Lightyear appoints former Google executive Wouter Vink as VP Marketing to achieve further international growth

Helmond, the Netherlands, August 19, 2021 – Lightyear, the high-tech company developing the world’s first long-range solar car, has announced the appointment of Wouter Vink as its new VP Marketing to achieve further international growth and take the next commercial steps towards the mass market. He will oversee the development and implementation of its marketing strategy.

Vink joins Lightyear from Google, having held several marketing leadership positions at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters, the most recent one being Head of Merchant Marketing at Google Payments. In this role, Vink oversaw their marketing strategies, utilizing Growth Marketing and Partner Marketing. Prior to this, Vink was responsible for the global retail marketing of Google Nest and served as Head of Global Strategy & Operations at Google Hardware Marketing.  

Reinforcing market position

“With Lightyear One, Lightyear is working towards a more sustainable future: clean mobility for everyone, everywhere. I’ve been highly impressed by the work Lightyear has done so far regarding their proposition”, says Wouter Vink, Lightyear’s new VP Marketing. “I can’t wait to work with the Lightyear team to strengthen and expand their unique market position and brand awareness to support its growth process towards becoming a full-fledged automotive and technology company. Scalability is key when reaching this goal.”

“Wouter Vink has a wealth of international experience, which is crucial to the phase our company is in”, says Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear. “Wouter has a great deal of experience building and launching new services and products. In addition, Wouter has a lot of international experience which will help us to further strengthen our global brand awareness, our proposition and the Lightyear brand. We are convinced Wouter will play a significant role in advancing our marketing strategy.”

This appointment comes on the heels of three significant milestones for the company: in July, Lightyear sealed a partnership with Valmet Automotive Inc. for the production of Lightyear One, drove 710 kilometres (440 miles) on a single battery charge with the Lightyear One prototype and announced the location where their solar roofs will be produced

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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