Yahoo Finance Solar-powered Sion EV solves 'biggest hurdle' with charging: Sono CEO
Most people agree that electric cars are great, but that the charging infrastructure needs to improve.
And one company is asking: Why waste time and effort trying to find a charger that may or not be functioning? Why not harness the energy that's all around us — and for free — instead?
Germany’s Sono Motors (SEV) is trying to solve the charger conundrum with its Sion crossover EV. The Sion has 456 solar half cells embedded into its body panels in order to harness the sun’s power to charge the car’s battery. And the Sion is coming out soon, as early as next year, and likely coming to the U.S. too.
“We've brought [the Sion for] first time to the U.S., firsthand, first day here,” Sono Motors CEO Laurin Hahn told Yahoo Finance, at an event outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. “Incredible car, $25,000, family-friendly, affordable, solar cells in the whole car body - it's recharging itself [right now]. And it's really meant to be that mass-market electric vehicle.”
It’s an extremely compelling, though utilitarian, package for the price. However solar charging only makes sense based on how much energy the can the car absorb from the sun; on average it needs to be a non-trivial amount.
Hahn says the typical commuter in the U.S. is commuting 12 miles a day, and that means The Sion has you covered. “This car is recharging at 13 miles a day, it's 70 miles a week on average. That's amazing because that means no recharging for most of the commuters,” Hahn says.
“Commuters — people are using the car to get from A to B to work, right? And they're not driving, like, 200 or 300 miles to work. No, they're driving, on average, 12 miles, and this car is recharging itself," Hahn said. “[Charging] is the biggest hurdle about electric vehicles, and we are solving it.”
The Sion's battery allows for around 200 miles of range when fully charged. Hahn of course believes owners will use traditional EV chargers to top off the car's battery when needed for long trips and for quick charging, but for most commuting needs that 90% of drivers do, the day-to-day exposure to the sun should provide a good amount of free miles.
Though the U.S. does not as of yet reward people for solar charging, in countries like Holland, Sion owners would get some type of incentive for it, Hahn said. As for production incentives, the company is building the Sion with a contract manufacturer in Europe, and at the very compelling price of $25,000 would likely be a competitive offering here in the U.S., even without any government incentives.
Whether that price tag sticks in the fact of global inflation is another story. However Hahn said the company has 20,000 pre-orders already, with all of those pre-orders having on average a 2,000 euro down payment. It’s real money for a company trying to change the EV market with non-traditional charging.
The final component of the business is partnering with bus and truck manufacturers to make those larger vehicles able to charge via solar panels. Sono Motors will soon offer the ability to build these trucks with the solar panels integrated within the skin of the vehicles, or retrofit existing trucks with solar panels and wiring so they can hit the road, and charge at the same time.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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