Electric car. Would you drive a sion?

Without the production site in Trollhättan, I would not have noticed the Sion project. After a visit to Sono Motors and articles about the electric car, it leads to a crucial question. Would you drive a Sion? The answer shouldn't be made so easy. Because it is not.

Sion prototype interior. Would you drive a sion?
Sion prototype interior. Would you drive a sion? Image: Sono Motors

The climate change. Heat records.

It's Wednesday, the 25. July 2019. The hottest day ever in Germany since the beginning of the weather records. My Saab is parked in the shade, but the temperature display says 39 degrees. In the shade, mind you! The automatic climate cools down the interior to a pleasant 22 degrees, all right? Is not it, quite the contrary! Climate change is hitting the country with full force, but not everyone has really noticed that.

42,6 degrees will be there this Wednesday in Lingen. A new German record. The TV stations switch special broadcasts, many intelligent people formulate sentences. Hardly anyone draws consequences. Otherwise, you could hardly explain the ever-increasing numbers of cruises and air travel, because even on this day the travelers wait at the Frankfurt airport in long lines. The country is sweating, politics are discussing CO2 levies, and in the north of Munich, a startup has a vehicle in the pipeline, which should actually be the car of the hour. No! Should!

How do I buy cars?

Analyzing my buying behavior is very easy. I just like brands that use technical features. Everything started with Citroen. The brand with the double angle. Visa Chrono GT, Citroën BX, CX GTI Turbo 2. The hydropneumatics, you know, some other operating concepts, clever lightweight construction. Several BX copies even made it to our company fleet. 500.000 kilometers were no problem, no matter what the trade press wrote about him. Robust, comfortable, frugal. And the field workers cried when VW replaced the BX Passat.

25. July 2019. Heat record in Germany. And would you drive a sion?
25. July 2019. Heat record in Germany. And would you drive a sion?

After Citroen came Saab. Turbocharged engines and in principle a kind Citroen for rational people. The last Saab I bought with conviction was one 9-5 BioPower chrome frame, The car was an aging diva, but the BioPower concept convinced me. CO2-neutral fuels from renewable raw materials, preferably from waste from the agricultural and wood industries, promised the future. By this time, humorous Americans had largely driven out the lateral thinking of the Swedes. In principle, the ethanol idea was just a byproduct of the Trionic project, conjured from some drawer in Trollhättan. Unfortunately, there was no future in Sweden or Germany.

A government headed by a climate chancellor proclaiming the energy turnaround tipped the E85 funding in favor of the Diesel lobby. It is obvious where that led. The chance of a quick and cheap CO02 reduction in road traffic was wasted. Our French neighbors are more pragmatic. E85 is available, and everyone can make their contribution to CO02 neutrality with little effort.

The Sion is the car of the hour?

The Sion could set a trend, the concept provides all the bases for it. High utility value, a battery that is reasonably sized and maintains the balance between suitability for everyday use and vehicle weight. A car that is not only suitable for the urban environment, but also for daily commuting. The highlight, however, are its solar panels integrated into the body. They generate up to 34 kilometers of green driving every day - when they get sun. If that's not enough for you, you can charge your Sion directly to your own solar system without any detours.

34 kilometers per day can be free. This is an announcement.

Too little? You might tend to accept the 34 kilometers as a nice marketing gimmick. Unfortunately, our society is jaded and flooded with stimuli. Some messages go unheard. Hence a small, deliberately conservative calculation: Let's assume that the Sion generates 10 free kilometers per day over the year. That is not very optimistic, but it adds up to an impressive 12 kilometers over 3.650 months. Also makes one aware that the average Annual mileage 2018 per car was at 13.922 kilometers, with a falling tendency, then everyone would be 4. Kilometers in the SEV of Sono Motors a CO2 neutral free ticket. In percentages: 26,21% of the mileage is given as a gift. And a good conscience with it.

26,21%! Suppose everyone at Shell or Esso would be 4. Liters for free, which will most likely never happen, what would that mean for the monthly costing of a family? Or Audi and BMW would give 3.650 kilometers of free travel year after year. The headlines would be fat, the demand unbelievable. The Sion is actually the car of the hour, it comes at the appropriate time. The future summers and winters will be cooler in our dreams at most, the current heat record will not last long.

Ready for the system change?

The climate and our mobility need something like a system change. And he has to come fast. If it has to be new cars and consumption, then please have a sustainable and likeable idea like a SEV with its own power generation.

The Sion in the former Saab factory in Trollhättan
The Sion in the former Saab factory in Trollhättan. Image: Sono Motors

So far 10.000 people Reserved and paid a Sion. Only 10.000 or already 10.000? It depends on the perspective. VW has more reservations for the ID, Porsche for its first electric sports car. Both vehicles are considerably more expensive than a Sion. Not similarly sustainable, and arrested with big, heavy batteries in old, conventional thinking.

So only 10.000?

Probably yes, which is a pity. If you work more intensively with the project, then you realize that the base is still quite manageable. Maybe because it comes with too many unknowns. Or, because the media-wide effect has not yet developed the punch that she deserves. Maybe because the project, which I would never have noticed without its production site Trollhättan, is only a sympathetic utopia for a certain group of people in Germany.

How do the readers see this? Would you be prepared to rethink and change the system? Or is this all too much to ask?

 

Would you drive a sion?

  • Yes absolutely! (57% 204 Votes)
  • Tie, I'm still working on myself! (29% 102 Votes)
  • No thanks! (14% 51 Votes)

Total Voters: 357

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39 thoughts on "Electric car. Would you drive a sion?"

  • I voted no. The car is ugly and can not pull a horse trailer. I think it will take some time until the battery technology is ready so that e-cars are really universal for everyday use. Then of course Trollhättan will be short-listed, whatever the name of the store at the time.

  • Very interesting article and a very pleasant discussion here!

    I'll come out as a Sion preorder. Sion likes to forget a few aspects, or perhaps not address them, because more concrete details for their implementation are still missing, namely: car sharing, ride sharing and power sharing. For all this, the Sion is also prepared. To what extent one wants to offer this as a possible owner, that is the question, for my part I have at least two neighbors, to whom I trust the careful handling and which make car sharing otherwise. Before the Sion is on vacation otherwise stupid on the road, I would have no problem identifying him as a mobile charging station.

    However, compared to the combustion engine, I am already preparing for a few restrictions: a spontaneous journey> 250 km? Hm ... summer vacation in South Tyrol / France / etc.? Nope. For something like that I would just take a rental car. But everyday trips are easily covered by the Sion, and I probably only have to go to the charging station a handful of times between March and November!

    However, there are a few aspects where I fluctuate a lot. Guarantee? 2 years, that's not much. Especially for a “first work”. A free workshop manual and no special tools are all well and good, but when my free workshop tells me that they still prefer to keep their hands off “orchids”, then I'm there. And in 2020 other interesting BEVs will definitely come out as well. In the end, the Sion can be so cheap in relative terms, an investment of 16-25 kEUR (without / with battery) is no play money for me. From an economic point of view, with my low mileage, I will probably drive better used combustion engines until petrol is banned ... and I think there are quite a few in the dilemma.

    But I will probably dare to take the plunge, especially as the production of the Sion (that's how it communicates) CO2 should be neutral (or compensated). So if it's not economical for me then I'm still driving around with a smaller CO2 footprint.

  • It's fascinating to me how things can develop. I've always been a "Petrol Head", I suppose it will stay that way, but unlike years ago.

    With the end of Saab, I started to rethink. After that there were a few cars that came and went. But vehicles became more and more just a means of transportation without an emotional charge. Today I still like to look at powerful or innovative vehicles. And yet- the topic makes me increasingly colder, I don't have to own it anymore. Perhaps also an indirect influence of the zeitgeist. Whether I would take a Sion - now my "old" thinking is still fighting against the "new", which is why I voted undecided. Innovative or not, ignored the e-car arguments, it just looks like running away. The “old” passion flashes again briefly. Who knows how much longer ...

    • Thanks for the comment! Can I perform, I am similar in recent years.

  • THE OPINION

    It's exciting what Tom started here. I hope politicians read along ...
    In addition to great skepticism about the benefits and environmental friendliness of e-mobility, there are also comments
    who have less to complain about the Sion than much more to the general conditions under which it should and should be operated if one decided to buy it “already” today.

    On the wish list are inner-city charging options and seamless public transport and rail transport, which can be used to comfortably and environmentally friendly even those goals that would overwhelm the operating range of a sensibly dimensioned electric vehicle ...

    This wish list can also be seen as a political exercise book for a traffic turnaround, to which the startup Sono Motors feels conceptually a part. It probably hurts twice when you do your own homework only to find that politicians leave you without charging stations ...

    Who knows how many pre-orders Sono would have received if D was ready for Sion and politics had done their homework too?

    The Sion embodies a departure - but possibly only a premature and false start?
    Quasi a political misunderstanding ...

    Nobody has ever said that one (and possibly which one?) Of the many environmental and energy or traffic-turning political starting shots is really meant seriously ...

    Everything without guarantee and at your own risk.
    Economically reliable framework conditions for an automotive startup look really different ...

  • An interesting question. But in my opinion the change to an electric car is not climate friendly. I spoke with experts who confirm my impression. In short, the manufacture of the batteries (and their disposal) is environmentally catastrophic. Apart from that, electric cars are no longer salable after about 5 years.
    The real problem is our overpopulation on earth and globalization (on the subject of climate change). Without any judgement. But electric cars won't change anything in the long term. I drive my Saab's until nothing works anymore. This protects nature and its reserves. I hope most users do the same.

  • People only talk about electric vehicles with batteries, less talk about vehicles powered by hydrogen and fuel cells. Why is a battery sustainable when silicon, which is a major waste of water, is being exploited in poorer countries. See reports from Prof Lesch! In addition, the electricity comes mainly from fossil fuels, such as the particularly environmentally unfriendly production of lignite. Where's the sustainability? I don't see the future in e-mobility with batteries, but rather with hydrogen generated with renewable energy. Until then, I will continue to move my Saab 900 Classic and 9-3 Cabrio in a sustainable, environmentally conscious way.

  • Great Article! Makes you think ...
    What does mobility mean to me in practical life?
    Visiting friends in the area, I walk.
    Shopping on site or in the next town (6 km away), I use my bike with panniers or for the so-called “big shopping” the cargo bike with e-support. 🙂 Great fun factor!
    Visit family in Germany, DB plus “Shuttle der Familie” 😉
    Theater in the city or HH, I use the car plus public transport. Here I can also imagine an e-car in Spe.
    Holiday in DK, S, N and of course D I use partly in D the DB, otherwise the car combination. Also here in Spe a rental car.
    Vacation in South Tyrol or South France with the Kombi DB plus rental car. Holidays without a bike are “unimaginable”… 😉
    So: for my mobility I need different types of support, which of course should be environmentally friendly. I will use my current car (unfortunately no longer a SAAB) "to the bitter end".
    THEN only will be decided again.
    Then it will also be seen whether D has enough bus drivers for public transport and enough train drivers for DB ... or enough vehicles for autonomous transport ...
    If the ÖPNV thinned user unfriendly, that will be nothing with the mobility turnaround!
    It remains exciting!

    • EVERYTHING

      All of which you do not address or affect. A very, very broad and also interdisciplinary field at the ministerial level. I do not want to contradict your comment on any point - on the contrary ...

      As long as I read along here, your comment is probably the comment of all comments, which shows most clearly that it is not as easy as one (citizens, politics, economy & media - simply everyone) would like to make it.

      For example, German bus drivers (along with carpenters, doctors, teachers, carpenters and others) from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were sent to Scandinavian countries with language courses sponsored by the employment office, to find out a single breath later the lack of country doctors, specialists, the situation of rural public transport in Especially to deplore and the rural exodus in general ...

      And just today the ÖR rumored that AKK would campaign for a scrapping bonus for oil heating systems. It wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for a government that still subsidizes oil condensing boilers on the same day ...

      But anyway, everything is not so easy and not free from inner contradictions.
      This is indicated very nicely in your comment ...

      It is difficult to send bus drivers abroad at the expense of other taxpayers (to improve the unemployment statistics) and at the same time demand more public transport and more use of the same. As you already said, “nothing will happen with the mobility transition!” ...

      If it should be something, then state and federal ministries
      please learn interdisciplinary thinking as quickly as possible.

  • THE QUESTION

    The article is great again. I can not find any point in which I wanted to contradict.
    And to answer the author's question, yes I could imagine a Sion ...

    But I am me - I am neither the general public, nor would I be ahead of anything. No, a Sion would just happen to be fine
    and fit in my personal life for only a few years.

    Under other circumstances - no second car (SAAB) for travel and long-haul, no charging on its own grounds - the Sion would be synonymous with me without any chance. The question for us citizens and consumers comes too early. Not because it was not high time, but because policy and manufacturers have failed for too long to create more favorable and generally valid conditions for such a vehicle.

    It is sad that a new type of vehicle, which in the city center (particulate matter and nitrogen oxides) would have its biggest plus, just there because of lack of charging options will hardly meet with love.

    Under the given conditions, I see in Sion the perfect complement for a touring car.
    I don't know which of the two should be defined as the first or second car ...

  • This question is not so easy for me to answer. It depends on the relation of the question.

    If I accept my status quo and then have to make a decision, then I would say no. I drive an internal combustion engine that usually works without problems and that I wouldn't scrap for a new vehicle. Because if I continue to use it, I conserve the resources that are needed for a new car. And with that I am doing more for the environment than if I put a motorized battery pack in front of my apartment. I also live in a rented apartment, with no charging facility for this vehicle and what my employer would say if I charge it there ...? There are still too many unanswered questions for me, and I occasionally overcome myself and even use the bike for my 40 km journey to work (WITHOUT E!).

    If I look at the question theoretically and consider the Sion compared to the alternatives, I could already imagine, yes to say. He has clever detail solutions and the free kilometers are also an argument. But if, for example, I think of the question of convenience, then it may look different. Or why drive so few Dacia and the like. Cheap cars on the streets? After all, they have everything that is necessary to be together in a traffic jam, just not so much comfort.

    I think that the Sion is a way in the right direction and we all have to correct our claims tremendously down! These small and fine detail solutions of the Sion remind again and again of Saab. Personally, I do not think that the drive concept is so favored at the moment. The entire problems in the procurement of raw materials for the entire battery and e-technology are so displaced. It's easy to say, yes, we here in Germany are at the forefront of environmental protection (well, at least we often think so). But what happens in the regions with the environment in which the necessary raw materials are mined hardly interests anyone. They are fortunately far away!

    With our (purchase) decisions, we influence political and economic decisions and thus influence the lives of people in other regions of the world.

    See eg here: https://www.businessinsider.de/e-autos-hinter-dem-rohstoff-lithium-steckt-ein-dunkles-geheimnis-2017-12

  • I still think that the most sensible way to get around is with the vehicle you already have. If one day my Saabe should give up the ghost - which is rather unlikely - a vehicle like Sion would be a very conceivable alternative. I live in Spain most of the year and mostly drive short trips. That would probably have a 90% share of solar power.
    And for longer journeys I would swap the car with one of my friends. We already practice that today. Depending on your needs, we have a convertible, coupé, van, small car and SUV ...

    gruß

    The Lizi

  • Good morning.

    … I have driven my last 3 cars for about 10 years (and have already bought them “used”).
    The current Drömbil has also been bought “used” and I hope to possibly even get 12-15 years with it (after all, it's a “quite new” Saab). 😉

    After that, it will probably no longer be a gasoline.

    But with e-mobility, I'm always so torn:
    Good Bad; pro Contra; environmentally & resource-friendly or not; etc. 🙁

    And lately I've read / seen reports that the “battery” is supposedly only a temporary solution anyway, and yet hydrogen would be recommended in the long term (and supposedly China is also jumping on the bandwagon and is no longer doing it only on battery).

    As a layman, I don't look through it anymore, I'm just “confused” and therefore happy that I can (hopefully) still be able to ride my “old dirt slingshot” for some time.

    PS: But I like to follow the reports about Sion here (and also much more interested than most of NEVS's previous ones). 🙂

    • I think the same, the battery is just a bridge technology, the Chinese will find a cheap way to supply the whole world with hydrogen and the EU and the US whine all the time just around. The Europeans have dZ the first big hydrogen project in Africa in the sand set, I trust at the time only the Chinese to make something right on the legs there.

      • The Chinese will do that for sure. There is currently a very exciting turning maneuver in China. Away from battery-electric drives, to hydrogen and alternative fuels. Subsidies for battery electric cars are completely deleted from 2021.

      • What you should perhaps make clear is that a hydrogen car without battery is quite nonsense. Admittedly, it will of course be much smaller than a pure battery electric vehicle, more so as with current hybrid vehicles (but also have a wide range, from mild hybrid to PHEV).

        It is absolutely necessary for recuperation (would of course also hydraulically possible, but why, if the electrical system is already in the vehicle), on this consumption reduction will want to do without, and to support the fuel cell in highly dynamic driving (from coasting to full load in fractions of a second) ,

        So you can arrange the hydrogen vehicle with the so scolded lithium and cobalt degradation and if the hydrogen is then actually generated by electrolysis (is currently not the case) comes back to the electricity mix into play.

        A warm welcome to the carbon dioxide at the back door and goodbye simple solutions ...

        Oh yes, everyone who says now, the batteries will get better, or there will be completely new technologies that could also say, welcome battery electric car ...

        • That's right, the topic is far more complex than a cracked gas sample in school lessons.
          It would be necessary to write thick books and force them to reorientate the perspective of hydrogen in its public, political and economic perception.

          At the moment it is reminiscent of the euphoria of the 1950 years around the atom and its splitting. Everything, but also everything seemed possible to the euphoric optimists (including publicity and opinion-forming parts of science). Right down to the nuclear-powered car. Everything possible and impossible was also considered problem-free and already considered real for the immediate future.

          To paraphrase Fontane, an optimist is someone who orders oysters in a restaurant beyond his means in the hope of finding a pearl in them so that he can settle the bill afterwards. How apt ...

          I miss realism and facts in much of the H-discussion.
          So thank you for your comment.

  • Exciting discussion here. E-car advocates meet traditionalists. Almost like in real life.

  • I will not dream of buying or leasing an e-car. I can not understand the hysteria around the car. It is not the car or its benefits that are responsible for global warming, or would be able to accelerate or slow it, let alone prevent it. We also had 20 degrees summer ahead of 40, but nobody seems to remember or remember.

    • Yes, but those who remember know the difference between climate and weather ...

    • RIGHT IN WRONG

      The fact that there has been a similar temperature in the same month at some point since the weather records began does not explain why such temperatures have become the standard for a few years ...

      (Weather and climate) records are broken in rows in all forms. In the form of the lowest or heaviest precipitation, the highest temperatures for several years in a row, the highest wind speeds and fastest glacier melts of all time, etc. and so on and so on ...

      And then there is another indicator that is completely free of any room for interpretation:
      The oxygen content of our atmosphere decreases slowly but steadily, the proportion of CO2 increases to the same extent.

      The causes are certainly not in individual traffic alone. Even there you are right in the wrong. But neither climate change nor a certain role of the transport sector can be denied.

      If you wanted to say that one should look for solutions beyond individual transport, then I am completely with you. If you wanted to say that we should look for other and intelligent solutions in the field of private transport, I am also fully with you. However, if you want to exclude private transport, then I hereby disagree and do it very vehemently ...

  • In principle yes - but!
    I am 84 years old and drive after many Saabs a SUV Volvo CX 60.
    10.000 km per year 7,9 l Diesel per 100 km.
    If I sell it, it will not be scrapped, but it will drive 30.000 km per year with 8,5 l per 100 km from the new owner.
    Isn't it “greener” to stay with the SUV. Actually I wanted to electr. drive but I have to protect the environment
    HJK

    • Tom always writes a longer usage is more sustainable. I agree with him, even if that is probably not suitable for the mainstream.

  • Good column and the point in a nutshell! The bottom line that will ultimately be decisive is the price of mobility. Free “free kilometers” are hard to beat.

    • Free miles do not exist.
      The surcharge for the solar cells should be> 2000 euros ...

      • Completely out of thin air

        And no matter what you refer to. EK, incl. Or without assembly or the real UK? ? ?

        Any company that ticks fairly clean in the upper room, would simply increase the range in such conditions and obstruct a higher battery capacity for a few euros more.
        Or just take advantage of the competitive advantage and offer the Sion without solar again at a correspondingly lower price than it has already been calculated ...

        That would be the Sion a reduction in price of at least 10 and up to 30 or even 40%, depending on what exactly you want to have said?

        In relation to purchase price and production, a three-digit amount for a small extra solar energy should be much more realistic than over € 2.000 ...

        Incidentally, the kilometers are of course not completely free. At least they are only good for the wallet and the environment as soon as the initial use of energy, resources and money has been offset in favor of the concept and in comparison to other cars. But with a little goodwill you would have understood Anna Maria's comment in this sense right from the start ...

        In order to explore the possibility of such compensation - to investigate it in more detail, doubt it in a substantiated way or even exclude it in a well founded way - you do not seem to be at all worried? Why then a comment?

  • Hey there!
    I am having a hard time changing to a car that I can not safely drive to my children at any outdoor temperature without charging. And the housing nunmal rd. 250 Km away. I live in the rural area, the use of public transport is also no alternative.
    Therefore, a “stromer” has to have a larger battery, I think.

    I have been following the Sion project for some time. Unfortunately, I can not make friends with the design, I just do not think it's nice.

    Greetings from Bad Salzdetfurth
    Uli

  • Funnily, I also started with Citroen CX, after several years of 100 Audi 1971, this was my first car. Needed CX, because they were cheap and a good DS back then, middle of the 80iger, had cult status and was too expensive. It was a great time, and the hydraulic ride has never topped a car. Time jump.

    Nevertheless, I consider electric cars to be a transitional technology, and drive too long distances, and have never seen a Tesla drive like this, for example, that the design would suggest. A sports car that nobody drives in a sporty way? Rather strange concept. At the moment I drive 750 or 1000 km on one tank of fuel - both diesel. It suits me that way. And to be honest - just because it comes from Trollhättan doesn't make it any better for me. I can understand that some feel a nostalgia for the place, but as long as no Saabs or parts come from there anymore, I'm no longer really interested in what's going on there, and find it rather tiring, as every reference to Saab for me more and more more is lost ... no offense.

    • The Tesla is not a sports car ... if at all just a speedy motorhome! He has no outstanding performance (acceleration and km range) and also no long-term quality! The attributes that are always attributed to TESLA are ´in no way present´ ... I think the early orderers who committed themselves in advance would have decided differently afterwards, and warmed themselves to a different product! Elon Musk is simply not able to run a company in such a way that it becomes so successful in the long term (15-30 years at least) that you can say the company is OK! We are here near Mannheim ... if a Tesla driver needs customer service, it may work relatively quickly here, ´ the Tesla driver is from jwd but then it will be extremely difficult to get a technician in a timely manner !! All of these facts always speak the same language ... At TESLA, people just muddle around and customers fall by the wayside with their problems. Something like that would still have worked at BORGWARD in the 60s, but today in 2019 such a tactic from a company must no longer receive support !! // It's good that my AERO 9-5 station wagon Bj.02-2002 with 302.169 km on the clock (exchange engine 50.000 km ago) will hopefully be of good service to me for another 3-5 years, as long as the TÜV doesn’t thwart my calculations too much power ! After 17 1/2 years the SAAB is still a comfortable, safe, and even relatively cheap car (9 liters per 100 km-A.BahnStadtLand) !!

  • I've been driving a BMW i5 every day for 5 years and 3 months, thanks to my employer. For this, my 9000 can now rest and will only be activated in the worst case. In other words, electromobility has been completely normal in our family for over half a decade and I can only partially understand all the reservations. SION - bring it on!

    • Great report that asks for thought.
      A small photovoltaic system including battery has been on the roof since May 19 ... As an alternative to the EV, an eBike would be ...

  • The Sion is still just a few computer images and very far from production. Financing and development are missing.
    I'd rather drive a NEVS 9-3 EV. If NEVS could find the tools for the 9 3 convertible, I would come first when placing an order.

    • Unfortunately you will not find the tools. The convertible is GM, NEVS has no design rights.

    • If the communicated schedule is at least a bit of a reality, the Sion can not really be that far from production. A start of production The end of 2020 is usually called model year 2021 and starts classically after the summer plant holidays 2020. Whether it is based on the Swedish or the Bavarian holiday dates is open to question whether the zero series before or after the holidays is driven, but in principle we speak about the period from August to October 2020.

      This is roughly a year from now and corresponds roughly to the time required for test-technical validation and approval if you proceed in the classic way (1 test loop with prototypes for functional validation, introduce necessary changes, then 1 test loop for approval & homologation ).
      If one is brave, or can rely on present results, there is the possibility to perform the first test loop only virtually by simulation, on the other hand, this is almost a guarantee to encounter unrecognized problems in the release / homologation.

      Anyway, this approximate year means in the first outlined approach that the trials should start around this year from August to October. If you want to have parts first and then entire vehicles within the next 3 months, the suppliers must already be commissioned, have completed their pre-development and are actually close to the production of the first prototype parts.
      Even with a simulative functional test, the suppliers must be on board and the parts must be adapted to the respective production possibilities, otherwise this procedure is not possible.
      All this preliminary work probably will not do that if they think they will not get paid for it.

      So either the communicated schedule is impossible to keep, or the Sion has to be both developmentally and financially, well beyond a few computer pictures and an unsecured funding.

      That nevertheless not everything must come as announced, for example, Borgward or Nevs are quite illustrative examples, but at least it has been there to some new cars.
      Exactly how exactly the state of the Sion is now, only people with insight into the internals of Sono Motors know and we outsiders have to wait just for Erlkönigbilder, fair presentations and the sales launch, if it comes to it.

      • Sono has promised that a prototype will be shown in the second quarter of 2020. There is nothing to suggest that any progress has been made in the production of prototype parts. The job advertisements show that suppliers have not been commissioned. “Project engineer (f / m / x) chassis - braking systems” - “You make supplier and material decisions”

        • PERHAPS …

          ... the next business crime? ? ?

          NEVS finally seems to be stepping on the gas, seems to be well positioned financially and is interested in engineers again. In the now long series of actually rather sporadic announcements and presentations, NEVS at some point mentioned a newly developed EV which they wanted to build in Trollhättan and whose features - as far as they were mentioned - in retrospect astonishingly appropriate for a Sion are …

          Maybe NEVS and Sono should cooperate even more closely?
          Maybe you have already done that for a long time and have been in the background for some time?
          Maybe you can compensate for personal bottlenecks?
          Maybe the interest of NEVS in the Sion is greater than you realize at first glance?
          Perhaps the mutual interests of Sonos and NEVS are located behind the façades, but also somewhat or even completely different from what has been publicized so far?

          Sono would not be the first startup whose founders put the most beautiful bride possible in the shop window with relatively little effort and hope for a dowry (takeover) that they would have provided for themselves ...

          And NEVS wouldn't be the first potential groom to see through this and play for time - knowing that the list of candidates is short and that time is playing against the aging bride, that sooner or later she will beg for it, not in parts and from the insolvency administrator to be sold apart ...

          Exciting topic and a really wide field for speculation.
          It's great that you can find out how this story continues ...

          I'm so excited about this sequel now,
          like a really blatant crossbow ...

          @Stephan,
          Thank you for this really very inspiring comment! ! !

        • As far as I know, Sono also says production start the end of 2020. By this I mean the start of mass production, maybe I'm the only one, although I do not believe that now. As far as I know, it is also communicated in the information for investors. And at that time, my remarks were turned off.

          To conclude from one (or more) job ad that this task (s) does not have someone else done (or done) before does not necessarily have to be true. Incidentally, the fact that the number of employees has to go upwards would also fit in well with the start of production of the parts, since then typically many detailed questions arise during the implementation / production, which eg a designer, who has previously looked after several parts, can no longer afford at the same time.

          As I said, it does not look completely unrealistic to me now, but that's just my assessment, but I've never said anything else, according to my understanding.

  • I drove my penultimate Saab 9.5 up to 360 km. The current one has 160 and still drives like it did at the beginning !!

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