LIGHTYEAR ONE
84 // July 2019 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
covering the car’s entire top surface in solar
panels) it can off er thousands of kilometers
of free, clean motoring every year and provide
a car that conveniently charges itself.
“We realize this is not a small mission,”
Lightyear chief executive Lex Hoefsloot says
candidly, who recognizes that building a car
company, let alone an electric car company,
from scratch is incredibly di cult.
“We talked to a lot of industry experts
and did a lot of modeling for what the real
opportunity was, we looked at the market and
realized there is huge demand for supere
cient cars,” Hoefsloot continues, before
quickly pointing out that he isn’t talking about
his car’s party piece, the solar panels, just yet.
E ciency e orts
“It all starts with e ciency. Look at
aerodynamic performance, it’s really related
to how people are positioned in the car. By
using a diff erent powertrain with in-wheel
motors, we can reposition some of the
I n 2013, a team of Dutch students entered
the World Solar Challenge, a 3,000
kilometer (1,800 mile) race between Darwin
and Adelaide, held exclusively for solarpowered
cars.
Solar Team Eindhoven not only completed
the race, which is a considerable feat in itself,
but they won, becoming the fi rst four-seat
vehicle to do so. Incredibly, their car completed
the race using six-times less energy than an
average Tesla.
The DNA of that vehicle with its extreme
energy e ciency, solar panels and seating for
four now fi nds itself in the Lightyear One. The
world’s fi rst long range, solar-powered electric
production car, which its creators say is twice
as e cient as a Tesla Model S, has a maximum
range of 725 kilometers (450 miles) on the
WLTP cycle, and will go on sale for around
US$170,000 (£135,000) in 2021. But that price
tag hasn’t seemed to put any future customers
off as Lightyear says over 100 cars have already
been sold.
Revealed in the summer of 2019,
the One is not only Lightyear’s
answer to Tesla, but an alternative
to the entire electric car industry.
This is a vehicle that, Lightyear
hopes, will rewrite the EV
rulebook and show that through
paying meticulous attention to
energy e ciency (not to mention
e very 1. The solar panels that cover the Lightyear One
claim to harvest energy at
a rate of 10-12km an hour
2. Effi ciency is enhanced
through a lightweight
aluminum and carbon
fi ber chassis
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