Imagine an electric car that you can drive for months without recharging. That is the idea behind the Lightyear O, the first solar-powered sedan.
The brainchild of a Dutch startup, the Light year O is a four-door electric car with more than 50 square meters of solar panels on the hood and roof that can generate up to 70 kilometers of electricity per day while driving.
While many electric car manufacturers add more batteries to increase range, Lightyear takes the opposite approach. They want to harvest the power of the sun to give more range with less battery.
Production of the first iteration of the vehicle is now underway in Finland by the same manufacturer that makes the Porshe Boxter.
“Starting production of Lightyear 0, the first solar car, brings us a big step closer to our mission of clean mobility for everyone, everywhere,” said Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear. “We may be the first to achieve this, but I certainly hope we are not the last.”
The company hopes to produce five cars a week by the end of 2023.
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Hot price tag
Although Lightyear’s ultimate mission is to bring solar-powered cars to the masses, the first prototypes don’t come cheap. The Lightyear O starts at about $262,000. But the brand plans to introduce a more affordable car, the Light Year 2, by 2025.
“Due to the reduced need for charging stations, Lightyear offers a solution that can be deployed globally and scaled up faster than current EVs. We can reach large parts of the global market years ahead of any other car manufacturer,” the company said in a statement. web site .