Sono Motors teams up with retrofit service provider on solar kit for buses

Solar mobility firm Sono Motors, a subsidiary of Germany's Sono Group NV (NASDAQ:SEV), plans to partner on installing its solar retrofit product for buses, the Solar Bus Kit, with OePNV-Service Hagen, a service provider in the public transportation sector.

The companies have signed a letter of intent (LoI), aimed at agreeing partnership, as part of which OePNV-Service is expected to provide installation, servicing and logistics services for the kit.

Sono Motors says its Solar Bus Kit is optimised for the most common public transport bus types on the European market and enables the partial powering of subsystems such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) with solar energy. It estimates a 1.4-kWp installation with about 8 sq m (86 sq ft) of solar panels can save up to 1,500 liters of diesel per year, with potential payback time of some three to four years.

Sono Motors chief executive and co-founder Laurin Hahn said that the solution “enables an immediate response to new emission regulations, like the Euro 7 standard, and increasing energy prices.”

The partners are looking to sign a contract and start operations in the fourth quarter of 2022 and plan to also include sales and distribution of the kit in a potential long-term cooperation. According to the announcement, OePNV-Service performs 4,000 modernisations of commercial vehicles each year.

Sono Motors is working on its Sion solar electric vehicle and says it has received over 20,000 reservations with advance down-payments for it.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!