Dutch solar electric carmaker Lightyear suspends Lightyear 0 production to focus on Lightyear 2

Helmond, the Netherlands-based Lightyear, a company that develops scalable grid-independent solar electric vehicles, announced on Monday that it has decided to suspend the production of Lightyear 0 to focus resources on Lightyear 2.

“The past months, we have worked hard to deal with those challenges. This decision was not taken lightly as it impacts all who embarked on this journey with us,” says the company.

The Dutch company has submitted the request to the court to open suspension of payment proceedings in relation to Atlas Technologies BV, which is responsible for the production of Lightyear 0.

The announcement comes a week after signing a pre-order agreement with vehicle leasing company Arval for 10,000 units of Lightyear 2.

Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder, says, “Unfortunately, we had to make this decision. The whole process of developing Lightyear 0 has provided our company many valuable learnings over the past years. We are now redirecting all our energy towards building Lightyear 2 to make it available to clients on schedule.”

“Recently, we launched a waitlist for Lightyear 2, resulting in more than 40,000 subscriptions of individual customers, and we already had approximately 20,000 pre-orders from fleet owners. We hope to conclude some key investments in the coming weeks to scale up to Lightyear 2, an affordable solar electric vehicle available for a wider audience,” adds Hoefsloot.

Lightyear 2

Earlier this month, the Dutch company opened the waiting list for Lightyear 2, aiming to make electric driving accessible and convenient at a more affordable price point.

Initially, Lightyear 2 will be available in the US, UK, and EU regions, and production will start by the end of 2025 with an estimated price point of below €40,000.

As per the company’s claims, the car will offer a real-life driving range of over 800 kilometers and needs three times fewer charges than a conventional EV.

The company has received approximately 21,000 pre-orders of Lightyear 2 from international leasing and ride-sharing partners, LeasePlan, MyWheels, Arval, and Athlon.

Lightyear: What you need to know

Founded in 2016 by Arjo van der Ham, Koen van Ham, Lex Hoefsloot, Martijn Lammers, and Qurein Biewenga, Helmond-based Lightyear is a tech company developing an ultra-energy-efficient automotive platform.

Through its design and integrated solar cells, the company aims to eliminate the two biggest concerns for electric cars – high charging frequency and limited range. It allows motorists to drive up to 11,000 KMs per year with the sun’s power, depending on the climate.

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