725 Kilometers On A Single Charge — Here's The Lightyear One

Netherlands based start-up Lightyear unveiled a prototype called Lightyear One on Tuesday, and the car is making the news for all the right reasons. The company is known for two other models called Stella and Stella Lux, and has just added a new name to the portfolio - Lightyear One.

Lightyear One airflow

The Lightyear One is the first car that is completely solar powered, and according to the company, this solar powered EV has a travel range that puts the rest of the EV vehicles combined to shame. How much you ask? A staggering 725 kilometers on a single charge!

Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear, said during the unveiling, "This moment represents a new era of driving. Two years of dreaming, thinking and working hard have led to this milestone, which is a giant leap towards achieving our mission of making clean mobility available to everyone."

"All the cars in the world combined, drive about 9.5 trillion kilometers per year and most of them are combustion cars. Even though the world is aiming for battery electric vehicles to change that, the team at Lightyear has been gunning for a purely solar-run vehicle since more than half a decade now." he added.

Lightyear One 1

The body of the Lightyear One is covered in five square meters of solar cells, which Lightyear claims can charge the car at a rate of 12 kilometers per hour. This means a person could drive the solar car 30 kilometers in the morning, and have it fully charged by the time they're done with work.

In addition to the solar cells, the Lightyear One is also capable of being charged regularly at any typical EV charging stations or even regular outlets. This basically means an owner will never be stuck with a depleted battery, no matter what the weather.

The Lightyear One uses four electric motors to accelerate from 0 to 100kmph in 10 seconds. The electric motors have been coupled with advanced torque vectoring for better performance. Other features on the Lightyear One include Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, a dedicated companion app as well as OTA update support for future additions.

Lightyear One 2

Lightyear's success with the One (sounds like Neo from The Matrix) will depend on one huge factor - pricing. The all new (literally) solar powered vehicle is expected to be retailed at roughly USD 170,000 when launched. That is USD 70,000 more than the priciest Tesla Model S. However, the Lightyear One will also offer double the range.

Thoughts About The Lightyear One

Game on! The Dutch have just taken the EV game to the next level. While the rest of the world is struggling to usher in the Electric Revolution, these lads have harnessed the energy of the sun, and used that energy to run a car, almost forever. We wonder if the rest of the EV folk are looking in to this tech. This solar powered car is what the world needs today. If only humans can figure out a way to store all that energy without the need of batteries!

Most Read Articles

English
Read more on: #green vehicles #auto news
Article Published On: Thursday, June 27, 2019, 17:10 [IST]
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X