The start-up sono motors wants to build electric cars that recharge with solar power while driving

How hard can it be to build an electric car?? One that is suitable for everyday use and can run on free electricity from the sun? A car that doesn’t pollute the environment, doesn’t need to be plugged in all the time, and still gets you where you want to go. Just because BMW, mercedes or audi don’t produce such a car doesn’t mean it’s not feasible. that’s exactly what munich-based laurin hahn and jona christians thought six years ago after a long and exhausting telephone debate about oil, diesel cars and climate change. At the time, they were just 18 years old and still had their high school diploma ahead of them. Nevertheless, they did not simply ponder and philosophize away. Instead, a little later they got themselves an old twingo and took over jonas’ parents’ garage.

The two guys lifted the petrol engine out of the small car, lifted the tank out of the underbody, removed the exhaust, put in batteries and a small electric motor. How to do it, they learned from youtube. in the meantime, laurin recruited his roommate navina pernsteiner, who brought order and design to the project. Together they converted the car to run on electricity and then mounted solar cells on the roof as well. And indeed: what they now call a "small feasibility study" actually drove – and filled up with solar energy on the side. That was confirmation enough to go on. In early 2016, the trio founded the car start-up sono motors to turn the tinkered twingo into a car of its own that anyone can buy. They hoped for support – and got it: on the crowdfunding platform indigogo, they collected 549 in the same year.995 euros in start-up financing and 25 advance orders for the car, which would be several years in the making.

The start-up sono motors wants to build electric cars that recharge with solar power while driving

Out of the incubator

Today, sono motors is a real company. Instead of working in the offices of the munich technology center, a start-up incubator in the Bavarian capital, the nearly 70 employees now work in a long concrete building with enough space for production and development. vdynamics, a service provider that is also responsible for BMW’s vehicle development, is also located in your neighborhood in the north of munich. In the meantime, the young founders have also enlisted the support of thomas hausch, the ex-european head of nissan. "it’s really great to see what has happened over time," says laurin hahn, who acts as head of sono motors. This is thanks first and foremost to the car that emerged from the ambitious conversion project carried out by the Munich-based company six years ago. Its name: sion. The prototype was officially unveiled in July of last year. The finished car is expected to be on the road next year.

Apart from the basic idea and the dimensions of the small car, the sion has very little in common with the tinkered twingo. It’s rather angular, okay, but it looks modern. 330 monocrystalline silicon solar cells are embedded in the sides, hood and roof of the vehicle – a total of 7.5 square meters. They will be protected against rockfall by a layer of plastic and are supposed to supply free electricity for 30 kilometers on a sunny day. Even on gray, cloudy days, the solar energy should be enough to cover 15 kilometers. With a fully charged battery, the sion can travel 250 kilometers. For an average commuter who travels 17 kilometers to work, that’s more than enough. Like Tesla, the interior features only digital displays and a tablet in the center console – albeit on a much more modest scale. Fresh air is provided by a moss – cladonia rangiferina – that grows in a transparent shaft on the leg driver; this acts as a natural fine dust filter and looks chic at the same time. All this is futuristic but reasonable.

"many people smiled at us at first," says laurin hahn, "some doubted that such a vision, an electric car with integrated solar cells, was even feasible."that’s why the team has invited people all over europe to test drive the car over the last few months. The sion team wanted to do some convincing work. After all, it’s a risk for customers to buy a car from a start-up that no one knows about – even if it looks good on the Internet. What’s more, the new carmakers were looking for feedback. "that was also an important motive for taking the sion prototypes directly to interested parties and offering test drives," says hahn. Both in terms of standard color, number of seats and charging capacity, the community had its say. "most recently, we put the design of the sion’s LED headlights to a vote," says hahn.

In fact, sono motors was able to convince a lot of drivers in the first run-up. In the meantime, almost 8.000 of the future vehicles reserved. These are orders worth around 150 million euros. Because the sion will cost 16.000 euros – plus 4.000 euros for the battery, which can also be rented. That’s half the price of a BMW i3 and almost 5 percent less.000 euros less than a nissan leaf in the basic version. "if the reservations were already registrations, our market share for e-cars in germany would be 15 percent in the first half of 2018," says hahn quite proudly. "the sion would be the second most sold e-car in germany, just behind the renault zoe."but that is not yet the case. First of all, the car has to be built in series. Next year it will be ready to go.

The start-up sono motors wants to build electric cars that recharge with solar power while driving

Green – even in the office

Designing a new vehicle from scratch is a challenge. To build it then also, a completely different. Since last year, the whole world has been able to follow along with the tesla model 3. Even after additional investments of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars and the arrival of German experts, series production of the model 3 was still bumpy. the munich team cannot and will not afford that. That’s why, contrary to initial plans, there will be only one version of the sion, not several. The actual production will be left to a partner who knows how to do it. "we will have the sion produced in europe by a contract manufacturer," says hahn. "this significantly reduces the complexity, the logistical effort and the associated investments."

Who the experts are? This is to remain a secret for the time being. but: the sion is supposed to be ready for pickup in bremerhaven, germany. This makes artega the most likely candidate, a car manufacturer founded twelve years ago in delbruck, Germany. The had once produced the artega GT sports car and introduced an electric variant of it in 2011, the artega SE. The SE was the result of the joint e-conversion project frecc0 with the fraunhofer-gesellschaft. Artega also has further electrical experience. With karo, the company has built an all-electric quad as a concept vehicle that can be coupled with smartphone and tablet. With this, the carmaker can actually do everything it needs to build the sion.

The start-up sono motors wants to build electric cars that recharge with solar power while driving

hahn believes that hardly anything can go wrong in production. Of course, it’s a "complex process," but they’ve done everything they can to "ensure a smooth start to production". He also simply relies on the know-how of the partners. In any case, they are real pioneers in the industry and are renowned. The battery system for the sion comes from the Baden-Wurttemberg-based automotive supplier elring klinger. the headlights are supplied by automotive solutions from samerberg, near the bavarian town of rosenheim. When selecting suppliers, sono motors paid attention to more than just the price and qualifications of the companies.

"for us, the most important thing was to minimize the environmental impact of the development and production of the sion," says hahn. "the development and production of parts directly in germany means, for example, significantly shorter delivery and logistics routes and thus makes a decisive contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. This is a very important factor for us." this sounds, admittedly, very much like marketing. But the sono motors team is serious about this. Very serious. The founders and their comrades-in-arms thus appear not only daring and convinced of their own cause, but also like true idealists.

The electricity for the sono motors office is eco-friendly, just like the bank and the lunch for the employees. The computers and other office equipment are often refurbished goods – i.e. second-hand or refurbished computers, chairs and desks that have been returned and refurbished. The company’s cell phones also come from fairphone. Paper? That wants to be kept out of the office as completely as possible. Other e-car start-ups like eli electric and uniti are not seen as competitors that will steal your customers, says hahn. The company is happy about "any sustainable project that promotes electromobility."because: "as a company, we urgently need to do something, we are running out of time. "the founders of the german car start-up are right behind tesla founder elon musk. He keeps repeating: "If we can get clean cars on the road, then we can tackle the other problems as well."

The start-up sono motors wants to build electric cars that recharge with solar power while driving

Not a carmaker, but a mobility service provider

However, the three-man team from munich not only wants to build clean cars, but much more – or: actually the opposite. Because the founders are basically concerned with getting as many cars off the road as possible. After all, most of them spend between 80 and 90 percent of their time in the garage or parking lot. That’s why the sion was conceived from the outset as a car that can be shared. The idea is that the car will be connected to a sharing network using an app called gosono. If you have a sion, you can share it with others at any time and within a few seconds – for a few hours, but also for days or weeks. The rental price can also be set flexibly and thus recoup the purchase price of the car in one to two years.

According to sono motors, one sion can replace eight cars in this way. Not only in big cities with well-off eco-hipsters, but also in the countryside, where car pools could form around the small car or the vehicles could be provided by the community. there would also already be requests to integrate the sion, as soon as it comes off the production line, into smaller and larger projects in cities and regions. However: the driver can not only share the car, but also the electricity that the sion refuels through the sun. E-cars without their own solar roof can be charged with 11 kilowatts via various sockets under a flap at the front. This is also paid for via app. The sion becomes a mobile charging station.

Future and world domination

Even if it will still be a while before the e-car from munich is on the road in large numbers, the founders are already thinking about the future. "we’re looking at different areas right now," says hahn. "in the market where we could have the greatest impact, we will launch the next vehicle." the next step, that could be a vehicle that is bigger than the sion and has more space for solar cells, a delivery truck or even a truck? It’s not quite sure yet. Autonomous driving is also a "topic that we are watching carefully"."a self-driving sion car would only really become a reality if it could be implemented cheaply and safely for passengers.

If it were up to the founders, sono motors would not necessarily remain just a car manufacturer, even if the first product is a car and "motors" is in the name. In the long run, it would be unsustainable for the planet to keep rolling out new cars from factories. "for each of these vehicles, a lot of resources are needed in production," says hahn. For the team, it’s about finding new ways and possibilities to guarantee mobility and supply people with energy. "the sion is not just another e-car on the market. It is the first step on our way to becoming a global energy and mobility service provider."these are really big words for such a young team that still has a lot to prove. But: you want to believe the three guys from munich and their team and wish that they can do it.

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Christina Cherry
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