HERE COMES THE SUN KING

We head to Munich to see how German startup Sono is using solar power to help charge the firm's first EV, the Sion, and look at its plans to develop the technology for use on commercial vehicles

- Guy Bird

STRAPPING large and heavy solar panels to the roof of a car has historically been a nice, but flawed idea, based on similar and more workable precedents on domestic and commercial buildings. These harness our world's most plentiful resource, relieve our electrical infrastructure and reduce CO2 emissions. So, why not cars then? Because most solar-roofed concepts presented over the past 20 years have been too small, too inefficient or both, barely creating enough energy to run their own air-con, let alone power themselves down the road.

But new solar electric vehicle company Sono Motors might be about to change that perception. Starting back in 2012, two entrepreneurial young Germans, Laurin Hahn, who studied electrical engineering, and Jona Christians (computer science and experimental physics) built their first solar car in three years before officially setting up Sono Motors in a Munich garage in 2016.

Since then the pair has sensibly enrolled the help of a few thoughtful eco-minded car-maker veterans, including ex-Daimler strategist and Nissan Europe CEO Thomas Hausch as Sono's chief operating officer, and also an ex-Volkswagen designer and ex-BMW finance expert, too.

Flexible

Why should anyone take notice of this startup with big dreams? Firstly, their forthcoming Sion car has 456 half-cell solar panels on the roof, bonnet, rear hatch and doors. They are covered in thin, flexible protective polymer layers that are two-thirds lighter than glass and can effectively capture the sun's rays at different angles.

Secondly, the self-developed and patented cells were designed from the outset for transport, not adapted from other industries. The energy generated is conservatively estimated to extend the Sion's 190-mile range from its 54kWh battery by 70 miles a week on average.