{"id":13883,"date":"2022-03-07T08:28:59","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T22:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/?p=13883"},"modified":"2023-08-17T20:25:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-17T10:25:46","slug":"lightyear-one-a-solar-powered-ev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/makes-models\/lightyear-one-a-solar-powered-ev\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightyear One – a Solar Powered EV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lightyear One – a Solar Powered EV<\/p><\/div>\n

In a country like Australia where the sun shines brightly for most of the year a car like the Lightyear One might be just the thing for getting around in.  Sleek and comfortable, the Lightyear One is a solar-powered electric vehicle (EV) that has been designed and engineered in the Netherlands by Lightyear.<\/p>\n

Having been recently tested in Italy, the Lightyear One completed 400 km on a single charge while driving at a constant speed of 130 km\/h.  According to Lightyear One\u2019s manufacturer, regular driving will easily result in a range of 725 km (WLTP).  If you\u2019re like me and don\u2019t know what WLTP means, then WLTP stands for Worldwide Harmonized Light-Duty Test Procedure.  This mouthful is a new standard to measure fuel consumption, CO2<\/sub> emissions, and range.  The standard was introduced in 2017 and takes the measurements of test vehicles when driven in realistic driving situations to determine their fuel consumption, range, and emissions.<\/p>\n

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Lightyear One Interior<\/p><\/div>\n

Because the Lightyear One is a solar-powered EV, its manufacturer also states that it would be possible to drive the car for months without needing to recharge.  In Australia, where the sun shines most days of the year, a car like the Lightyear One would be perfect for this scenario.  Take a good look at the car\u2019s exterior and you\u2019ll see the array of solar panels incorporated into the sleek exterior design.  All of the panels facing skyward are made of solar panels and are ready for harvesting energy from the sun to charge the 60 kWh battery.  5 m2<\/sup> of solar panels cover the Lightyear One\u2019s roof, bonnet and tail and are capable of harnessing up to 12 km of range every hour. That means during a sunny 8-hour workday, a parked up Lightyear One could harvest 96 km of driving range \u2013 more than enough for most people\u2019s work commutes.  Even in cloudy conditions, its maker claims the Lightyear One that around 40 km of range can be harvested in that time.  Obviously, you can also plug the car in for a quick recharge if you ever needed to.<\/p>\n

Jump in the Lightyear One and drive on a full charge, and the Lightyear One\u2019s 60 kWh battery pack provides a claimed 725 km of range, making it one of the most energy efficient EVs on the market.  Efficiency of this standard is also achieved thanks to its construction consisting essentially of aluminium and carbon-fibre which gives it a weight of just 1315 kg.  Also the car\u2019s drag coefficient of just 0.20cd is sensational.  As you can imagine, the aluminium and carbo-fibre underpinnings also drive the price of the car upward.<\/p>\n

The Lightyear One is being manufactured in Finland, where its first deliveries will be made to Europe in mid-2022.  The car\u2019s price is around the AUD $238,000 mark.  Just 946 of these cars will be built, however the company is already working on a more affordable solar-powered EV called the Lightyear Two which is expected to go on sale in 2024\/25.  It will have a much more affordable price, maybe even as low as AUD $50,000.<\/p>\n

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Lightyear One Sedan<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Lightyear One there are 4 electric motors on board, one for each wheel.  These provide the driving power.  Together, they produce a combined 101 kW of power and 1200 Nm of torque.  The car\u2019s manufacturers say that the Lightyear One Sedan can seat 5 in comfort, and it has been designed especially for cruising and efficiency, and not for outright speed, thus claiming a 0-100 km\/h sprint time of around 10 seconds.<\/p>\n

I hope we see cars like this become available to people in Australia very soon.  It also begs the question: Couldn\u2019t the Holden name resurrect itself by Holden designers and engineers making a similar type of car in Australia for primarily Australians?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a country like Australia where the sun shines brightly for most of the year a car like the Lightyear One might be just the thing for getting around in.  Sleek and comfortable, the Lightyear One is a solar-powered electric vehicle (EV) that has been designed and engineered in the Netherlands by Lightyear. Having been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120,86,55,4923,4471,54,57,4014,3071,56],"tags":[2897,3349,7223,7224,7226,7227,7225],"class_list":["post-13883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automotive-design","category-blog","category-car-sales","category-electric-vehicles-evs","category-environment","category-makes-models","category-manufacturer-news","category-sustainabilitygreen","category-technical","category-weird-stuff","tag-electric-vehicle","tag-ev","tag-lightyear-one","tag-lightyear-one-sedan","tag-new-ev-from-netherlands","tag-solar-ev","tag-solar-powered-ev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14774,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions\/14774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}