Sono Motors in Trollhättan
The short messages are very Scandinavian today. They start with Sono Motors, the hope for Trollhättan. The Munich startup was traveling the last days in Sweden. Potential customers could test the prototypes of the electric car at three locations. With some success. Because the number of pre-orders paid exceeded a magic brand.
10.000 pre-orders for the Sion
On Wednesday, Sono Motors announced 10.000 pre-orders for the innovative SEV. Interesting: 87% of orders were made in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Above all, Germany has not been conspicuous as a leading market for electric cars.
At Sono Motors are the 10.000 orders for around 214 million € sales. The development seems to be gaining momentum, and since June 2018 have doubled, according to the manufacturer, the existing orders. Which is positive for Sono Motors, but also good for Trollhattan as an automotive location. Living in the old Saab factory would build on an automotive tradition that began more than 70 years ago.
The people of Munich have published a video about their visit to NEVS. A look at the old factory premises and an exciting turn towards the future. The concept of the Sion is different from that of conventional electric cars. Is there something of lateral thinking behind the young team that made Saab so interesting? We will see.
Because, in order to remain true to Trollhättan's hope, 10.000 orders are a start. A prelude to a business model that has to be widely accepted for long-term success.
E85 before the comeback?
Another message makes you sit up and take notice. The Greens (Miljöpartiet) propose the promotion of E85. The biofuel was once very popular in Sweden. Saab pioneered this technology with the BioPower Concept. Then, under the pressure of the mineral oil lobby, the production of ethanol in favor of diesel vehicles was tipped. Since then, Miljödieselbilarna has been considered environmentally friendly, which the Greens regard as erroneous with a few years' absence.
Promoted retrofitting of vehicles to E85 could be an effective solution to reducing greenhouse gases. Sustainable as well, because older vehicles would stay attractive longer and in daily use. Moreover, it would be more widely accepted in economically weaker rural areas than penalty taxes on fossil fuels, the Swedish edition of the report says Auto-Motor-Sport.
Years ago, the Swedes planned the production of E85 on a large scale from forestry waste. This never happened, because the promotion of diesel vehicles caused the bioethanol market to collapse. In France today, ethanol is very popular, and a sustainable means for the immediate reduction of greenhouse gases.
In Germany, E85 had been promoted only to 2014, and then effectively withdrawn from circulation through full taxation. A return is not up for debate, instead one puts fully on the electric mobility as a future concept.
These are already exciting comments. An opinion that would be majority-capable does not seem to exist. I think the development is exciting and Sono is a new approach and more credible to me than what the big ones are doing. All I have to do is think of Audi's E-Tron Monster. That's hardly sustainable.
I think the SION is much more likeable. Since it is built in Trollhättan, I would be happy if Tom had more to tell about it. Even if it may be difficult for him. Tom & electric car?
The Sion has already received many sympathies here.
Not just for the production location. Also for the concept. For example, for integrated solar cells or the good idea of being able to deliver electricity as a mobile PowerPack everywhere and to supply other devices.
Neither Tom nor the majority of the readers, I guess, would find it difficult to report or welcome good ideas.
E-mobility doesn't even exist yet. Rather, there is an intense struggle for the future and the right concept. There are still many question marks behind all approaches (lithium icon battery, fuel cells, e-fuel, BioPower or BioPower hybrids). Some are more personable, others (“monsters”) already seem anachronistic again today and stand for an irresponsible use of energy and resources ...
It's good if you didn't shout hurray just because something was electric. “Tom & electric car?”. I don't see any contradiction and feel that Tom and the reader's comments have accompanied the topic adequately and critically. There is no hasty hurray here, but neither is there any denied climate change. There is intensive thought about sustainability and consumption. Everything seems as good and right here as it can be ...
Lt. Felix Andlauer, “Product Strategist” at NEVS, doesn't want to build any more cars for car fans (min. 3:53). Well, that fits into the picture, that's exactly how I see the development.
Mr. Andlauer definitely seems to lack the enthusiasm for his own product. So you do not get excited about NEVS customers.
This commentary also fits the topic of today, the change in the automotive industry.
There is something I do not understand. Not only that their story is characterized by theft of ideas (eg VW Beetle = Tatra 97), VW seems to have the talent to make otherwise wrong decisions. According to my information, they were or are one of the largest producers of ethanol engines in South America and in Europe directly or indirectly involved in the abolition of E85.
In the Wikipedia article about “Volkswagen do Brasil” one finds in the story under - 1977:… start of production of the alcohol engines for the models Sédan 1300, Passat and Brasilia; under - 2003:… To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Volkswagen do Brasil, the Gol Total Flex is launched. It is the first Brazilian car that can run on any mixture of gasoline and alcohol ... ”and on their website you can also find the information for 2003“ Volkswagen is the first manufacturer in the country to use gasoline flexi-fuel cars - and / or bio-ethanol drive into the program. ”. Or see also.
If you consider that VW, as a half state corporation, with lobbyists in every “government corner”, has put many decades on the diesel card in Europe and is now demonizing it ... A rascal who thinks badly! And now the strict commitment to battery drive, as requested by the German government, or is it the other way around? Of course there is no alternative, as a well-known German politician likes to say!
I have been driving diesel cars for many years and one from Saab for 8 years now, for me this drive is “no alternative”. And I will continue to do so until the evil burners with diesel drive are finally banned and the sale of diesel has been stopped.
Thanks to bio-diesel, their or all diesels had already achieved a market share of 12% more or less CO2-neutral biofuels produced predominantly domestically without tank-plate conflict.
Then the government changed from red-green to GroKo, the ear for oil companies was more open again and all hope and growing market shares were suddenly put to an end. Domestic producers went to the Federal Constitutional Court, where they - the government and ultimately Shell & Co. - were subject.
More or less in order to preserve the appearance of having a heart for the environment, decentralized and local production and the plates of the citizens in third countries, the addition of ethanol and bio-diesel to the regular material was prescribed at the same time. However, it was left to the oil companies to purchase this admixture on the world market. So also from plantations in the area of illegally cleared forests and in direct competition with food ...
At least that's what it looks like for me for the time being - as an outrageous scandal. Restrictive, I must add that I do not research exhaustively and even have a number of question marks.
PROMOTION?
Unfortunately I won't find anything. All articles on Wikipedia on the subject of biofuels and their actual or supposed promotion, laws and regulations in Germany remain vague ...
What does z. B. “tax-exempt” in the long chain from the producer to the tank and wallet of a private consumer?
Was it not true that, in addition to the taxation of producers, distributors and VAT, oil tax on biofuels was eventually due? Could one talk about promotion at all before?
Anyway, when reading the topic I was unfortunately not smarter, would like to know more exactly, but found a smug and amusing paragraph:
It was said that a Koenigsegg with E85 in the tank and 1140 PS under the hood would emit less fossil CO2 per km than an average EV in the German electricity mix ...
@ Hans S.,
No, you are certainly not the only one here who discusses EVs and other aspects
considers energy and environmental policy to be critical.
The fuel-plate conflict over fuel that has been mixed with ethanol. I think, apart from E10, there will never be fuels with higher proportions of ethanol in Germany again - a shame! Will probably always be a Scandinavian thing. One more reason to vacation in Sweden.
The madness here is that the addition of the plate to the tank was regulated and ordered by law - at the same time as biodiesel and E85 were abolished ...
If people and the environment really wanted to do something good, today we would produce ethanol from waste on a large scale and at home. Instead, the tank-plate conflict lives on, but is now only in the fine print. Who is thinking that Super Plus is E5 or 5% Teller in Diesel?
We probably never had as many plates in the tank as today. But today, the plate can better swept under the carpet. With the large and illuminated price boards for bio-diesel and E85 refueling that was difficult.
Am I the only skeptic here on the blog? This hyped electric mobility, I just don't believe in it. Where should all the electricity come from, possibly 2-3 million or more el. To fire vehicles? From coal power plants or nuclear power? That would be a forceful advance ...... And then the dismantling of raw material and further processing to the finished vehicle. I am not an expert, but you can hear that an electric car has to drive at least 100000 km in order to achieve a reasonable energy balance. And then it will probably need a set of new batteries….
I stay with my old Saab and drive until it does not work anymore. (or made impossible by politics, which is a very common way to push new sales markets in D!)
Hans, I follow you 100%. It is not possible to produce electricity if everyone wants to move forward via electromobility.
And production of necessary batteries is a costly and environmentally harmful Proccess. Klinken clean but there are many disadvantages, as it is with our cars today. Grass is not always greener to this other side.
MILLIONS & BILLIONS
Incidentally, there are a good 46 million vehicles for D alone, which will be replaced there and in future want to be supplied with electricity, batteries and charging stations.
Far be it from me to correct you on this point in order to contradict you. But on the contrary. What a market. The “push” you mentioned and diagnosed as popular for D is particularly worthwhile.
Every 10 years around 12 million tons of lithium-ion batteries are required for D alone and around 15 million private and commercially operated charging stations. This is big business and gives the finance minister wet dreams at night. And by the way, you also save the world ...
This is the no-alternative and egg-laying wool-milk sow. But this time it really is. Again ...
Maybe a throw-in from science will help:
The networks in Germany are currently designed for about 6 million e-cars. That can be seen as a critical limit. Since e-cars largely use medium-voltage grids, 6's approval number is ONLY based on these grids. Questions about the stream (where does it come from, what conditions etc) are not there yet.
A very exciting topic, which could probably be discussed forever!
THE NEW ELECTRIC ELEMENT
There are innumerable scientifically founded objections on the subject. And yet all parties carry the electrification not only of private transport as the only solution for (fossil) CO2 savings, like a crusader with the Bible, his sword and the severed head of an unbeliever ...
It is presupposed in religiously to fanatically simple simplicity that (solar and wind) electricity in the future in any quantity to produce environmentally neutral, store and transport. And not just for the road. Open questions and real problems? Alas, the E-faith and the E-prayer replace the thinking and lead the sword.
Historically, this has its correspondence in the A-prayers and the A-belief of the 1950s and 60s in atomic energy and its potential uses, which are presumed to be beneficial and unlimited. Right up to the small reactor in one's own automobile, which in the future can of course also walk over water like Jesus (hovercraft) ...
And in fact the dreams are similar again today. Why stay on the ground if the energy costs nothing and is available in unlimited quantities? Then e-drones can also deliver pizza and Amazone orders and even take over inner-city passenger transport. In other words, the e-believers (just like the A-believers once did) have long been dreaming of being able to use more energy in the future instead of less ...
Exactly that (scientifically founded but completely ignored objections) is it,
which drives you crazy again and again. Your e-kingdom is coming ...
The reintroduction of E85 promotion would not be a bad idea as I loved the fragrance. T and also with 2 models can refuel. SONOS is an e-concept that appeals to me more than the rest of the car market. So far, acquaintances with the most diverse e-models have made more bad than good experiences. Except for one, they have landed again at burners or have a second car with classic drive.
Still sad the E85 in Germany would be deleted in 2014.
Since I was always interchangeable with my 9-5 NG Biopower in Europe, it was so easy in Germany, Switzerland and France to refuel E85. Saab was one of the first to offer gasoline and E85 both and it was really cheap. But politicians do not always have a long-term strategy in mind and are often influenced by lobbyists. But I must also say that in Belgium there was no E85 because the different governments can never come to a joint decision :). Hopefully E85 will once again be classed by Europe as a clean alternative.
I would really appreciate Sono Motors bringing new life to Trollhausen. Until 2020 there is a lot of electric car competition by the established. VW has just started the pre-order phase. 30.000 piece of the ID. Whether a startup has a chance there? In any case, they would have to raise their profile even more. Without a blog, Sono and Sion would never be known to me.
VW has needed 24 hours for 10.000 pre-orders of ID 3. The onslaught was so huge that the IT infrastructure had problems and some customers needed 2 hours to register. That to the reality.
Sono is trying very hard to increase its name recognition. You are traveling by car across Europe and at all fairs.
I became aware of the Munich before 2 years and ordered a year ago.
I'm the eight thousand and I'm looking forward to the car, which I was allowed to test drive.
E85
In Germany, too, there were (private) plans to initiate “large-scale production of E85 from waste”. It was a long time ago and it failed because of the political framework. Against this background, I recently noted a contribution from the ÖR with astonishment.
Because the radio report including interviews reported or had an all-encompassing Finnish producer of biofuels (up to delivered worldwide kerosene) to speak. For the sea and aviation and for the road. Already today, at least partly from waste. The report was thoroughly positive.
The tenor of the article was strange not because one could have objectively taken offense, but because the same ÖR more or less cheered - at least accepted it uncritically - that this form of waste evaluation was politically buried in Germany. A missed opportunity ...
Even if individual road traffic in the future would make the most electrical sense and if this were indisputable, that would by no means mean that plant and animal waste should not be sensibly recycled, that there is no sensible use for biofuels (even if it is "only" stationary or for maritime and aviation) there would be more ...
If you leave valuable and free resources (agricultural, forestry and animal waste) fallow, this can only mean two things. Either we and this planet are still far too well, or our self-proclaimed elite sees neither problems nor solutions across all parties.
I'm curious to see when the first German e-frigate will set sail and the first e-government aircraft will take off from BER, if it ever opens. All ridiculous. All just sad, but unfortunately all true ...
exciting information. Interesting too, that in the three countries so many pre-orders were made. Maybe one of us here has ordered such an electric car?
A reader is there. Yes.
2 reader, I also ordered one
Class!
Exciting, indeed! I wish the startup bright heads, electrifying ideas u. successful products!
The name of the new company fits the Trollhättan plant:
Before 4 beginning with S, now 4 starting with S! 🙂
Sunny weekend, sunny times!
Exciting information, but with 10.000 down payments is still a lot of room for improvement. But it should be enough for a start of production. I keep my fingers crossed for Sono.