As climate change continues to make headlines, businesses like Lightyear are stepping up with viable solutions. Last week, Lightyear unveiled a prototype of the first long-range solar car to investors in the Netherlands.
Lightyear, a known pioneer in clean mobility, has received many awards and grants, including the CES Climate Change Innovator, Postcode Lottery Green Challenge Finalist, and funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The company put their funding to good use, developing a prototype in just two years.
The vehicle, dubbed Lightyear One, was engineered to optimize efficiency and safety, and when in the sun it has a longer battery range than the competition. The company, which specializes in developing electric cars with energy-efficient designs and integrated solar cells, states in their press release that “drivers could go up to 20,000 kilometers a year on the sun, depending on the climate.”
Lightyear was founded in 2016 by alumni of Solar Team Eindhoven, who won the prestigious Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The company has grown significantly since then, and now has more than 100 employees who include former employees of Tesla and Ferrari.
The company’s mission is to make clean mobility available to everyone, everywhere. “Climate change is such a frightening development that it’s almost paralyzing,” said Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear. “We decided to do the opposite; as engineers, we believed we could do something. Lightyear One represents an opportunity to change mobility for the better.”
While the first prototype has a high unit cost, the next models are expected to have a lower purchase price. “Future models will be provided to autonomous and shared car fleets, so the purchase price can be divided amongst a large group of users,” Hoefsloot said. “Combined with the low operating costs of the vehicle, we aim to provide premium mobility for a low price per kilometer.”
