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Lightyear Publishes What Will Be Known as Its Master Plan for Solar Cars

A certain EV maker CEO once published a Master Plan that said it would “build a sports car,” “use that money to build an affordable car,” and “use that money to build an even more affordable car.” The same guy came up with a “Master Plan, Part Deux” that is far from accomplished and is allegedly working on part three without delivering the second one. Anyway, that first plan was successful, which could be the reason for Lightyear to elaborate on a similar one. The company just published it.
Lightyear publishes its own master plan to make solar cars affordable for everyone 15 photos
Photo: Lightyear
Lightyear publishes its own master plan to make solar cars affordable for everyoneLightyear publishes its own master plan to make solar cars affordable for everyoneLightyear publishes its own master plan to make solar cars affordable for everyoneLightyear publishes its own master plan to make solar cars affordable for everyoneLightyear 0Lightyear 0Lightyear 0Lightyear 0Lightyear 0Lightyear 0Lightyear 0Lightyear 0 ConfiguratorLightyear 0Lightyear 0
To be honest, Lightyear had already talked about it more than once, but putting the idea on its blog makes the resemblance official. Unlike that other company, Lightyear created a halo car without performance goals. The Lightyear 0 wants to be efficient. It will be produced in 946 units, each of them starting at €250,000.

Although that’s a load of money, it does not seem to be enough. Supposing the Dutch company sold all of them for €250,000, that would represent €236.5 million. Only part of this amount is profit. Even if all of it were, Lightyear would need more money to build its own factory: a conventional car factory usually costs around $1 billion.

Valmet Automotive will manufacture the Lightyear 0 in Finland. The Dutch startup could also handle the Lightyear 2 production to this manufacturing partner, but that seems very difficult considering it has the goal to be an affordable car. Lightyear said it would start at €30,000 with pretty impressive goals.

Lightyear wants it to arrive by 2025, delivering twice as much range as an EV with a similarly-sized battery pack. It also wants it to require only 20% of the charging needs that such a competitor would have, thanks to the solar panels on its body. The total cost of ownership (TCO) should also be affordable.

With such ambitious goals, Lightyear investments and a strong partner. Koenigsegg and the Dutch company recently announced something like this, but the Swedish carmaker is not famous for mass production or selling affordable cars. If Koenigsegg is the one to help Lightyear, both would learn about that, which is not the most effective way to achieve the goal of making a solar vehicle people can buy.

As Lordstown Motors demonstrated with the factory it bought from GM in the city with the same name, having a plant does not ensure you can get car manufacturing going. You have to train people, update the machinery, think about the logistics, and do a lot more not to end up building vehicles in tents or be permanently on the brink of bankruptcy – even if you joke about it just to dismiss the danger. Lightyear probably knows something we still don’t about its master plan. We’ll wait to discover what it is.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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