Helmond, the Netherlands-based Lightyear, announced on Monday, April 3, that it has raised sufficient investments and will focus on the development of Lightyear 2, the affordable solar car.
“The sun has risen again. The restart of Lightyear has been completed,” says the Dutch company developing scalable grid-independent solar electric vehicles.
Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and Co-founder of Lightyear, says, “We are very happy that we have completed the restructuring. We believe this was necessary for the future of Lightyear, in which we have taken into account the interests of various stakeholders. The team has worked hard to make this possible.”
What happened?
Earlier this year, Lightyear decided to suspend the production of Lightyear 0 after Atlas Technologies BV, which is responsible for the production of Lightyear 0, declared bankruptcy.
Last month, the Dutch company announced its plans to set up a new company and raised enough funding to create a solid capital base from the Individual Investors Group (IIG).
As a part of the process, Lightyear also announced that its Intellectual Property (IP) will be brought to the new company as collateral for all stakeholders. Invest-NL, leading the consortium of former IP pledge holders, agreed to accommodate this for the new company last month.
Lightyear 2 production in 2025
In January, Lightyear opened the waiting list for Lightyear 2 to make electric driving accessible and convenient at a more affordable price.
Lightyear 2 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.
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.
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.
