors hopeful of getting needed funding for solar car programme

German solar mobility firm Sono Motors, subsidiary of Sono Group NV (NASDAQ:SEV), on Tuesday said it has secured over EUR 40 million (USD 43m) in customer commitments in the last weeks as part of its ongoing #savesion campaign aimed at rescuing its Sion solar car project.

“This support is making it conceivable that Sono Motors achieves its target of about EUR 100 million gross in new or increased reservation deposits, investments, or other sources of funding within the next few weeks,” the company says.

According to chief executive and co-founder Laurin Hahn, the new reservations are a strong signal to investors. Hahn said the business is in talks with potential investors and expressed confidence it will reach the target and proceed with the Sion programme.

Sono Motors currently has 44,000 reservations for its solar electric vehicle, including about 21,000 private reservations with deposit, about 22,000 non-binding business-to-business pre-orders and more than 1,000 new private reservations with deposit commitment during the #savesion campaign. More than 8,000 people have taken part in the campaign by making a new reservation or increasing their deposit.

The company is meanwhile continuing its testing and series-validation programme of the vehicle, with pre-series production due to start in the summer.

The Sion is currently undergoing durability testing in Spain at the Applus IDIADA test track.

Additional testing includes a real-life test of the solar charging capability in December, which showed a calculated 28 km (17.4 miles) of pure solar range per week, meaning the car has achieved 80% of the expected winter solar yield a year ahead of planned production, according to the announcement. Sono Motors said this confirms the potential for an average solar range of 5,800 km a year in Europe.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.084)

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