Founders transfer profit shares to existing supporters and future reservation holders.
Munich, December 16, 2019 – The german mobility provider Sono Motors today announced that the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has positively completed its review of the company’s Community Participation Program. As a result, in addition to the existing reservation holders of a Sion, future reservation holders can now participate in the company’s profits. Via a so-called Community Pool, the reservation holders of the Solar Electric Vehicle Sion will receive proportional participation rights to the company’s profits. In return, the founders of Sono Motors completely waive their profit participation rights and contribute all their available participation rights of 64.07 percent to the Community Pool.
“We see ourselves as a value-based and responsible company that represents a new type of entrepreneurship. This includes valuing our supporters, who we see not as customers but as an integral part of Sono Motors. They make this project possible and thus set a public signal for the urgently needed transformation of transportation and sustainable, resource-conserving mobility,” says Jona Christinas, CEO and one of the founders of Sono Motors. “That’s why we decided to give something back to the community and continue to grow this company together,” he adds.
Already at the start of the Community Funding Campaign on December 1, 2019, the company founders announced their decision to set up a Community Pool once the funding target of 50 million euros had been reached. This will make Sono Motors the first car manufacturer in the world to finance itself primarily through the community and transfer a large part of its profits to the community. Participation is via a points system that includes both the time of reservation and the amount of the deposit. This ensures that previous supporters are given special consideration.
Within just two weeks, 13 million euros have already been contributed to the funding campaign through the increase in advance payments from existing supporters and new reservations. About 1,000 people have already registered for the offered loan. The Community Funding Campaign will end on December 30, 2019, by which time the threshold of 50 million euros must be reached in order to continue the project Sion. As Sono Motors announced, the company will only demand payment from the reservation holders if the campaign goal is reached.
