Court confirmation of Sono Motors’ insolvency and restructuring plan

Sono Motors, the Munich-based solar technology company and subsidiary of Sono Group N.V., announced the confirmation of its insolvency and restructuring plan by the insolvency court of the local court of Munich, Germany, as well as the closing of its recently announced investor deal with YA II PN, Ltd. (“Yorkville”), both important milestones in the company’s successful navigation towards restructuring and its imminent exit from its self-administration proceedings.

The first tranche of the investment from Yorkville was funded on February 6, 2024, and the remaining formal actions required for Sono Motors’ exit from its self-administration proceedings are expected to be concluded by February 29, 2024.

Since the beginning of the year, Sono Motors has been implementing its new business model and corporate structure, driven by its new leadership team, including managing directors Jan Schiermeister and Denis Azhar who are both long-term members of Sono Motors’ solar mobility journey. Their extensive experience in the bus, truck, and automotive industries positions them perfectly for Sono Motors’ focus on developing and delivering its core products: the Solar Bus Kit, the company’s retrofit solar integration product specifically developed for buses, and the company’s proprietary solar power electronics that enable solar integration into a wide range of vehicles, including refrigerated trucks, trailers, eVans and eTrucks.

Pioneering solar in mobility to reduce costs and emissions

“We designed our new business model and corporate structure with a clear focus in mind: concentrating on our Solar Bus Kit while continuing to develop some of our other unique selling propositions, such as our ‘MCU’ (Maximum Power Point Tracking Central Unit) – our highly-efficient solar power electronics,” shared Jan Schiermeister and Denis Azhar in a joint statement. “We look forward to working with our strong, motivated and dedicated team, as well as with our customers and other partners, towards realizing our mission to put solar on every vehicle. We are thankful that our community voted in favor of the insolvency plan, thereby giving us another chance to work towards that vision.” Jan Schiermeister further stated: “With our Solar Bus Kit, we have a ready-to-market product that can reduce a bus’s energy consumption and, as a result, also its costs and CO₂ emissions. This product can be retrofitted to almost any bus and, therefore, addresses a large potential market.”

Denis Azhar added: “Sono Motors will continue to pioneer solar in mobility with the vision to enable a world without fossil fuels. Equipped with know-how and innovation from more than five years of research and development in the sector, our first products are market-ready. In addition, we believe that further standalone solutions and our intellectual property have the potential to create a flourishing business for the years to come.”