Dutch automotive startup Lightyear has officially lifted the lid on its “production-ready” Lightyear 0 – a solar-powered electric vehicle (EV) that can run for up to seven months without a charge.
The result of six years of research and development, the Lightyear 0 features an array of curved solar panels on the roof and bonnet, complementing a small 60kWh battery pack. This combination gives the car an impressive range of 625 km (388 miles), of which 70 km (44 miles) comes from solar power alone, according to the company.
So essentially, the Lightyear 0 charges itself when exposed to the sun – meaning it can be ridden for short distances (i.e. commutes of less than 44 miles) for months before needing to be plugged back into a conventional power source .
Of course, the amount of electricity produced by the car’s solar panels depends entirely on the amount of sunshine in your area, but “even in climates like the Netherlands,” Lightyear claims, “[this time between charges] two months and even seven months in Spain or Portugal.”
The company says its “patented dual curve solar arrays” are optimized to provide up to 11,000km of electricity each year.
However, given the limited size of its battery, the Lightyear 0 isn’t a particularly sprightly car. The aforementioned 60kWh powerhouse gives it 174 hp and 1,269 lb-ft of torque, which in turn gives it a rather lackluster 0-62mph time of around 10 seconds. His speedometer is also at 100 miles per hour.
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Other than that, this isn’t a vehicle with industry-leading performance. Lightyear will hope that the promise of such an impressive range is enough to get potential customers looking beyond premium EVs from Mercedes, Audi, and Tesla — though the 0’s price won’t help in that regard.
Lightyear plans to sell 946 units for the princely sum of €250,000 (approx the official website of the brand — but for that money you could pick up two top-of-the-line Mercedes EQS EVs, or even three Porsche Taycan 4S sports car and quiet have cash left over.
So, in our opinion, we don’t expect the Lightyear 0 to blow up the EV market – but it sounds like an undeniably exciting innovation nonetheless, hinting at the potential solar-powered future of electric cars.
Analysis: Is the sun coming?
After years of showboating, the automotive industry seems to be finally pulling together when it comes to solar power. In addition to Lightyear, several companies are currently on the cusp of producing scalable solar-powered vehicles that could soon hit the streets. MercedesHyundai, Tesla and Toyota, to name just a few major brands, are actively developing solar-powered models or hybrid versions of them.
Key issues that continue to plague the adoption of these vehicles include the difficulty of manufacturing safe, reliable, and inexpensive modules for vehicle integration, and the reduction in power generation caused by inclement weather and other obstacles (note the number of buildings, bridges, trees, and tunnels blocking roof-based panels).
However, Lightyear has attempted to mitigate these issues by focusing on efficiency rather than performance. The Lightyear 0 is an everyday car, and under ideal conditions its solar panels can reportedly harvest around 1.05kW of constant trickle charge.
Of course, we’ll have to wait until the car itself hits the road before making a judgment on whether this trade-off between range and performance is worth it. Lightyear says the first Lightyear 0 orders will ship as early as November 2022, so we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more news.
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