Sono is a German company founded in 2016, and as of the time of this writing, Sono is trying to build what people like me have wanted for years: a $25,000 EV wanted. as opposed to some other EVs. That will be the Sono Sion, which the company says could go on sale on US shores as soon as the second half of 2023, after first hitting the market in Europe. A recent ride in a Sion prototype is convincing, and I’m backing Sono over the edge, despite having watched many (dozens?) of EV startups up and down over the past decade, it’s hard to tell may be more cautious than anything optimistic.
Because Sion is, in theory and in real life, close to the ideal EV. It’s a comfortable five-seat hatchback. It has a 190-mile range, and with solar panels all over the outside, is capable of charging the Sion’s battery enough to provide 150-mile driving range per week, plenty for many city dwellers and suburban. Inside, there are two small screens for HVAC, radio and other typical features. There are essential safety features such as airbags, automatic emergency braking, etc.
Other than that, not much else – quite intentionally so. As the founders of Sono explained, they approached this design in an attempt to answer two fundamental questions: What does a car really need? And how can we provide something close to the bare minimum? Notably, this is the opposite approach of most EV companies, who often prefer to turn their first car into a sort of vehicle that claims to be expensive and ludicrous, like the original Roadster. of Tesla.
From the outside, what will make the biggest highlight for Sono is the body covered by solar panels (although Sono I’m not the first to think about it). Charging is also bidirectional, meaning you can use Sion to plug in power tools, the same way you can with the Ford F-150 Lightning. In Sono, some of that power will come from the sun.
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How to feel this in person? Sono recently invited journalists to ride in Sion in Brooklyn, NY, I was one of them. Whoopi Goldberg was there, too, to do what appeared to be some kind of advertising. When it came time for me to drive on a private clearing—this Sion, a prototype, is not street legal—we circled merrily as an engineer talked to me about the problems. Various features of the vehicle. At some point, a drone flying in front of Sion activated the automatic emergency braking system, much to the discomfort of the pilot. The ride experience is nothing special and unobtrusive, like most electric cars.
The folks at Sono, who have been working on the car for years, say they have a contract manufacturer lining up to build the first cars; they hope to earn about a quarter of a million Sions “within seven years.” That’s an ambitious goal, though I’d happily tackle a small portion of it if they can sell a $25,000 solar-powered EV in the US. They are probably the only ones who really try.
