The Dutch company Lightyear announced that this year it will start manufacturing the world’s first production car equipped with solar panels. The Lightyear 0 will have curved solar panels on its roof, hood and trunk that recharge the electric battery while driving (or parked) and the first delivery in Europe could take place as early as November.
The company says the car will be able to drive around 624 kilometers without stopping to recharge and will have an additional range of up to 70 km per day from the solar panels. For comparison, that’s a little longer than a Tesla Model 3 (600km) and significantly longer than the Kia Niro Long Range (458km).
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Every hour in the sun will add up to 10 kilometers of charge to the battery, according to Lightyear. Solar range will provide an additional mileage power for long trips, but it also means you’ll spend less time at charging points – or maybe you don’t even need them at all. The company says that in a hot place like Spain or Portugal, if your daily commute is less than 35 km, you won’t need to charge the car for up to seven months. In a cloudier climate, like in Holland, the car would need to be charged after two months.
Smaller battery, lighter car
The “0” has a lot in common with the Lightyear One prototype that was unveiled two years ago, but it’s capable of doing more with a smaller battery, says company CEO and co-founder Lex Hoefsloot. “The powertrain is the most efficient in the world,” he says, adding that the car’s aerodynamic shape and four-wheel motors allow a smaller battery to provide the same range.
That means “the whole car is lighter,” he says, “and you get into that positive feedback loop where everything can get lighter too. This is how we managed to reach 1,575 kg. If you look at other cars that offer similar range, they are all about 40% heavier.”
Other companies are developing cars with solar panels, but none are ready to hit the market just yet. Sono Sion, scheduled for production in 2023, promises to provide an average of 16 kilometers of solar range per day. The Aptera Never Charge is a futuristic-looking three-wheeled vehicle that the company claims collects around 65km of solar energy a day. Aptera said it expects the car to enter production in 2023 and already has 24,000 reservations.
But while the entire Lightyear 0 concept may be based on improving efficiency and reducing charging time, it has a top speed of just 100 mph, while its 0-100 mph time is a slow 10 seconds, something Hoefsloot admits to being. focus on reach.
It’s also expensive: one of the 946 launch models will cost €250,000. The company hopes to launch a “people’s model” – the tentatively called Lightyear Two – by 2025, which will sell for around €30,000.
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