Interview with Sono Motors: "Solar electric cars could trigger the next big wave in mobility"

What started in a garage ten years ago is now a listed company: Sono Motors wants to put a solar-powered electric car on the road in 2023.

Interview with Sono Motors: "Solar electric cars could trigger the next big wave in mobility"

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

Tesla recently opened the Giga-Factory in Grünheide, and everyone else is talking about electromobility. You also rely on an e-car - albeit a solar-powered one. Why this?

Laurin Hahn: In view of the climate crisis, we asked ourselves what we could do to stop it. One thing is clear: we must stop burning fossil fuels. This is the main driver of climate change. And so we turned our attention to the subject of electromobility. We developed the first solar-powered electric car by hand in our garage and saw that it works. Then we founded a company out of it - and here we are six years later. An incredible feeling!

And where exactly are you today, six years later?

Laurin Hahn: The development is now well advanced. We already had several generations of test vehicles and are now in the so-called series validation phase, so we will soon be doing crash tests, for example, and testing the cars in summer and winter. The start of series production, which is planned for the second half of 2023, will follow later.

What have been the biggest hurdles so far?

Laurin Hahn: The development of a vehicle is already very challenging per se. We have integrated solar cells throughout the body - and this is completely new. And if something is completely new, you just have to go through a lot of loops and readjust again and again. After all, the car should ultimately be on the road for many years, withstanding heat and cold waves, salt and hail.

Lars Löhle: Building a normal electric vehicle is no longer that special. Rather, the challenge for us was the electrical integration of our unique selling proposition: How do the solar panels communicate with the car, how is the energy fed into the battery? In addition, we sometimes use materials that have not yet been used in classic car construction. New standards had to be defined and we are doing pioneering work.

The market environment is not easy at the moment and there is a particularly strong competitor in Tesla. What are you doing better than the others?

Laurin Hahn: The industry is basically in agreement: Combustion engines are a thing of the past, electric cars are the present. And we are convinced that solar electric cars like the Sion are the future and can trigger the next big wave in mobility. Our car also has a battery on board, so you can charge it normally and drive it at night and over long distances. With the battery of the car you should be able to drive 305 kilometers - with the solar energy generated by the car an average range of 112 kilometers per week is added. The advantage that we have over others is basically: The sun also charges the car - and free of charge.

In the first quarter of this year, Sono Motors still made a loss of 25.5 million euros, and the share has also lost significantly since the IPO. How does Sono Motors plan to get out of this? Against this background, how do you see the future?

Laurin Hahn: Basically, we are very positive about the future. We receive a lot of reservations for the Sion and we are also entering into more and more partnerships in our solar business. Sales are increasing and interest from industry is huge. But the fact is that we also have to invest a lot. There are large companies that are world market leaders today, but have not made any profits for years. So this is not unusual. We have a clear strategy for the next few years, which we have also shared with our investors - and we are optimistic that we can achieve our goals.

In the past you have chosen quite unusual ways to get money and have raised many millions with crowdfunding. Why did you decide to go this route and not just rely on large investors?

Laurin Hahn: In Germany, financing a hardware product in the early phase of a start-up is difficult. That's why we took a different approach early on and started crowdfunding straight away. That is also the reason why we are still here today: because many thousands of people believed in us at an early stage. In addition, at the beginning of 2020 we closed one of the largest crowdfunding financing rounds in Europe, if not worldwide, with more than 50 million euros in payment commitments. That gave us a big boost because it also showed other investors at a later stage that a community believes in this product. We are closely connected to our community - but the path has not been easy.

Despite all the difficulties, why did you decide to develop the solar-powered car on your own and not under the umbrella of a large car manufacturer?

Laurin Hahn: We realized early in the concept phase that the technology we were working on was unique. And we felt that we could get more out of it. In addition to our car, the Sion, there is also a huge market for logistics and transport. A sector that also urgently needs more climate-friendly solutions and that we want to serve.

Lars Löhle: To be honest, the fact that we didn't do it with a car manufacturer was also born out of necessity. At the time, we were just a bit early on with the idea of ​​integrating solar on every vehicle.

You mentioned logistics and transport. There, Sono Motors develops solar panels for mounting. What role does this business unit play?

Lars Löhle: For example, we have developed a scalable system for public transport in which solar panels can be mounted on the roof of buses and the energy generated in this way can be used to operate the air conditioning, for example, partly with renewable energy. This saves fuel, CO2 and also costs. In other areas we are still working on prototypes, testing, validating and then ideally entering into development partnerships in order to become part of the value chain in the long term.

Deliveries of the Sion are scheduled to begin next year. What are the next milestones you are aiming for?

Lars Löhle: An important event for us is the IAA Transportation in September, where we will present new, tailor-made solar solutions for various vehicle architectures.

Laurin Hahn: A milestone at the Sion is the series validation of the vehicles, the tests mentioned, which are already underway. Then it goes into the pre-series phase, in which we will produce the first cars with our partner in Finland. Then we will start series production in the second half of 2023 and deliver our car.

Charlotte Raskopf spoke to Laurin Hahn and Lars Löhle

The interview first appeared on Capital.de