World’s First Electric Car Fully Powered By Sunlight Goes Into Production
Six months ago, electric vehicle startup Lightyear unveiled the “world’s first solar car,” dubbed the Lightyear 0.
Following six years of research and development, the road-legal car was touted to feature doubled curved solar arrays attached to its hood, which would allow it to go for up to seven months without a charge.
Drivers will impressively be able to travel 1,000 km (620 miles) before having to plug it in, with the car equipped to go an extra 70 km (43 miles) per day in addition to its default range just powered by the sun alone.
Now, according to Jalopnik, the Dutch automaker has announced the Lightyear 0 has officially entered into production, making it the first vehicle directly powered by sunlight to be on the production line.
The first batch of solar-powered vehicles will go to the 150 early adopters to shelled out US$259,000 to be the first in the world to drive the forthcoming car. Production is slated to begin slowly, with the factory in Finland only making one each week.
It’s then expected that the scale will ramp up to an estimated five cars per week by the second half of 2023, with the first run planned to stop at a total of a thousand Lightyear 0s.
If you didn’t manage to get yourself one of the models, fret not. Lightyear has said it is planning on developing a high-volume model in late 2024 or early 2025, and will offer it at a more affordable price point of €30,000 (US$31,500).
