Lightyear confirms plans for a more affordable EV

Lightyear confirmed plans to develop a more affordable model of its solar powered car. The company confirms this bold step is taken to increase its impact.

The company will focus on technology development, while establishing strategic partnerships towards a significant scale-up in the production of its cars.

Lightyear remains committed to its mission to make clean mobility accessible for everyone, everywhere. The company will move up the placement of a more affordable model on the market. To achieve this, Lightyear will focus on core technology development while outsourcing production; through the establishment of key partnerships.

By scaling up its core technology Lightyear expects to be ready to start high volume production of more than 100,000 cars per year around 2023. The projected sales price can be as sharp as €50,000 ($55,500) on these future models. This ambitious goal is in line with Lightyear's mission: it is a company founded to generate a positive impact through technology innovation.

“We are convinced that this is the path to accelerate our scale, live up to our full impact and take our responsibility: Clean mobility for everyone, everywhere,” said Lex Hoefsloot, CEO Lightyear.

Lightyear will integrate its core technologies into Lightyear One, the world's first long-range solar car. Lightyear remains committed to start production in 2021, with an exclusive series of 946 vehicles, a fraction of a lightyear, which will serve as a platform to showcase the maturity of Lightyear's innovative technology on a commercial scale.

In 2020, Lightyear's focus will be directed at the development of its core technologies that make Lightyear One an ultra-efficient solar car and ensuring that they have reached the right maturity to ensure Lightyear's competitive edge.

“Such a leap in efficiency is only possible by going back to a blank piece of paper and working on some core technology. We are creating a revolutionary product and will validate our concept in 2020 by showcasing our mature core technologies at work in a Lightyear One platform demonstrator,” said Arjo van der Ham, CTO of Lightyear.

Lightyear is currently in the midst of an investment round to prepare for the exclusive series production. The Lightyear platform and the exclusive series will then serve as the foundation to attract the investment needed for its 2023 scale-up.