Two young technical Germans have developed a solar-powered car based on the Renault Twingo. They started working on it five years ago, but the first five thousand cars have now been ordered. The car is cheaper than Tesla and the Dutch solar car Lightyear.
Laurin Hahn and Jona Cristians had only just finished high school when they already had ideas about the solar car. They sought help from the young designer Navina Pernsteiner and together, in a garage box, they developed the Sono, a solar car based on the Renault Twingo. Five years after the first ideas, they have five thousand cars on order; by the end of 2019, they want to start delivering the cars.
So it certainly did not stop at just an idea - the two's company, Sono Motors, now employs more than 60 people. Hahn, Christians and Pernsteiner tell Bright.nl they are proud that "the three of them have already convinced five thousand people".
Action radius of 250 kilometres
The promise the three young Germans made was to build a €16,000 solar-powered car with a range of 250 kilometres. They succeeded - on solar power, the car can travel 30 kilometres; if you plug it in, it reaches 250.
It's not like you're all set for 16,000 euros. You still pay 4,000 euros for the car's battery. That still makes the car about 10,000 euros cheaper than the Tesla Model 3 entry-level version, which costs around $35,000. Moreover, the Sion is a real budget car compared to the family car Lightyear. Developed by former TU Eindhoven students, it costs almost a tonne more than the Sion. However, the Dutch car does have a longer range. The car's appearance is also a bit more advanced than the Sono, which is based on the Renault Twingo.
They presented the Sion in videos on YouTube and launched a crowdfunding campaign to get 5,000 sign-ups. That action was shared massively on social media, the sign-ups poured in and they were able to get started.
Sono Motors is atypical car company "Our goal is not to sell as many cars as possible. Most cars are stationary 90 per cent of the time anyway," the three tell Business Insider. As far as they are concerned, the Sono should be shared as much as possible.
"One Sion car can replace eight cars," thinks Christians. Besides producing clean cars, they want to encourage the sharing economy. The Sono should be easy to lend out. They are cars built for different market segments, but from the same dream: encourage solar-powered driving.
Source: Sono Motors/Bright.co.uk
