Storage company Sonnen enters e-mobility with flat-rate business model

Bavarian energy storage company Sonnen, which was taken over by oil company Shell earlier this year, is entering the e-mobility market. The company said it will launch a subscription model whereby households can rent a PV system, a battery and an electric car for a monthly flat rate. "Sonnen removes barriers to the use of renewable energies and makes them accessible to even more people," states a press release. The monthly fee for the PV array and the battery will be on par with households' conventional electricity bills, and the car will cost an additional fee depending on the type of vehicle, starting at 250 euros per month, Sonnen said. The company currently has 40,000 clients in Germany and said it expects that 30 percent of new clients will opt for an electric car next year. It added existing clients could also add an electric vehicle to their contracts.

"Sonnen is the first supplier to attempt to establish decentralised electricity production on a large scale," Tobias Struck, who heads the storage division of northern German utility Wemag, told the newspaper die Welt. He added a company that managed to build up a large community with more than half a million households would have a considerable advantage on the power market because it can offer lucrative grid services. Car expert and consultant Achim Teichert told the paper e-cars are perfectly suited for a subscription model because of low maintenance costs.