Goodbye Trollhättan - the Sion is built in Finland
It's a setback, but it wasn't unexpected. The Sion from Sono Motors is not built at NEVS in Trollhättan. Instead, Valmet Automotive takes over the manufacturing. For Trollhättan, this means the loss of some 100 jobs that will no longer be created. However, it is unclear whether NEVS was still planning the order at all.
Production of the SEV from Sono Motors in Uusikaupunki is scheduled to start in the second half of 2023. The cooperation has been agreed for seven years, like Valmet Automotive in one press statement reported.
Uusikaupunki is a former Saab location, the company manufactured many vehicles of the Swedish brands as Saab-Valmet. The quality of the historic Saab is legendary and Valmet is now a modern service provider that works for many brands. Visionary vehicles such as the Lightyear One, an electric car that also relies on solar technology, are rolling out of the Finnish halls.
The Sion - later and expensive
Munich's decision is understandable. It gives the company the planning security it absolutely needs. However, it remains to be seen whether the Sono Group share price will pick up after the news. This would be helpful for the necessary raising of capital, which could take place as part of an issue of further shares.
As a result of the shift in production, Sono Motors is once again increasing the price of the Sion for new orders. The SEV is further delayed and will be delivered a little later. The reason for the price adjustment is higher production costs.
It is unclear to what extent the decision could affect the future of NEVS. It is possible that the company has long since charted a different course as a mobility provider for autonomous vehicles.
With visuals from Valmet Automotiv
If Sion raises the prices again and has to collect more money, is a production start at all realistic? The competition never sleeps and developments continue at a rapid pace. And the Sion is not a visual treat either.
The Sion once cost 25.000, now almost 30.000. This suggests that Sono Motors will burn massive amounts of money with every car at the old price in the future. Most reservations are running at the old rate, and commodity prices are currently making real leaps. This does not look good.
This is exactly how it appears to me too.
If I understand this early round of financing correctly, crowdfunding with binding pre-orders at a fixed price is growing into a really heavy burden for Sono...
At that time, however, the crowd itself took a high risk, granted an advance of money and trust. But this financing model cannot be continued indefinitely.
I find it amazing, almost disturbing, how similar Evergrande and Sono are in a way.
The dimensions are completely different, the requirements even the opposite. They range from grassroots democracy, crowds and responsible citizens and consumers on the one hand, to the fact that a project in one’s own economic area is dependent on the benevolence of a totalitarian political leadership …
And yet a Sion and all Hengchis of different model numbers face different problems that are as similar as one egg is to another.
Friendship ends with money. Around the globe and independent of the system, independent of the financing model. And even the trust of a well-meaning crowd can be lost. It doesn't have to be the CCP. Simply amazing how similar both stories are in the end.
It's ultimately about money and trust, from the Sion to the Hengchi and one way or another...
Hmm ...
If you want to see it positively, then maybe like this: Uusikaupunki can shoulder the risk.
For NEVS it would most likely be the end of the day if they got involved in contract manufacturing and Sono would fail. Some employees who just want to tinker with the Sango and believe in their project may even be (secretly?) relieved. Who knows?
In any case, the Sion is subject to a high level of risk, and there are many question marks about its financing. Money from pre-orders has gone into development and prototyping. The pre-orders are a mountain that Sono first has to work off at its own expense and with further financial requirements or pushes further and bigger in advance.
The profit zone lies behind a growing mountain of liabilities.
I'm curious if the Sion will really come and will actually be produced by Valmet for 7 years.
Now let's be curious, after all, Uusikaupunki is also a former SAAB factory. Perhaps Trollhättan will be spared another disappointment.
I was sympathetic to the slightly different approach of Sono-Motors, but the SION didn't trigger a real “want to have reflex” in me.