A while ago you mentioned a German solar car in one of your videos. I translated a Czech article for you. This came out today.
The founders have now admitted that they failed, but they still hope that people will believe in them a second time and with the help of a relatively small amount, they will bring everything to a successful end.
Already in 2016, the Germans came up with the prototype of the Sion electric car, which, in addition to the electricity charged from the grid, also uses that obtained from the sun for its drive. In July of this year, they also revealed the production version, which not only received lithium-iron-phosphate batteries with a capacity of 54 kWh, but also 456 photovoltaic panels embedded in the body. On average, they should generate enough energy to drive 112 to 245 kilometers each week. Although the Germans do not state that thanks to the solar drive you will never have to recharge the batteries again in your life, in their opinion you should do so four times less than the owners of ordinary electric cars.
From a theoretical point of view, Sion is still attractive, especially when, according to the creators, it should have cost only 29,900 Euros.
It is therefore not at all surprising that the solar electric car should have already attracted more than 20,000 interested parties. However, Jona Christians and Laurin Hahn, the brand's founders, have now come forward to employees and supporters to announce that they have failed. They failed to raise enough money, which brought the entire company to the brink of bankruptcy. And now they hope that people will save her. The founders of Sono Motors say that if 3,500 people send at least 500 Euros they will be able to continue their work and 70 percent of the employees will not end up on the pavement. Originally, they claimed that production would first start in 2019 and then in 2020. In the end, however, it has not been launched yet. What's more, the company hasn't even passed homologation or crash tests.
Christians and Hahn are worried that if they don't manage to get enough money, they will return all the collected funds to the interested parties. Project Sion will then come to a halt and they will simply jump into making regular solar panels, with which they have more experience and which are also more profitable.
Believe those hucksters a second time?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I would not give them a dime.
The EV industry is fraud and failure all the way down. Even market leader Tesla is a low-performing company, considering their quality control issues (and where is the Cybertruck?) An even better example is the Nikola EV heavy truck company - pure fraud. All the rest of them just catch on fire.
We need to shut down the whole EV industry until we can figure out what the h**l is going on there.
production version, which not only received lithium-iron-phosphate batteries with a capacity of 54 kWh, but also 456 photovoltaic panels embedded in the body
Basic napkin math shows this is nonsense. (for example)
it should have cost only 29,900 Euros. (...) 3,500 people send at least 500 Euros
Look, the car business has razor slim margins with an INCREDIBLY high entry boundary cost.
Cars like the Corolla and Focus all make under 10%-15% gross margin.
A $25,000 car makes them ~$2,200 before warranty expenses, recalls, etc.
Developing a platform? $500 million - $1 billion, (NOT INCLUDING POWERTRAIN, INTERIOR, ETC.)
Building a factory? $8 billion.
So, if you want to build a car company, you need to spend $10 BILLION - you need 4 million cars to brake even.
This is all assuming you can end up making cars that people want t buy and make a profit on them.
Telsa has $30 billion in liabilities -
it took Tesla until Q1 2020 to make their first profit (8 years after they began making decent popular cars) - until then, 8 years of making plenty of cars and not managing to make a profit.
Econ 101 says that their "assessment" is: {pear}:laughingoutloud: {pear}:laughingoutloud: {pear}:laughingoutloud: {pear}:laughingoutloud:
What a total scam.
solar panels (...) more profitable
market has fulfilled the demand, profit margin is 3.75% only - no sense entering that market.
Especially not with German taxes, 19% corporation tax in Germany? 39.5% tax to GDP? AS A PLACE FOR LOW PROFIT MARGIN MANUFACTURING? HECK NAH!!!
solar car (...) 29,900 Euros
This absolute snake oil isn't new apparently.
If you want 2.7 miles of range a day (best case, probably under a mile irl)
Woah! $2,500 to save $840 of gas over its lifetime! what a great deal!!!
even if the panel will be 3x bigger 100% of the car and at 100% efficiency - 10 miles a day.
Physics is a thing! Conservation of energy exists!
Either you put petrol or diesel in it - or you have to make the energy for it, for a good price - so coal, gas (, other natural resources) or nuclear.
But if it has to be QuIrKy GrEeN total nightmare built by some small company:
Ahh. So a scam masquerading as a charity.
I see the Germans are getting in on the enviro-racket too.
I've always wondered why some people will pour billions into some start ups (Rivian) and yet completely ignore others that seem to have a lot more planning and potential.
