Following the restructuring, Dutch solar EV start-up Lightyear is sticking to its plan to bring the Lightyear 2 to series production at a price of less than €40,000. According to a media report, the 2025 market launch is not yet set in stone.
The Dutch solar car start-up Lightyear has announced the founding of a new company that will focus entirely on the Lightyear 2. However, not all details have been negotiated yet, and the insolvency administrator has yet to approve.
Atlas Technologies, the operating company responsible for the production of the Lightyear solar cars, has now been declared insolvent by a Dutch court. What will happen to the entire project is now very uncertain.
The Dutch solar car start-up Lightyear has stopped production of its first model Lightyear 0 and now wants to focus its resources entirely on the second model Lightyear 2. However, there is more behind this step than strategic reorientation.
Leasing provider Arval has reserved 10,000 units of the Lightyear 2 from Dutch solar car start-up Lightyear. The total number of pre-orders for the Lightyear 2 from B2B partners now exceeds 21,000 vehicles.
Valmet Automotive has started series production of the Lightyear 0 long-distance solar car at its plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Initially, however, only one unit per week will be produced. Production is to be gradually ramped up in the first quarter of 2023.
Valmet Automotive has now completed the first pre-production vehicle of the Lightyear 0 long-range solar car at its plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The pre-series is an important step in the planned start of production of the customer vehicles by the end of 2022.
Lightyear has raised €81Mn in funding to secure the production of the first series model, Lightyear 0. The Dutch start-up also hopes to push ahead with developing its second solar car, the Lightyear 2. The new EV will target the mass market at a price of €30,000 once production begins in 2024 or 2025.
The Dutch solar car company Lightyear has entered into a development cooperation with the Swedish manufacturer Koenigsegg. The technologies of the company, known for its extremely powerful sports cars, are to be incorporated into the mass-market model Lightyear 2.
Three years after it was first unveiled, Dutch start-up Lightyear, which emerged from the TU Eindhoven solar team, has unveiled the final design and specifications of its long-range solar car, renamed Lightyear 0 from Lightyear One.
In the Netherlands, the solar car start-up Lightyear is cooperating with The Sharing Group to integrate its vehicles into their car-sharing platform MyWheels. Lightyear is also making its Lightyear One sedan significantly more expensive for private customers.
The solar car start-up Lightyear has revealed further data on its already announced second model. The new model, with which Lightyear is targeting the mass market and whose production is to begin in 2024 or 2025, will be called Lightyear Two and is to be offered from as little as 30,000 euros.
The Dutch solar electric car start-up Lightyear has raised further capital from investors. Having already closed the company’s largest financing round to date in March 2021 with 48 million US dollars, investments have now risen to a total of 110 million US dollars this year thanks to further backers.
Dutch technology company Lightyear has signed a memorandum of understanding with Valmet Automotive for vehicle production. The contract covers the production of the exclusive series of the Lightyear One solar electric car and is expected to be finalised in August.
The Dutch startup Lightyear that emerged from the solar team at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands has closed the company’s largest financing round to date with 48 million US dollars.
Lightyear, the startup company that emerged from the solar team at the Technical University of Eindhoven, presented its long-distance solar car Lightyear One last year. Now the startup wants to push the development of solar roofs for electric vehicles with the Dutch company DSM.
Lightyear, the Dutch start-up company that emerged from the solar team at the TU Eindhoven, is planning a more affordable version of its long-distance solar car Lightyear One, for which a price of €149,000 has been announced. The upcoming models are expected only to cost a third of the One.
The Dutch solar car startup Lightyear has engaged former Tesla manager Johan Vos as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). He will drive the commercialisation of the long-range solar car Lightyear One.
The Dutch startup Lightyear emerged from the solar team from the TU Eindhoven, has now officially presented its long-distance solar car Lightyear One. Production of the 149,000 Euro Lightyear One is scheduled to start in 2021.
The ‘electric car that charges itself’ thus was the slogan Lightyear entered the EV stage with in 2017. The spin-off from the TU Eindhoven’s solar team has been working on their solar EV ever since and has now found a partner in LeasePlan that will help bring the ‘Pioneer Edition’ to consumers by 2020.
The Dutch startup which emerged from TU Eindhovens solar team, Lightyear, will be cooperating to develop long-distance solar vehicles with the German development partner EDAG.
3bn dollars for EV funding: To call California ambitious when it comes to electric transport seems an understatement, given that it wants to pump another 3 billion dollars into EV subsidies. The aim is to bring them on price par with ICEs but also to reach the Golden State’s declared target of 1.5m electric cars on the roads by 2025, up from 300,000 to date. The initiative is part of a new bill which also includes infrastructure investments with a focus on low income communities in particular. latimes.com, sfbay.ca
3 series electric? BMW may bring an electric 3-series to this year’s IAA, Handelsblatt has learnt. Its alleged 400 km range and positioning would place it in direct competition with the Tesla Model 3 and also makes sense in the overall line-up. After all, there has been no pure electric offering since the i3. electrek.co, handelsblatt.com (paywall)
Take on the future: Lightyear One is the name of a solar-powered racer conceived by former students from Dutch TU Eindhoven. The team had met at uni but have since formed a spin-off. Lightyear hopes to build the first ten units of the “electric car that charges itself” by 2019 with another 90 to follow at the end of this decade. The solar coupé stands at a net price of 119,000 euros at the moment. lightyear.one
Another bite of the cake of the future was taken by Geely that just bought Terrafugia. The MIT spin-off is working on a flying car but their TF-X is only half-electric and set up as PHEV. scmp.com
SAIC in India: A production plant in India by 2019 is the plan of Chinese SAIC for its MG brand, which will reportedly launch various plug-in models within the next few years. A decision whether those will be build in India however, has yet to be made. autonews.com, thehindu.com
Optare Down Under: British e-bus maker Optare is on the way to Australia at least in spirit after signing an agreement with Bus Corp Oceania (BCO) to distribute and service its buses in Oceania. In the long run, Optare considers to also assemble its electric models in Britain’s former colony. smmt.co.uk, optare.com