Presenting to a crowd of over 2,000 people for its “Celebrate the Sun” event this week, Sono Motors, the German automotive startup, proudly unveiled the final “production-ready version of its Sion solar-assisted EV. According to the company, the production version of the Sion SEV gets revised exterior and interior styling, with new headlights, taillights, door handles, charge port, and rear fascia.
Sono Motors Sion
Looking to the cabin of the car, Sono noted that the seats and the steering wheel have been changed, and an interior reconfiguration has allowed for more storage space. To finish things off, new colour and trim options from what was previously offered to reservation holders are being added as well.
Sono Motors has generated a great deal of buzz since it was founded in 2016, as the company focuses specifically on solar EVs and solar cell technology. The flagship Sion SEV, in particular, boasts an integration of solar panels into the exterior of the vehicle, which generates an additional 112 to 245 km of range (on top of 305 km of battery range on its own) per week from the sun.
Sono Motors Sion
In fact, the outer shell of Sono’s solar EV consists of 456 integrated solar half-cells. To our knowledge, this is the first production model to have used every body panel for solar energy, making the Sion SEV a rather unique and noteworthy vehicle.
The Sion’s battery pack can be charged at 11 kW from a Level 2 AC source or 75 kW with DC fast charging, and bidirectional charging is also included with an 11-kW output. Sono has even stated that commuters will be able to charge their Sion up to four times less than EVs of the same class and similar battery size.
Sono Motors Sion
Even more interesting, as of June 1, Sono reportedly has over 19,000 reservation holders who have put down an average down payment of €2,225 ($2,900) against the Sion’s planned €29,900 ($38,900) base price. Alongside the production version of the highly anticipated Sion, Sono Motors revealed a new “Solar Bus Kit” that can be retrofitted for European city buses.
Although the SEV was originally slated to be built by NEVS at the former Saab factory in Sweden, it will now be built by Valet Automotive in Finland. As of right now, production is scheduled to begin the second half of 2023.
