The sion: a solar car for everyone

Electromobility and renewable energy go hand in hand – and yet most electric cars run on conventional electricity. Sono motors, a start-up from munich, wants to change that and has developed the sion: the first solar car in series production – at an unbeatable price.

Sustainable travel, independence from petroleum, and protection of the environment – that’s what young munich residents laurin hahn and jona christians believe the future of mobility should look like. In reality, there is little sign of this: over 61 percent of the world’s oil reserves are used for transportation, and 128 million tons of CO2 are emitted every year. The time, the two visionaries believe, is ripe for a new approach sustainable mobility, heralding the end of internal combustion engines.

It all starts in a garage

At the beginning of 2012, the two of them decided to build a innovative electric car to build a vehicle that combines all of the above. What’s more, the vehicle is supposed to be suitable for everyday use and, above all, affordable. And even if that sounds a bit like squaring the circle, jona and laurin won’t be dissuaded from their idea. A short time later, the two begin to put their ambitious plan into practice. In jonas garage they build a first prototype to show that it is possible to build an electric car with integrated solar cells.

The vision becomes reality

together with navina pernsteiner, hahn and christians then founded the start-up sono motors in early 2016. With a crowdfunding campaign for the sion, over 820.000 euro together. The team develops its first real prototype, followed by many more fully functional models.

In the summer of 2017, the start-up will present the sion, a five-seater car with a range of 250 km, the even more bidirectional charging can. This means that the sion’s battery can also be used to store electricity. And that makes it possible to use this electricity to power other electrical devices or charge other electric cars. But then the project begins to falter, and a new crowdfunding campaign has to be launched. And in fact, the backers raise more than the targeted 50 million euros.

Film: how the sion charges

Sun and moss

As planned from the very beginning, the outer skin of the sion photovoltaic cells everywhere: they are on both sides, the roof, the rear and the hood. In the visono system, the car is loaded with a total of 248 Seamlessly integrated into the entire bodywork solar zellen while driving, but also when it is parked in the garage, in the carport or on the street.

And this ensures that the sion – depending on its mileage and solar irradiation – actually generates a large part of the energy it needs itself. this can cover 34 km per day – so short distances can easily be mastered self-sufficiently. to protect the modules from the harmful effects of the environment, the sion designers covered them with a layer of polycarbonate.

Lightweight

The sion: a solar car for everyone

Moss in the cockpit of the sion binds particulate matter. © sono motors

The sion is particularly efficient because it uses many lightweight components. This is how the exterior is made of solar instead of paint. the exterior of the car is completely covered with solar body panels. The special feature: in a new production process, the solar modules are adapted exactly to the shape of the vehicle. This makes the cells almost invisible and the sion lightweight, because unlike conventional solar modules, the panels are embedded in polymer and not in glass. This makes it at least 20 percent lighter than comparable body components made of metal.

The bresono system developed by sono motors for the interior of the car is also impressive. There, the dashboard binds the moss up to 20 percent of fine dust from the air via electrostatic attraction.

Future sion drivers will not have to maintain the moss – it is completely self-sufficient. Speaking of climate: since 2017, the company has also been offsetting all CO2 emissions generated in the production of the sion. By the way, the car is being built at the former saab plant in trollhattan, sweden. Production is handled by the saab successor company NEVS. In eight years, 260.000 sion will be built; after the ramp-up phase, 43 sion will be built annually.000 units roll off the assembly line. The electricity consumed in the process comes from 100 percent renewable sources.

Inexpensive repairs

Also in terms of repair and longevity sono motors is breaking new ground with the resono maintenance system. A large proportion of the vehicle’s parts can be parts can be reordered at the click of a mouse. And because there are no contract workshops like those of traditional carmakers, sono motors shares the sion workshop manual with the public.

In addition, there will be videos and tutorials to help you repair the sion yourself – without much prior knowledge and without having to pay much for it. Because the manual is also freely accessible to workshops, anyone who doesn’t think they can do the work themselves can also have their car professionally repaired.

And when will it arrive?

Production is scheduled to start in 2022, but the car can already be reserved on the sono motors website. All future sion pilots will have to pay a minimum of 500 euros. The basic price for the munich e-mobile is 16.000 euros without a battery. You can either buy them for 9500 euros, rent them or lease them.

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