Sono Motors is ending its long-awaited electrical automotive program and as an alternative pivoting to a enterprise that goals to promote its photo voltaic car know-how to different corporations.

The German-based firm, which went public in November 2022, introduced Friday it’s shedding 300 workers on account of the change in enterprise mannequin. COO Thomas Hausch can also be leaving his place.

The shift seems to be pushed by a one-two punch of a high-cost EV program coupled with rapidly depleting capital. Sono Motors has been tormented by monetary points for years, at one level almost shutting down altogether till it appealed to and acquired help from people by means of a crowdfunding marketing campaign.

The Sion EV program, whereas the unique centerpiece of the corporate, has been a constant drag on its finances. The corporate mentioned an estimated 90% of its funding wants for 2023 have been devoted to the Sion EV, a $25,000 five-seater hatchback that was supposed to enter manufacturing later this yr.

Sono Motors will now flip its consideration to promoting a know-how that it developed for its Sion EV: photo voltaic embedded into the car. The corporate’s enterprise will retrofit and combine its photo voltaic know-how, which incorporates energy electronics and software program, onto business automobiles comparable to buses in addition to vehicles produced by OEMs.

“This pivot marks a big step in Sono Motors’ enterprise improvement,” mentioned Sono Motors CEO and co-founder Laurin Hahn mentioned in a press release. “Although we needed to terminate our unique ardour mission, the Sion program, shifting our total focus to business-to-business photo voltaic options supplies us with a chance to proceed to create progressive merchandise within the photo voltaic house. It was a tough choice and regardless of greater than 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for the Sion, we have been compelled to react to the continuing monetary market instability and streamline our enterprise.”

Sono mentioned it has 23 business-to-business prospects right this moment which can be piloting its built-in photo voltaic know-how on a spread of automobiles, together with third-party OEM vehicles, buses, refrigerated automobiles, and leisure automobiles. Sono mentioned it’s working with Mitsubishi Europe, CHEREAU and Volkswagen subsidiaries Scania and MAN Truck & Bus.

The German-based firm received its begin in 2016 when co-founders Jona Christians, Laurin Hahn and Navina Persteiner — in search of a approach to cut back society’s dependence on fossil fuels — kicked off an formidable plan to construct an electrical passenger car that was partially powered by the solar. (Persteiner left the corporate in 2020) From afar, prototypes of the Sion car regarded like a compact automotive with black paint. Upon nearer inspection, the whole exterior of the car was really comprised of a whole bunch of photo voltaic cells that had been built-in into polymer as an alternative of glass.

In January 2021, the corporate introduced it deliberate to license its photo voltaic physique panel know-how to different corporations. These photo voltaic cells convert daylight into power, which is saved within the car’s battery. On the time, Hahn mentioned the know-how will make automobiles much less depending on charging infrastructure. It may well additionally help auxilliary energy functions such because the electrical energy used to energy a refrigerated truck.

A product, dubbed the ‘Photo voltaic Bus Equipment’ is deliberate for the second quarter of 2023.