Home » today » Business » Production of the world’s first solar car has begun. What is the selling price?

Production of the world’s first solar car has begun. What is the selling price?

Thursday 01 December 2022, 10:17

4148 reads

Dutch mobility start-up Lightyear has begun mass-producing the world’s first electric vehicle that generates energy directly from sunlight, Bloomberg reports.

Lightyear will produce approximately one thousand copies of the model at a Valmet Automotive Oyj a facility Finlandstarting with one car a week.

By the second half of next year, production will ramp up to five cars a week, CEO and co-founder Lex Hoefsloot said in an interview with Bloomberg, quoted by economy.ro.

His first, Lightyear 0, has a price of 250,000 euros and has already collected 150 pre-orders.

The car has curved solar panels on its hood and roof and is capable of running for two months without recharging in Amsterdam during the summer, and even seven months in Portugal, according to Hoefsloot. Power obtained from the sun will add up to 70 kilometers of range each day.

Fundraising in the early days was difficult because investors were reluctant to put their money into a new concept, Hoefsloot said.

“Right now, we’re in a much more mature stage,” he added investment they came from Holland. Lightyear secured €81 million from a Dutch-led group of investors in September.

Solar-powered cars have had a hard time making it past the prototype stage due to the large surface area required by solar panels.

Founded in the Netherlands in 2016, the company has also developed the Lightyear 2, its second high-volume model, with a starting price of around 30,000 euros.

Lightyear 2 would enter the production through 2025 and has reservations from car-sharing and leasing companies LeasePlan Corp NV and MyWheels, according to the company.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.