German electric car startup Sono Motors has raised almost $60 million through a crowdfunding campaign to bring its all-electric Sion to the market.
The campaign, which ran for just 50 days on the Sono Motors website, raised a total of €53,271,898 ($59,113,161), making it one of the biggest crowdfunding campaigns in Europe.
Speaking with New Atlas at the start of their crowdfunding campaign, Sono Motors founders Laurin Hahn and Jona Christians said the company couldn’t rely on traditional funding measures to achieve its goals.
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“We were torn between our pledge to the community and the investors’ demands and were increasingly moving away from who we really are, which is something we absolutely had to correct,” Christians said.
“Social responsibility and climate protection would otherwise have fallen by the wayside, and so would all that we stepped up for. We are now focusing on continuing to fund our innovative vehicle concept together with people who want to see the Sion on the road. Together with a community that asks for a company which acts responsibly, critically questions itself and can be judged honestly on the basis of the statements it makes.”
The Sono Motors Sion has been a long time coming and was first previewed as a prototype back in 2016 when a separate crowdfunding campaign generated $610,323 to bring the car to life.
Powering the all-electric car is a compact 35 kWh battery that offers a range of 255 km (158 miles) under WLTP testing. Virtually all of the car’s exterior panels include innovative solar cells to boost the vehicle’s range by up to 18.6 miles (30 km) per day if parked under the German sun.
Sono’s goal is to sell the Sion for just €16,000 ($17,752), with production scheduled to commence in the second half of 2020.
