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Lightyear Receives Koenigsegg Investment; Will Use Its Tech on the Lightyear 2

Lightyear does not think it is enough to sell the first solar production car in the world, beating even Sono Motors in that mission. The bad news is that the Lightyear 0 is a pretty expensive car, which will give the Gerrman competitor the opportunity of selling the first solar car for the masses: the Sono Sion. The Lightyear 2 will be the Dutch company’s entry into that segment, but it will not enter alone: Koenigsegg wants to help.
Lightyear announced Koenigsegg invested in the company, but we still wonder why 48 photos
Photo: Lightyear
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At first, it does not seem that Lightyear and Koenigsegg have anything in common. The former wants to sell an affordable solar car after creating an amazingly efficient one. The latter is at the “top of the food chain in the field of high-performance sports cars,” as Lex Hoefsloot defined it. The Lightyear CEO only shared that he is excited about the partnership but not where it could lead his company.

According to Lightyear, Christian von Koenigsegg praised Lex and his colleagues at the Dutch startup. The Koenigsegg founder said they “have developed transformative technologies” and that this background will help Koenigsegg’s products “remain on the bleeding edge.” If you look at both CEOs’ declarations, it seems they expect the same things from the partnership or are just keeping their statements pretty superficial.

It gets a bit stranger: only Lightyear shared the information. On Koenigsegg’s press page, there is no mention of the undisclosed investment in Lightyear, the partnership, or anything remotely related to the Dutch company. When two automakers establish any alliance, the protocol is that both will share the news. At least Koenigsegg didn’t deny it, which would also be standard if the story was fake.

We can think about some stuff that Koenigsegg has that would suit Lightyear. One of them is the battery which is almost like a supercapacitor. It absorbs energy faster than other lithium-ion cells, something useful to recover energy from braking or seize all the electricity generated by the embedded solar panels in the vehicle’s body. The issue is that these cells cost 20 times more than the regular ones. That does not match affordable cars very well.

The raxial-flux motor developed by Koenigsegg would also be interesting if it could be installed in the wheel, as the Elaphe motors that the Lightyear 0 uses. The Dutch company should stick with this recipe for its solar cars, but we don’t think Koenigsegg will adopt in-wheel motors. That all said, it would be great to hear the two CEOs share more than platitudes and say what is in the deal for both companies. We’ll wait.
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Editor's note: The gallery contains images of the Lightyear 0 and the raxial-flux motor conceived by Koenigsegg.

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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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