According to a report by the Buenos Aires Economic News Network in Argentina on March 22, a car that does not require charging or fuel has been launched, and this car can travel 16 kilometers a day on solar energy alone.
Reports say that projects born from small companies or startups often have "genes" that are part of the foundation, experimentation, exploration, or just an idea, and thus require financing to materialize or move from a prototype stage to reality . The German company Sono Motors has a surprise in the field of sustainable mobility. The company recently announced that its solar-electric vehicle, the Sono Sion, has entered the validation phase, with a view to certifying the model in the next few months, which will allow it to start mass production next year.
Sono Motors founder and CEO Laurin Hahn is just 26 years old. He believes that a car should be an eco-friendly product first and foremost. "Our goal is not to sell as many cars as possible, but to implement an innovative CO2-neutral mobility concept," Hahn said. As such, the car's livery is matte black to better capture solar energy.
The "Sono Sion" is a small car that was officially launched in 2019 as an affordable solar-powered concept car. It stands out from similar projects because it uses more environmentally friendly materials.
Sono Motors' technology is based on two pillars. Its solar panels are two-thirds lighter than glass, have a unique polymer coating that protects them from wear, and don't splinter in the event of an impact, just dents or bumps. In addition, however, thanks to this technology, the panels can not only be placed on top of the body like most solar cars, but can also cover almost the entire body, which significantly improves the capture of photovoltaic energy.
This allows it to have 458 battery-panel units throughout its body, through which electricity can be accumulated to achieve a driving range of 112 kilometers per week without relying on any other energy source than solar energy. The car's makers say it can achieve a range of around 245 kilometers per week in summer, when daylight hours are longer.
Another innovation that allows Sono Sion to better utilize solar energy is that it is equipped with a 54kWh lithium iron phosphate battery (LIFEPO4 BATTERY). In addition to not using cobalt, the battery has better energy retention over 1000 charge-discharge cycles and is one of the safest of all lithium-ion battery options on the market. The battery will allow the Sono Sion to travel about 305 kilometers per full charge and reach 80 percent charge in 35 minutes.
The car is equipped with a 161 hp electric motor with 270 Nm of torque and a top speed of 140 km/h. Unlike the "Lightyear 1" electric car project launched in the Netherlands in 2020, the "Sono Sion" will be a more affordable car, as its price is estimated to be around 28,000 euros, while the "Light Year 1", which has not yet been mass-produced, will be a more affordable car. The price of "Type 1" could be as high as 150,000 euros.
Additionally, the Sono Sion is designed to double as a power bank, with two-way charging and a wall-mounted AC box so that its owner can use the car's solar panels to charge other devices when not driving.
