Sono Motors, the German developer of solar panel assisted electric vehicles, is entering the growing refrigerated trailer market thanks to a tie up with the Reefer Group, the Spanish headquartered international leader in refrigerated bodies.
Under the collaboration the companies will develop a refrigerated trailer vehicle for Reefer’s French subsidiary CHEREAU. The prototype will be used to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of integrating a customised solar solution for a high-volume series vehicle.
Sono’s solar integration will provide the trailer’s cooling unit with an additional 9.8 kW peak, offering predicted average annual fuel savings of approximately 3,400 litres while reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 9 tonnes per year per vehicle, compared to trailers with diesel-powered cooling units.
The refrigerated trailer market is expected to grow strongly due to increasing demand for medicine, deep-frozen products and fast food.
Laurin Hahn, co-founder and CEO of Sono Motors says, “This partnership is a huge step for Sono Motors, since we open up a completely new industry for our highly flexible and proprietary solar technology. We offer a lightweight and adaptable platform that is ideal for refrigerated trailers and allows customers in the transportation industry to cut costs and emissions throughout their fleet.
“We are very pleased for the opportunity to collaborate with such a respected industry partner like CHEREAU and look forward to all the opportunities that this partnership can create,” he adds.
“The solar integration solutions provided by Sono Motors are the perfect fit for our trailers. We are pleased to be able to work with Sono Motors to create the future prototype that will be part of our demo fleet of sustainable reefer trailers. This is a big step towards making commercial mobility more sustainable and reducing emissions,” says Damien Destremau, CEO at The Reefer Group and CHEREAU.
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