history
In 2016, five graduates from the Technical University of Eindhoven founded the Lightyear company with a brilliant idea in mind: to create a production EV that could get its energy from the Sun. Thus, Arjo van der Ham, Koen van Ham, Lex Hoefsloot, Martijn Lammers, and Qurein Biewenga started to look for funding, and soon they attracted several million euros to develop their products.
Worth knowing that the founders of the company were previously involved in a project named Solar Team Eindhoven, and the result was the Stella Lux vehicle, which was an energy-positive solar vehicle. It means that the car grabbed more energy from the Sun than it needed to move. The result was successful, so they used that idea and pursued their dream: to create a vehicle that could be used for months before it needed a recharge.
Six years later and tens of millions were spent on research and production facilities, and the first product of the young Dutch company was introduced to the public in the summer of 2022. The car, named Lightyear 0 (zero), was already scheduled to enter production and planned for sale in early 2023. Their confidence was boosted when Valmet Automotive from Finland joined the bandwagon and helped with designing and planning assembly lines. While Valmet is not a car brand, it is a renowned name in the automotive industry. It manufactured vehicles such as Mercedes-Benz A-Class and GLC, Porsche Boxster and Cayman, Fisker Karma, and several Saab vehicles.
But, with the Lightyear, the Finnish manufacturer went to the next level by investing in the small Dutch startup. In addition, it also owned two battery pack production facilities in Finland. Thus, their expertise was more than welcomed.
In 2021, the team already had their first prototype ready for testing and managed to run 710 kilometers (440 miles) on a single charge, which was already an autonomy record for an electric vehicle. But the story didn't end there. After securing the funds, the project, and the production facilities, Lightyear was able to move forward and create a vehicle entirely built from recycled or organic materials. In addition, they also made the upholstery from ordinary plastic bottles (PET) retrieved from oceans. Even though the price of the vehicle was huge, the promise of almost zero costs for running it was almost unbelievable. And yet, it happened, and in 2022 the automaker released the production version of the car.
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