While the crowdfunding campaign is due to end on January 26, 2023, Sono Motors has not even reached halfway to its goal of 3,500 Sions sold.
Last December, Sono Motors launched an appeal to its community by beginning its intervention with a: “ we failed “. To save the development of its electric car covered with solar panels, the company had to recover the equivalent of 3,500 Sion fully paid in less than 50 days. With just over a day left for this fundraising campaign to reach its goal, the counter hasn’t even reached half of that goal. The failure therefore seems to be confirmed.
A target of 3,500 cars far too ambitious
By announcing a target of 3,500 Sion fully paid, or more than 100 million euros raised through this, Sono Motors’ crowdfunding project seemed particularly high.
To participate in this campaign, customers can either:
- Completely prepay a Sion model at €27,800, benefiting from a discount of €2,100
- Increase the amount of their deposit, if they already had a car on pre-order.
The first supporters of the project quickly responded: 24 hours after the brand’s call, more than 150 Sion cars were already fully paid for. The calls relayed on Facebook groups of fans of the Sono Motors project helped to spread the message of the German company to motivate buyers. The counter, visible directly on the Sono Motors site, has thus rapidly increased. On December 26, Sono Motors congratulated itself, in a press release, on having spent the equivalent of 1,000 Sion fully paid.
Then, as is often the case with crowdfunding campaigns, the enthusiasm died down. The brand has tried several times to be optimistic about the results of this #SaveSION campaign, but the future seems to be on the wrong track.
Sono Motors has not even reached half of its goal with 1 day to go
On January 25, 2023, the counter on the Sono Motors site shows 1,575 Sion sold, or 47,099,592 euros, instead of 3,500 Sion – or 104,650,000 euros expected by the end of the day on January 26. In short, the operation only achieved 45% of the objective set for this campaign. In a last burst, we can imagine that it will perhaps reach 50% of its objective.
From an external point of view, it remains a failure for Sono Motors, except that the company is much more positive. In his last press release on January 17, CEO and co-founder of Sono Motors, Laurin Hahn, said: “ Several thousand supporters have already made this campaign one of the biggest in Europe and send a clear signal that they want the Sion, an affordable alternative to bulky and expensive e-SUVs. They also indicate that a climate-friendly mobility revolution in Europe is both necessary and desired. At the same time, we believe the sum of €40m in new bookings sends a strong message to investors and we have received positive feedback since the campaign was announced. We are in talks with potential investors, we are confident that we will achieve the goal and that we can continue the Sion program. We need one last push, more opinion leaders who stand up and fight together for this revolution. »
At that time, Sono Motors had 44,000 reservations for its solar vehicle:
- 21,000 private reservations with deposit before the campaign;
- 22,000 non-binding professional pre-orders;
- 1,000 Sion reserved during the #SaveSION campaign.
The brand remains convinced that the signal is strong enough for investors, who had not been present before the fundraising campaign, to decide to finance the project. Meanwhile, the company continues to develop its model and spend lavishly money, which will run out very soon. A bet on the future that is a little too risky or reckless which can chill investors.
Even if Sono Motors was able to announce on January 23 the arrival of European funds for the development of some of its patented solar activities, the electric car with solar panels of the brand remains nevertheless largely threatened. We will probably know in a few days if the company has to force itself to abandon its project for an affordable electric and solar car.
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