Lightyear gets major capital boost to deliver solar car on schedule

Dutch company Lightyear says it has secured €81 million ($A119 million) in additional capital designed to help advance the production of its Lightyear 0 solar electric car as it prepares to begin deliveries later this year.

Lightyear officially launched in June the world’s first production-ready solar car, the beautifully sleek Lightyear 0, promising in excess of 1,000 kilometres driving range when combining the 625km (WLTP) battery range with up to 70km of additional daily solar range.

With deliveries expected to begin in November, Lightyear has secured additional capital through a new investment which will ensure the company can advance production and continue development of the mass-market follow-up Lightyear 2 model.

Investment was led by the public consortium consisting of Invest-NL, the province of North Brabant, and regional development agencies for the provinces of North Brabant and Limburg (BOM and LIOF).

“Lightyear has been making consistent progress since its founding and holds a promising future for the development of an innovative solar eco-system in the Netherlands,” says Rinke Zonneveld, CEO at Invest-NL, the National Promotional Institution (NPI) of the Netherlands.

“Their technology, strategic partnerships and acumen fit perfectly with Invest-NL’s ambition to co-create new tech-driven market and business opportunities, and we look forward to supporting their growth from Dutch scale-up to global OEM.”

Parallel to the development and launch of the Lightyear 0, Lightyear have also been developing the Lightyear 2, its second high-volume model which the company is aiming to sell for €30,000, which converts to around $A44,000.

Lightyear currently expects the Lightyear 2 to go into production by 2025 but already boasts 10,000 reservations from leasing and car-sharing companies – including Leaseplan and MyWheels, each of which reserved 5,000 units.

“In the current market environment, our technology has incredible potential for positive societal influence, so I see investments of this calibre as a testament to Lightyear’s product vision,” said Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear.

“Thanks to the support of Invest-NL, the entire consortium, and our other investors and strategic partners, Lightyear is well positioned and remains on track to deliver the world’s first solar car and work towards a more sustainable future.”