A Solar-Powered Drive into a Co-Owned Future

Episode 16

Jona Christians - Sono Motors

“Our goal is only there, only reached when we have all the cars on the street electric and shared.”

Jona Christians is the CEO and Co-founder of Sono Motors. He is on a mission to build a community-supported enterprise that makes solar-powered electric vehicles accessible to everyone. He and his co-founders started their enterprise straight out of school; making good on Jona’s life-motto that changing things for the better often means taking matters into your own hands.

The Sion, their second prototype, is more than a car. On the one hand, it is a sustainable mobility concept - free of fossil fuels. On the other, it aims to change the way we think about the role of mobility and the ubiquity of cars in our daily lives. With the car’s solar panels, it partly powers itself; and once fully charged, its bi-directional charging technology can power other devices. Its design promotes shared ownership and ride sharing.

In 2019, when Sono Motors was looking for funding, the leadership decided to not go with investors, but instead turned to the community to pull together and co-invest in the future of the company. With the pre-sales of the Sion, they managed to raise 50 million euros in crowdfunding. Since then, they have continued working with the community via road shows to inviting design suggestions.

Sono Motors’ disruptive and innovative approach is changing mindsets in the automotive industry and has won them several awards: namely, the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020 from Ernst & Young, and Most Innovative Start-up in Mobility from Forbes.

UN Sustainable Development Goal #7 Affordable and Clean Energy

https://sonomotors.com

SHOWNOTES

The vision of Sono Motors

Jona, the co-founder shares the anecdote of discussing with his co-founder Laurin Hahn, on their dependency on crude oil and mobility being its biggest contributor [3:53]

When asked about other players in the market, Jona welcomes its competitors as they share the same vision on solar electric mobility [5:30] 

Sono Motors’ vision is to build a community driven company and Jona explains how to translate that vision to reality [7:29]

In order to tackle the issue with car ownership, Sono Motors wants to do things differently with shared ownership [8:41]

The success of their solar powered car lies from the expectations and excitement instilled into their future users, and Jona explains how crucial the community’s involvement is [9:58]

Jona with his team are building the next generation of cars and mentions the excitement it procures to have an impact on the future [12:43]

Overview of the technology integrated in the Sion model 

Jona provides an overview of the Sion model, and how their solar based technology has been integrated onto the vehicle’s body [15:50]

In terms of charging, Jona describes how the Sion charges itself through the power of the sun, even in winter time [17:06]

When questioned on their SDG goals, Jona explains how they have aligned their business with SDG 7 ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’ and SDG 11 ‘Sustainable Cities & Communities’ [20:01]

Jona lays out the concept of bi-directional charging, whereby their car gives you the possibility to charge other vehicles [22:23]

Challenges facing the business in order to become mainstream

In 2019, Sono Motors was running the risk of going out of business from a lack of financial resources, and Jona explains how the community ran to the rescue of the company [30:18]

To create the next generation car, Jona shares what kind of mindset an employee must have [32:58]

Questioned on the 3 big challenges faced by the company, Jona lists that funding, retaining their identity as they scale up and remote working constitute the biggest challenges today [35:25]

Part of the vision of Sono Motors is to have a sharing community and how the current system needs to evolve [40:02]

CONNECT WITH JONA CHRISTIANS

Website│LinkedIN

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Laurin Hahn | Co-Founder and CEO at Sono Motors

Navina Pernsteiner | Co-Founder and Creative Director at Sono Motors and selected in 2019 as the 50 Most influential women in the automotive industry.

Crowdsourcing Design Elements | Sono Motors - SION Parts for the Future

Light Year | Solar electric vehicle from the Netherlands 

Aptera | Solar electric car from the United States

T.P Wright | U.S. aeronautical engineer and educator, known for his paper on experience curve effects.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals │ United Nations 

50 things That Changed Our Modern Economy | episode Solar PV | BBC 

Holocracy | method of decentralised management and organisational governance 

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