{"id":30928,"date":"2022-09-07T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T13:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=30928"},"modified":"2022-09-07T09:04:00","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T13:04:00","slug":"1137065_solar-car-maker-high-volume-lightyear-2-international-expansion-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=30928","title":{"rendered":"Solar car maker: “High-volume” Lightyear 2, international expansion spurred with new investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch startup Lightyear on Tuesday announced a roughly $80 million investment the firm said will help spur development of a mass-market solar-assisted electric car.<\/p>\n

Lightyear in June revealed that in production form its Lightyear One will be instead called Lightyear 0<\/a>. That model already incorporates game-changing aero and specially developed Bridgestone tires<\/a> to maximize efficiency, and integrated solar panels to lessen the need for charging.<\/p>\n

\"Elaphe<\/p>\n

Elaphe in-wheel motor for Lightyear 0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Lightyear 0 will be made by Finland’s Valmet Automotive<\/a>, and is still on track to start production this fall, the startup said in a press release. But Lightyear is only planning a limited production run of 150 cars, each with a roughly $260,000 price tag.<\/p>\n

The planned second model, dubbed Lightyear 2, will have a starting price equivalent to about $30,000, according to the release. Production isn’t scheduled to start until 2025, but Lightyear already claims to have 10,000 reservations from leasing and car-sharing firms LeasePlan and MyWheels, which have reserved 5,000 cars each.<\/p>\n

\"Lightyear<\/p>\n

Lightyear and Koenigsegg partnership<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The latest investment, led by Invest-NL, the national promotional institution (NPI) of the Netherlands, and other government entities, will fund continued development of the 2, Lightyear said. Funds will also be used for a planned international expansion, according to the startup. Lightyear hasn’t confirmed plans to enter the United States market, however.<\/p>\n

An investment from Swedish supercar builder Koenigsegg<\/a> will also reportedly help provide an efficiency boost and tech for the Lightyear 2, which may also get subscription options to increase affordability. Lightyear hasn’t said where the follow-up model will be built however. It doesn’t have a factory, so it will likely need to either expand its partnership with Valmet or seek another contract manufacturer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dutch startup Lightyear on Tuesday announced a roughly $80 million investment the firm said will help spur development of a mass-market solar-assisted electric car. Lightyear in June revealed that in production form its Lightyear One will be instead called Lightyear 0. That model already incorporates game-changing aero and specially developed Bridgestone tires to maximize efficiency, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}