Production from autumn 2020 in Trollhättan
An exciting press release comes from Sweden. From fall 2020 NEVS wants to produce vehicles for the Munich electric car startup Sono Motors. For Trollhättan, that would mean a few hundred new jobs and, in advance, major investments in the old Saab factory.
In eight years, 260.000 vehicles are to be manufactured, which reports Sveriges Radio regarding NEVS press officer Fryklund. Around 9.800 orders are expected to have been received so far for Sono Motors' first product, the Sion. According to Sono Motors, 43.000 vehicles in 2-shift operation could be produced per year if demand was correspondingly high.
The Munich startup refers to his Website URL already on the Swedish production, on Saab and the historical background. NEVS has not yet received a press release on the new relationship and the first OEM customer in the history of the company.
The production of the first electric car from NEVS in Sweden is expected for the year 2021. However, there is no confirmation.
Wish these developers of Sono much success. And for Trollhattan this is a dream. Hope it has a really good future.
My colleague has bought such a part .. Last November, he has a test driven by 2 prototypes and was impressed by the idea of how you can also read on the website. Interesting are also various details that came up in the sales pitch. In any case, I wish the young entrepreneurs good luck and think that, among other things with Continental and Bosch in the back is a real pound. Unfortunately, this year will no longer be delivered.
He is pleased that a touch Saab is in it and is convinced of the motivated staff. I'm curious how many
Trollhättaner are later employed in the factory and what happened to the paint shop and the press shop ..
Just as a side note (to “advertising text”) ...
The fact that the text does not always seem 100% consistent in terms of content is partly disproved by the graphic to the left ... 😉 😉 😉
“Ideal location… Thanks to its location in the heart of Europe, Sweden is the ideal location for this. … ”
Hihi - almost all lines point to the south… .right central would be different, right? 😉
https://sonomotors.com/de/manufacturing/
https://sonomotors.com/site/assets/files/2578/sono-motors-europe-map.0x1000.png
Of course Trollhättan is not central. But far to the north. But perfectly connected to the seaports and the infrastructure on site is excellent.
What makes me happy: Sono Motors has recognized the advantage of the location. Producing 100% with green energy is possible, and makes the work quite unique. In former times this was not mentioned enough.
Test drive of The Sono sion @ Trollhättan
https://sonomotors.com/en/events/
Well, I'm curious.
I don't think the Sono is super chic. But it doesn't look very bad (like many others). “Small car” stop. 🙂
But yes, nice that in Germany, something alternative happens. 🙂
And the way it is presented on their website in the “advertising texts”, it also seems to be different or innovative.
@@ Herbert Hürsch
The Audi A2 I still find somehow quite good. 🙂
Speaking:
The 9-5 NG as a stepped cock (or new 900's or how one could have called such future Saabs) doesn't seem to be dead yet ... well, at least the rough idea / shape / etc ... 😉
Infinity somehow approached the QS optically “similarly” ... right?
https://cdn1.spiegel.de/images/image-1418308-galleryV9-ltum-1418308.jpg
In any case, the Sion is not mainstream and, in my opinion, an innovative approach. Whether the concept of solar panels on an EV prevails is a completely different question. As @Bergsaab already wrote: It suits Trollhättan.
I look similar! 🙂
(and SolarPanel is an attempt ... let's see how it works in “everyday life” and what happens when you have an accident with the car or dents on it).
But I always find it astonishing what kind of “gold rush mood” is currently prevailing in the auto industry and what new “car” companies / corporations are emerging everywhere (especially in China, of course).
For Sono I would at least be happy if a German “StartUp” survived in the long term.
Just take a look …. 🙂
Implemented solar cells are exciting because even determined and uncritical advocates of a simple and monocausal energy transition are so slowly discovering that it leads us to a space problem ...
Roofs cannot be greened, fields cannot be converted, renatured or reforested if the areas are used solar. Solar energy is thus in competition with natural stores of carbon, biodiversity, the water balance, natural shading (cooling) of surfaces and the necessary buffers for precipitation and the increasingly extreme weather events (heavy rain) ...
Thinking of Sono's approach, a Sion parked next to the house could also store energy during the day and give it home at night (for outdoor lighting, automatic blinds or whatever) while you're in Sweden with your SAAB.
And when you come home from vacation, you are satisfied that your own home has purchased 0 kWh of electricity from the grid and a fully charged second car is just around the corner.
For me, it is clear that an EV cannot be the electrified version of well-known combustion engines, and must not be. The cars can look and have to be different. Otherwise they are only window dressing and only embody the relocation, but not the solution of problems ...
If the “traffic turnaround” - or whatever the catchphrase is - is to be successful, a complete rethink is necessary. Then I'm closer to a Sion than to an Audi e-tron. Too big, too many resources are being sacrificed.
Maybe I'll be more specific about Sono Motors. After Easter. Let's see.
Would be a pleasure - as always and everything that the blog deals with 😉
Probably true. Replacing 40 millions of burners in this country with 40 millions of e-cars can not be the solution. And a Sono is definitely more useful than an 2,5-ton e-Tron, which then normally transports 75 kg of human. As it is currently synonymous with various X5, Q7 and Co. the case is. Then the answer can actually only be shared when giving up the ownership of a car.
The entry-level drug (@ Griffin)
Don't think that (sharing) will be the answer. BMW and Mercedes adorn themselves with the topic, but operate it as an additional business and thus primarily reach users who do not buy a car anyway or who otherwise take a classic rental car in a city that is foreign, flown to or reached by train, or simply, would use public transport easily and environmentally friendly ...
From the beginning it was known that for holidays, weekend shopping and commuting you would need as many “car sharing” vehicles as there are privately owned, because they are often all used more or less at the same time.
The so-called car sharing of the last few years has long since proven to be expansive. It was never about throttling production, reducing sales or conserving resources. On the contrary, it was about the fact that everyone (including the young and environmentally conscious hipster from the parked-up city center) should drive a car anytime and anywhere ...
And that's what they do, the hipsters. With the feeling of ecological superiority, because they don't even have a car, they just drive. Ingenious marketing for even more cars. But that is certainly not a solution to problems ...
"Copywriting" is a good keyword.
A small downer, that the Sono Sion and its color under FAQs claim that the exclusive black is the result of a survey and customer requests ...
It is obvious that one does not paint or even foil solar cells. That should have been open, honest and positive and can also be problem-free (see comments above).
But at least Sono is behind the Sion. Unfortunately, that was not the case with A2 and the management at the time. He is still taking revenge by having advanced to probably the most stable Ingolstadt in the last decades - although he was only neglected ...
For Trollhättan enjoyable, for us Saabfahrer there would be at least for everyday life a Made in Trollhättan car and the Saabs stay for enjoyment and fun rides
... fits to Trollhättan, a slightly different concept with the solar panel, ... well, almost all of the e-cars are not beautiful, actually almost all cars are not beautiful ... since there are no more SAABs.
SONO? NEVER HEARD !
But now. Thanks Tom!
Exciting concept. Many innovations. Charge via Schuko possible and also self-charging by solar (at least for a few miles). Mobile PowerStation for everything. Not at home on long journeys, but an ingenious car as a second car or even a first for all who solve different transport tasks and long-hauls differently.
That sounds like an A2 2.0. The modern version of a small but refined car that was venerated by many but hated by the Ingolstadt board and sawed off before his time.
A startup shows the established how to do it. Again. Exciting. Nice for the trolls too, if that works out and they are allowed to breathe the magic and the predicate Made in Sweden, find new work.
The message also triggers question marks. How can the contract manufacturing in the 2 shift operation be reconciled with the lofty plans of NEVZ and the announced quantities, which were recently circulated here? Those were already mathematically doubtful before this message, if I understood that correctly?
Keep your fingers crossed for Sono and the trolls so that they don't all rise in hot Chinese air, that they don't fall under the wheels of cocky speculators ...
The number corresponds to about a third of the possible capacity of 150 - 160.000 units per year. A much higher number of pieces is possible with a corresponding conversion of the production. Electric cars are less complex to manufacture than combustion engines.
We will see whether and how NEVZ comes to one million per year plus or including contract manufacturing, whether the respective No. 1 from NEVZ or Sono will roll off the assembly line as promised and on schedule. Everything is planned for very soon. Exciting times ...
Also technically and visually interesting. Just shot me through the head, how well integrated solar cells with different car colors?
Lo and behold, the FAQs say that the Sion will only be available in black. You feel reminded of historical moments and models, of past optimistic moods of automobility, of a Ford T and after the war of a PV 444 or even the first and not exactly broad color palette from which Ove's father was allowed to choose his first SAAB. And I even find that somehow very charming ...
It's good that the tastes are different. I find the thing ugly as an ulcer and yet I sincerely hope that I will be spared my life with such a cucumber… .. 😉
But for Trollhättan I am still happy if it brings jobs!
Can I understand well.
I don't even want to have said that my petrol-impregnated heart beat faster or that my eyes, which are spoiled by chrome and are no longer very young, would overflow with delight ...
Nevertheless, I was still reading the article without glasses and my fully functional brain told me that I had an innovative and well-established vehicle in mind. And my gray cells in the face of an electric vehicle have never signaled that to me before. So I'm a little surprised myself that my reception this time is so positive ...
Maybe it's just because this vehicle can also function as a PowerPack and mobile power supply? I don't know yet, but my interest is always (and for the first time) aroused. Even beyond the location and an abstract solidarity ...
In terms of color, I ran into my head, color follows function ...
And at least on this point I have already reached an irrefutable opinion.
Be it shape or color, as a creative person I can not only accept it, but even applaud when both follow the function ...