Innovative solar technology: Sono Motors and pepper motion win busplaner Innovation Award 2023

  • Solar Bus Kit beat out competitors in the "air conditioning, heating and battery management" category

  • Decisive milestone in two-year test phase of the first E-bus with integrated Solar Bus Kit

MUNICH, Germany, 17th July 2023 – The solar tech company Sono Motors, together with pepper motion GmbH, specialist for the electrification of new and used vehicles, received the busplaner Innovation Award 2023 on 13 July. The well-known trade magazine busplaner honoured 57 innovative projects and solutions in the industry at a festive event and awarded winners in 15 categories. In the "Air conditioning, heating and battery management" group, pepper won first place together with Sono Motors for the innovative Solar Bus Kit. In November 2022, Sono Motors installed a customised version of the Solar Bus Kit with 14 semi-flexible solar modules on an electrified Mercedes-Benz Citaro from pepper's demo fleet as part of the partnership and thus started a two-year test phase. The innovative solar modules provide a peak value of 1.3 kWp for the bus's 24-volt system and thus enable the efficient use of solar energy. Receiving the busplaner Innovation Award is an important milestone in the ongoing test phase and underlines the driving role of both companies for electromobility.

Common vision of a world without fossil fuels
"We at Sono Motors are very pleased about the award and proud that our future-oriented solar solution convinced the expert jury. Solar technology on buses, whether electric or conventionally powered by fossil fuels, is an important component that can contribute to the decarbonisation of public transport. The cooperation with pepper motion shows that pioneering technologies and partnership-based commitment make a sustainable future possible," explains Jona Christians, CEO and co-founder of Sono Motors. 
"At pepper, we have made it our goal to successfully advance the mobility revolution in our society. Sono Motors shares our vision of a world without fossil fuels and is an important partner in driving innovation forward. The Solar Bus Kit will make our electrification solution even more sustainable and together, with the help of our technologies, we can save significant amounts of CO2," says Andreas Hager, Managing Director of pepper motion GmbH.

ABOUT PEPPER MOTION GMBH

pepper – electrifying transportation!
Innovative solutions for used and new commercial vehicles. With its holistic approach from consulting and electrification to service, telematics, charging infrastructure or fleet management, the company designs quickly implementable, cost-efficient and flexible solution packages for the sustainable mobility transformation. By retrofitting existing commercial vehicles with the certified retrofit kits for buses and trucks, vehicles are given an environmentally friendly "second life" and thus enable the most sustainable form of mobility, both ecologically and economically, while making an active contribution to reducing emissions in transport and implementing the Clean Vehicles Directive. 
Pepper is ISO 9001 certified and is the only supplier of conversion solutions to guarantee operational safety in accordance with international automotive industry standards such as ISO 26262 (functional safety), while an international partner network guarantees service and availability.  pepper motion GmbH employs more than 100 people and has its headquarters in Denkendorf/Bavaria with offices in Garching near Munich and Paderborn. 
The subsidiary pepper motion Austria GmbH, based in Vienna, is the software development centre of the pepper group. In France, Italy and Poland, pepper is represented by sales partners.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release includes forward-looking statements. The words "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "aim", "forecast", "project", "target", “will” and similar expressions (or their negative) identify certain of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are statements regarding the Company's intentions, beliefs, or current expectations. Forward-looking statements involve inherent known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and contingencies because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to the risks, uncertainties and assumptions set forth in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and on our website at ir.sonomotors.com. Many of these risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond the Company's ability to control or estimate precisely, such as the actions of regulators and other factors. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.


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Sono Group N.V. (NASDAQ: SEV) is on a pioneering mission to accelerate the revolution of mobility by making every vehicle solar. Sono Motors’ disruptive solar technology has been engineered to be seamlessly integrated into a variety of vehicle architectures — including third-party OEM cars, buses, refrigerated vehicles, and recreational vehicles — to extend range and reduce fuel costs as well as the impact of CO2 emissions, paving the way for climate-friendly mobility.