News

Here are the highlights from Celebrate the Sun

10th August 2022 – After years of development, we finally had the honor of presenting the Sion in its finished production design on 25 July 2022. Another key milestone that we couldn’t have reached without you - our Community. Because it was so special, we have created a summary of the event for you.

Press Release

Sono Motors Unveils Production Design of Its ‘Sion’ Solar-Electric Passenger Car And ‘Solar Bus Kit’ For Public Transportation Fleets

25th July 2022 – Munich-Based Solar Mobility OEM Sono Motors Mark Two World Premieres at Its First “Celebrate the Sun” Community Event…

Blog Post

Sisu! Or why Valmet Automotive is the perfect partner for building the Sion

21st July 2022 – Today, we would like to introduce Valmet Automotive to you in more detail. Not every one of our Community is a passionate expert on topics that concern the automotive industry. So here are some insights about our excellent partner from the city with the lovely name Uusikaupunki.

Blog Post

Pride is for life, not just for June

16th July 2022 – At the end of last month we posted on Twitter that ‘Pride is for life, not just for June’. Pride and diversity are topics that most companies make prominent during the month of June, as it is Pride Month. To coincide with Munich’s Christopher Street Day parade on 16 July, we wanted to write about the ways in which we at Sono strive to make our company a safe and inclusive workplace through various initiatives.

Blog Post

5 Reasons Why You Should Care About the Sono Carsharing App

8th July 2022 – Sono Motors has a smartphone app? Aren’t they developing a solar car? Why do they offer an app? What does it do? If you have ever asked yourself one or all of these questions, this piece is the right thing to spend the next five minutes of your life perusing.

Press Release

“Find a Community” – Sono Motors Expands Sono Carsharing With Innovative Service

5th July 2022 – Launch of the Sono Carsharing App Developed by Sono Motors, Which Makes Every Private Car Accessible to a Self-Defined Community…

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Sono Motors in the Media

Fully Charged Show

The Super-Cheap Solar-Powered Car Is Finally Here!

26th July 2022 – Who wants a cheap, simple EV that charges itself by the sun? Oh and you also want some moss on the dashboard? Well, you're in luck.

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Forbes

Future Tech Watch: Sono Motors’ Sion EV Is Covered In Solar Panels To Soak Up Free Power

28th July 2022 – Since I write about EVs and such, I get this question very often: Why don’t electric cars have solar panels on the roof to charge the battery when the car isn’t being driven (or even when it is)?

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Fast Company

Park this electric car in the sun and it uses solar to give itself an extra charge

25th July 2022 – From a distance, the Sion looks like an ordinary black car. But when you walk closer to the new electric car from the Germany-based startup Sono Motors, you might notice solar cells covering the doors, hood, roof, and the rest of the surface—456 solar half-cells, to be exact.

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Sustainable BUS

The retrofit Solar Bus Kit by Sono Motors aims to reduce bus fleet emissions thanks to solar panels

27th July 2022 – Solar-powered mobility specialist Sono Motors has unveiled a ‘Solar Bus Kit’ for public transportation fleet. Through a retrofit intervention, with installation of solar panels on the roof of a conventional bus, the system aims to reduce fuel consumption and inner-city greenhouse gas emissions.

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NTV

"Solar electric cars can trigger next big wave in mobility"

1st August 2022 – What started ten years ago in a garage is now a publicly listed company: Sono Motors wants to put a solar-powered electric car on the road in 2023. In an interview, founder Laurin Hahn talks about how crowdfunding saved the project and what the startup does better than Tesla.

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Welt

Sono Motors Sion

26th Juli 2022 – The Sion solar car is nearing market launch. Manufacturer Sono Motors has now unveiled the future production car. The most striking changes concern the front.

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MDR

Solar vehicles: The dream of the self-charging electric car

3rd May 2022 - Solar cars only use the sun as an energy supplier and thus drive completely emission-free. We look at the history of solar mobility and introduce start-ups that want to deliver the first vehicles from 2023.

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Medium

Not a Tesla-killer, but a Tesla-filler

20th April 2022 – So many car-brands have marketed their prototypes as “Tesla-killers”. It gets kind of boring. Tesla is still many years ahead in the technology race and will probably be so for years to come. Every time the competition races ahead, Tesla does the same.

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CleanTechnica

Sono Motors’ Solar Bus Trailer Gets Put To The Test In Munich

12th April 2022 – The bus’s diesel engine normally would power all of this stuff with a combination of a big alternator and possibly a hydraulic or air pump. Both of these things make a drag on the engine, making it consume more fuel, but passengers aren’t about to go without heating and air conditioning, and they’d be even more mad...

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Green Car Reports

Sono Sion solar EV will be built in Finland, not Sweden, in change of manufacturing partners

6th April 2022 – Munich-based startup Sono Motors on Tuesday announced a change in manufacturing plans for its solar-supplemented Sion electric car.

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Süddeutsche Zeitung

A bus fills up on sunshine

1st April 2022 – The first bus with a photovoltaic system on the roof is on the road in Munich. This could save 2500 litres of diesel per year and vehicle.

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Capital

Sono Motors - mobile with solar power

30th March 2022 – Sono Motors is taking the concept of the electric car a step further. The Munich-based company's planned car is equipped with photovoltaic panels and should thus be able to get by for weeks without a charging station

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t3n

Sion production launch draws closer: Sono Motors starts series testing

14th March 2022 – 16 vehicles will go through the endurance test in the coming months. Some components of the Sion are still to be optimised.

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Electrek

Sono Motors begins building 37 body in white series-validation SEVs

14th March 2022 – Sono Motors has moved one phase closer to production of its Sion Solar Electric Vehicle (SEV), as it has completed its prototype phases and has begun building series-validation vehicles for testing and certification.

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Zeit

From a garage in Munich to the New York stock exchange

12. Januar 2022 – Two waldorf school graduates are building a unique electric car. Their company is now worth billions despite the fact that no car has yet been sold.

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Fifth Gear

Sono Sion Test Drive | Fifth Gear

13. December 2021 – Rory and JP from the YouTube channel Fifth Gear visited us and drove the Sion. Check out how they liked it here.

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INSIDEEVs

Ari-458 prototype with solar modules from Sono Motors

6th October 2021 – Photovoltaics should provide an additional range of 20 to 48 kilometres

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Fully Charged Show

The cheap solar-powered car you might NEVER need to charge

30th September 2021 – Imagine a car that can charge using the sun, can generate an income via a car sharing scheme and is also affordable to buy. Sounds like a pipe dream, right? Think again - say hello to Sono Motors' Sion electric car.

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ZDF

Who will help me to right my environmental wrongs?

28th August 2021 – A fuel-guzzling car, more clothes than necessary, and devices that consume a load of electricity. We are all guilty of this. There are alternatives, however.
From minute 11, Sono Motors and the Sion are introduced.

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Forbes

Tesla Ties Leads To German Solar Electric Car Company Choosing Sibros Connectivity Platform

19th July 2021 – Tightness among former Tesla colleagues has led to new partnership between Silicon Valley tech company Sibros and German automaker Sono Motors that's building a solar electric vehicle.

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Der Spiegel

This Car Runs On the Power of the Sun

24th June 2021 – Electric cars are considered to be expensive and not that climate-friendly. A Munich-based start-up has a vision to combat this. The affordable and solar-powered Sion, the development of which is being decided in collaboration with customers. So, what can this car do?

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Stern

Rolling Autonomy

24th June 2021 – Sono Motors’ requiem was ready to go. But with perseverance and a few rounds of financing, the Munich-based start-up has brought itself back from the brink. The Sion electric car is to be brought onto the market in 2023 and, with the help of innovative solar panels, will itself guarantee a degree of autonomy from charging stations.

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Business Punk

Munich’s Sion E-Car Gets More Powerful Battery Requested by Reservation Holders

24th June 2021 – An electric car that charges itself whilst driving in the sun. This sounds so obvious it’s almost bewildering that none of the big market players have caught on. Instead, it’s the Munich-based start-up Sono that want to launch the sun-assisted car - the Sion - in 2023.

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Der Tagesspiegel

Solar Energy Instead of Horsepower

24th June 2021 – Sono Motors, one of classic car manufacturers’ most unusual competitors, relies on solar power, battery power and moss. A first test drive.

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t3n

For the Same Price: Sono Motors Gives It’s Sion Electric Car More Range

24th June 2021 – Sono Motors, the Munich-based start-up, only presented a near-production prototype of its first e-car, the Sion, back in January. Now the manufacturer is following suit and announcing a range upgrade at no extra cost.

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Welt

The German Solar Electric Car Invalidates the Main Argument of Electric Opponents

24th June 2021 – From 2023 Sono Motors plan to have its solar car, the Sion, in series production. The prototype is already well advanced and is now being fitted with a battery that, until now, no German manufacturer has dared to use - by no means the only pioneering achievement.

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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Sono Motors Means Business

28th May 2021 – The solar manufacturer almost went bust. Now the series production of the ‘Sion’ draws ever closer.

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Automobil Produktion

“Our Customers Don’t Define Themselves Through a Car as a Status Symbol”

10th May 2021 – In an interview with Automobil Produktion, Sono Motors’ COO Thomas Hausch talks about difficult times, Sion production challenges and the power of Community.

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Spiegel

Start-up Sono Motors Wants to Equip MAN Transporters With Solar Cells

6th May 2021 – From small vans to giant ones: According to SPIEGEL, the Munich-based electric car start-up Sono wants to supply commercial vehicle group MAN’s vehicles with solar power.

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Elektroauto-News

13,000 International Reservations for the Sion Solar-Electric Car

15th April 2021 – It’s Sono Motors’ expressed goal to produce a car that takes advantage of solar energy and is suitable for everyday use. This goal seems to be resonating with the e-car’s pre-order customers. Meanwhile looks towards 13,000 private reservations for the Sion SEV (solar electric vehicle), with an average downpayment of 3,000.

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electrek

Electric Vehicle Spotlight (EVs): Sono Motors

13th April 2021 – Welcome back to another EVS. We hope you haven’t missed us too terribly. Our spotlight this go-around is on Sono Motors based out of Germany. This EV startup has developed a solar electric vehicle (SEV) called the Sion that can add up to an additional 150 miles of range per week by harnessing the power of the sun.

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Observer

Forget Batteries, This Electric Vehicle Startup Uses Solar Power to Charge Up Cars

14th March 2021 – As electric vehicles go mainstream, the auto industry has largely reached the consensus that the next big thing is no longer about eliminating gas engines, but finding the most efficient method to generate electricity to power cars.

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WDR

Climate Change: What Can We Actually Do? (2/2)

22nd February 2021 – Story about Sono Motors starts at minute 10:00.Climate change is a serious issue. But what does it really mean for us? How quickly and radically do we need to act? What can be done individually? What can’t? What technical innovations are there that can help make transport, industry, agriculture and other such areas of our lives as climate-neutral as possible?

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auto motor sport

Self-Driving Electric Bus With Solar Panels

29th January 2021 – Start-up Sono Motors works in collaboration with French provider EasyMile. The Munich-based start-up’s solar technology should increase the range of the autonomous electric busses.

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Neue Zürcher Zeitung

When the Electric Trailer Doesn’t Need a Tractor

28th January 2021 – The German state-funded EV trailer project has created a truck trailer that converts solar energy into electric propulsion. This supports and, partially, replaces the diesel traction engine.

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Spiegel

Shade Parking Was a Thing of Yesterday

12th January 2021 – Solar modules on cars have long been considered a nice gimmick. German start-up Sono wants to make the technology affordable and is to unveil a prototype at CES trade show. Other vehicle manufacturers are increasingly turning to photovoltaics.

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TechCrunch

Sono Motors Plans to License the Tech That Powers Its Solar Electric Car

12th January 2021 – Sono Motors wants to bring technology it developed for its solar electric car to the masses. And it’s starting with autonomous shuttle startup EasyMile.

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