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Lightyear confirms its strategy towards technology development

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“We are convinced that this is the path to accelerate our scale, live up to our full impact and take our responsibility: Clean mobility for everyone, everywhere” - Lex Hoefsloot, CEO Lightyear.

January 14th 2020, Helmond – Last week, several media outlets spread Lightyear’s plans towards a more affordable model of its solar powered car. The company confirms this bold step is taken to increase its impact. Lightyear will focus on technology development, while establishing strategic partnerships towards a significant scale-up in the production of its cars.

Focus on technology development

Lightyear remains committed to its mission to make clean mobility accessible for everyone, everywhere. The company will move up the placement of a more affordable model on the market. To achieve this, Lightyear will focus on core technology development while outsourcing production; through the establishment of key partnerships.

By scaling up its core technology Lightyear expects to be ready to start high volume production of more than 100.000 cars per year around 2023. The projected sales price can be as sharp as 50.000 euro on these future models. This ambitious goal is in line with Lightyear’s mission: it is a company founded to generate a positive impact through technology innovation.

“We are convinced that this is the path to accelerate our scale, live up to our full impact and take our responsibility: Clean mobility for everyone, everywhere” - Lex Hoefsloot, CEO Lightyear.

Milestone in 2021: Exclusive series of 946 cars

Lightyear will integrate its core technologies into Lightyear One, the world’s first long-range solar car. Lightyear remains committed to start production in 2022, with an exclusive series of 946 vehicles, a fraction of a lightyear, which will serve as a platform to showcase the maturity of Lightyear’s innovative technology on a commercial scale.

Developing a Lightyear One platform demonstrator

In 2020, Lightyear’s focus will be directed at the development of its core technologies that make Lightyear One an ultra-efficient solar car and ensuring that they have reached the right maturity to ensure Lightyear’s competitive edge.

“Such a leap in efficiency is only possible by going back to a blank piece of paper and working on some core technology. We are creating a revolutionary product and will validate our concept in 2020 by showcasing our mature core technologies at work in a Lightyear One platform demonstrator” - Arjo van der Ham, CTO Lightyear.

Lightyear is currently in the midst of an investment round to prepare for the exclusive series production. The Lightyear platform and the exclusive series will then serve as the foundation to attract the investment needed for its 2023 scale-up.

Prototype development, testing, and scaling up the company is made possible through funding received from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 848620. This funding is part of the development of Lightyear One.

Lightyear is supported by the European Union

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About Lightyear

We design for independence and convenience. We create clean solar electric cars that can drive off-grid and into all of life's adventures.

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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 848620