SEV automaker Sono Motors announced it has publicly filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO). If the IPO is approved, Sono Motors intends to list on the Nasdaq Global Market under ticker symbol “SEV.”
Sono Motors is a German automaker founded in 2016 with the goal of creating innovative mobility services without any dependency on fossil fuels. The company specializes in Solar Electric Vehicles (SEVs) that function the same as traditional BEVs, but with the ability to garner additional charge from the sun.
Sono Motors is working toward scaled production of its flagship SEV, the Sion. By integrating proprietary solar panels into the Sion’s exterior, the SEV is able to garner an additional 70-150 miles of range a week from the sun alone.
This past June, we reported that Sono Motors had upgraded the battery on its upcoming Sion from 35 kWh to 54 kWh, delivering an extra 30+ miles of range (190 miles total) and a 74 kW charge rate via CCS.
In September, the automaker announced it had surpassed 14,000 reservations, equivalent to more than $350 million in net revenue. Sono Motors remains on track to produce all currently reserved Sions in 2023, and now looks gain capital from an IPO to help push the SEV over the finish line.
Integrated solar panels on the Sion SEV Photo: Sono Motors
Sono Motors registers for IPO ahead of Sion production in 2023
In a press release today, Sono Motors announced that its parent company, Sono Group N.V. publicly filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. SEC for an IPO pertaining to its common shares.
If approved and finalized, Sono Motors stated that it plans to list on the under the ticker symbol “SEV.” At this time, the amount of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not been determined.
Like all initially filed IPOs, there is no assurance that Sono Motors’ request will be completed, nor do we know the size or terms of the offering at this point. In the meantime, Sono Motors is working to complete its third generation of Sion prototypes.
Those prototypes are currently slotted to begin testing in the first half of 2022. According to Sono Motors, it remains on track to begin delivering Sion SEVs to reservation holders in the first half of 2023.
JK Rowling has accused Emma Watson of being “ignorant of how ignorant she is” amid their ongoing disagreement about transgender issues.
The Harry Potter films’ three central stars – Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint – have publicly backed the rights of transgender people in recent years, often distancing themselves from the author when asked about her in interviews.
Rowling, 60, has previously been accused of transphobia, which she denies.
Watson, 35, discussed her relationship with the writer on a podcast last week, telling host Jay Shetty: “I think it’s my deepest wish that I hope people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”
Rowling has now shared a more than 600-word post on X in response to Watson, in which she states: “Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is.”
Image: JK Rowling in 2019. Pic: AP
The author went on to say the Hermione Granger actress is never going to need a homeless shelter or be placed on a mixed-sex public hospital ward.
The multimillionaire author said that “I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous” and therefore “understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges”.
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Rowling added that while she has found it “hard to shake off a certain protectiveness” towards the Harry Potter stars, who she has known since they were children, there was a “turning point” in her relationship with Watson in 2022.
She said this happened when Watson gave a Bafta speech saying “I’m here for all the witches”, which some saw as a criticism of the author’s beliefs on gender.
Image: Emma Watson arrives at the Baftas in March 2022. Pic: Reuters
The actress then asked someone to deliver her a handwritten note saying “I’m so sorry for what you’re going through”, the author claimed on X.
This came at a time “when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak” and “Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames”, Rowling said.
In 2020, she was one of several Harry Potter stars who showed their support for the trans community when the author shared a series of divisive posts online.
“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are,” the actress wrote at the time.
Model Penny Lancaster has said she “felt ashamed and belittled” by how former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace treated her on the TV show.
Lancaster, who is also a TV personality and the wife of rock singer Rod Stewart, told Sky News’ The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee programme that she also felt let down by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK.
“I didn’t feel like I was supported in that moment, I felt ashamed and belittled by the way Greg Wallace had treated me but equally I felt disappointed that the production company hadn’t come to my rescue,” Lancaster, 54 and a MasterChef contestant in 2021, said.
“There is a long way to go, but just by people coming forward and being honest about their experiences I think will help in the long term.”
At the end of July, Wallace, 60, apologised after a report commissioned by Banijay UK, and carried out by law firm Lewis Silkin, found 45 out of 83 allegations against him were substantiated.
Sir Rod Stewart criticised Wallace on Instagram in November 2024 and claimed he “humiliated” his wife when she was on the show.
He wrote: “Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?
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“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully.”
He has previously apologised to people he has hurt, saying in July that he knows he has said things that have offended people. He has denied a specific allegation of unwanted touching.
The BBC referred Sky News to their statement from July, in which the corporation said: “Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.
“We want to thank all those who took part in the investigation, including those who first raised concerns directly with the BBC in November last year. We apologise to everyone who has been impacted by Mr Wallace’s behaviour.”
Image: Penny Lancaster speaks to Sarah-Jane Mee
Banijay UK, the producers of MasterChef, told Sky News: “We are extremely sorry to anyone who has been impacted by any inappropriate behaviour by Gregg Wallace whilst working on our shows and felt unable to speak up at the time or that their complaint was not adequately addressed.
“Ways of reporting concerns whilst working on our productions, protocols around behaviour and training for both cast and crew, have improved exponentially in recent years and we constantly review welfare procedures across our productions to ensure that they are as robust as they can be.”
Combs, 55, was one of the most influential hip-hop producers of the 1990s and 2000s, the founder of Bad Boy Records and a Grammy-winning artist in his own right.
Now, he faces up to 20 years in jail – although his defence team is arguing for much less.
Here is everything you need to know ahead of his sentencing.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
What is transportation to engage in prostitution?
During the trial, the court heard details of sexual encounters called “freak offs” by Combs – also referred to as “hotel nights” – which involved his girlfriends and male sex workers.
The rapper would “orchestrate” these encounters between the women and the sex workers, while he watched. Sometimes, these sessions would take place in different states across the US, as well as abroad, and Combs would pay for the sex workers and the women to travel.
He was found guilty of two charges – one relating to sex workers he paid for while in a relationship with singer and model Cassie Ventura, and another relating to sex workers who took part in sessions with Jane*, a woman he was later in a relationship with who was not identified during the trial.
The charges fall under America’s Mann Act, which prohibits interstate commerce related to prostitution.
What about the other charges?
Image: Combs fell to his knees when the verdict was delivered. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
Combs was found not guilty of two counts of sex-trafficking, relating to both Cassie and Jane, and one count of racketeering conspiracy.
This means while jurors believed Combs broke the law over using sex workers, they did not find the sexual encounters involving the women were non-consensual, which is what prosecutors had argued.
Both Cassie and Jane gave evidence, telling the court they felt manipulated and coerced, and sometimes blackmailed, into taking part in the freak offs during their relationships with the rapper. However, defence lawyers argued these were consensual encounters and part of a “swingers lifestyle”.
“The men chose to travel and engage in the activity voluntarily,” defence lawyers said in legal submissions after the verdict. “The verdict confirms the women were not vulnerable or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted during the freak offs or hotel nights.”
Image: Brian Steel is among the lawyers on Combs’s defence team. Pic: Reuters
What is racketeering?
Racketeering broadly means engaging in an illegal scheme or enterprise, and the charge falls under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO) in the US. According to the US justice department’s definition of RICO statute, it is also illegal to “conspire to violate” the laws.
Prosecutors alleged Combs led a racketeering conspiracy “that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice, among other crimes”. However, jurors also cleared him of this charge.
Had he been found guilty of the more serious charges, he could have faced life in prison.
Image: Cassie Ventura gave evidence during the trial. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
Will Combs be jailed for 20 years?
Each charge of transportation to engage in prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, so in theory he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
However, it is thought his sentence will be less than this. Following the verdict, prosecutors said he should be sentenced to at least four to five years.
The music mogul has been denied bail several times since his arrest and again since the trial.
Image: Combs and Cassie at the 2017 Met Gala. Pic: zz/XPX/STAR MAX/IPx 2017/AP
What do his lawyers say?
Following the trial verdict, both prosecutors and the defence team have made arguments to the judge about sentencing.
Before this, they called for Combs to be acquitted or for a retrial on the prostitution-related charges. The US government “painted him as a monster”, they said, but argued his two-month trial showed the allegations were “not supported by credible evidence”.
The rapper’s lawyers have argued that, to their knowledge, he is “the only person” ever convicted of the Mann Act charges for the conduct he was accused of in court.
What has the judge said?
Image: US District Judge Arun Subramanian heard the trial and will sentence Combs. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
Judge Arun Subramanian, who presided over the trial, will decide Combs’s fate.
He has previously decided several times not to grant bail, saying the hip-hop mogul’s team have failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also citing admissions of previous violence made during the trial.
During her opening statement, Teny Geragos, who is on Combs’s defence team, described him as “a complicated man” and conceded he could be violent. However, she argued, this was not the charge against him.
Will Combs try to revive his career after ‘unspeakable shame’?
Image: Diddy performing at the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2023. Pic: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Despite being convicted of the prostitution-related charges, his lawyers hailed the verdict a “victory”, given he was cleared of the more serious allegations. In interviews since, they have said he is planning a return to music with a New York gig.
However, in legal submissions, they have also said the trial brought Combs “unspeakable shame and monumental adverse consequences” and that his “legacy has been destroyed”.
After allegations against him were made public, Combs was removed from the boards at three charter schools he created in Harlem, the Bronx and Connecticut and was also stripped of an honorary doctorate degree from Howard University, which plans to return his prior donations, they said.
He was also forced to return the key to the city of New York that was previously presented to him by the mayor, and his career has “collapsed”.
As well as this case, he is also still facing several civil lawsuits – and has “mounting legal bills” from defending these and the criminal charges, his lawyers have said.
