The $30,000 Sedan Covered With Solar Panels That Charges on the Go

You can’t say Laurin Hahn lacks drive. While still in high school, he founded what has since become the most popular dance club in Munich. Then, with no real engineering skills, he and a buddy set out to build a car powered by solar panels on its roof. Four years later they had a working prototype, so they formed a company to sell it. A few years on, when key investors declined to put in more money, the pair turned to crowdfunding. Within two months they’d raised €53 million ($62 million). “I guess I’m fairly ambitious, but the point of the car was to help the world,” Hahn, now 26, says with a laugh.

Their company, Sono Motors—the name, Latin for “sound,” is a riff on how quiet electric motors are—is developing a boxy, four-door hatchback covered in solar panels that are barely visible but can generate enough electricity to give the car more than 10 miles of range after a few hours in the sun. When it hits the market in about 18 months, the Sion, as it’s called, will come in only one color: solar-cell black. The price, Hahn says, will be €25,500, making it competitive with Volkswagen AG’s ID.3, an electric sedan that started selling in July for €35,000. The Sion can also be plugged in, but Hahn figures the solar panels will eliminate one of the primary concerns drivers have about e-vehicles: range anxiety. “You can run the car completely dry, leave it on the side of the road, and it’ll recharge itself,” he says—even on a cloudy day (though much more slowly). “The idea that I can’t get stuck is extremely important.”