Sono extends funding campaign for the Sion
Sono Motors is extending its campaign to save the Sion solar electric car – by one month until 28 February 2023. With the help of the funds raised during the campaign, the aim is to close the funding gap until the pre-series.
“We are in ongoing talks with potential investors and believe that the campaign’s extension positions us to reach our target of approximately €100 million and proceed with the Sion program,” explains Laurin Hahn, co-founder and CEO of Sono Motors. To date, the more than 44,000 Sion reservations include approximately 21,000 private reservations with deposit, of which more than 1,500 are new private reservations since the campaign started in December, and approximately 22,000 non-binding B2B pre-orders.
If the campaign is not successful, the solar electric car could be on the brink of extinction – even before a series car is built. Although series production was supposed to start in the second half of 2023 at Valmet Automotive in Finland after numerous changes in plans, everything has been on the back burner again since the end of last year – apparently for financial reasons. In the reservation campaign “#saveSion”, the company wants to receive reservations for 3,500 vehicles. However, the supporters are to pay for the car in full – in return, they receive a 3,000 euro discount and a preferred place on the waiting list. Since the vehicle is currently priced at 29,900 euros, the campaign could bring in just over 94 million euros.
With the campaign, the managers of the start-up want to let the community determine the future of the Sion. “Every single day invested in the future is worthwhile and that is why we made the decision to extend the campaign. We have already met more than 5,000 people in 13 different cities on our European-wide tour with thousands experiencing the Sion first hand in test drives and we just announced 12 additional stops to come. We owe it to these pioneers to not give up yet” said Jona Christians, co-founder and CEO of Sono Motors.
Launching on 8 December 2022, Sono Motors described the campaign as a solution for funding a large part of the Sion programme without further diluting the stock. “If we are unable to successfully complete the campaign, we plan to focus on our attractive B2B solar business, which is significantly less capital intensive. We think that thanks to our current and expected liquidity of around 55 million euros, as well as other available resources, we would be able to successfully refocus the company purely on the solar business. So this time it’s not about the future of Sono Motors, but ‘only’ about the future of the Sion,” the company stated at the time.
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