The program will be discontinued with immediate effect and around 300 employees will be laid off.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The Munich company Sono Motors pulls the plug on its solar car Sion. The program will be discontinued, Sono Motors announced on Friday. In the future, the company will focus exclusively on the solar business with business customers.
Around 300 employees would be laid off, and Thomas Hausch, the manager responsible for operational business, would resign from his job. “Given the ongoing instability of the financial markets, we could not convince investors to invest in a capital-intensive hardware product,” said Sono co-founder Laurin Hahn.
At the end of January, Sono was still confident of finding investors for the Sion program. A reservation campaign should save the solar car. Sono Motors had campaigned in vain for interested parties and investors for 100 million euros for the construction of a pre-series.
However, commitments were only received for around half. There have been more than 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for the Sion, said company founder Laurin Hahn.