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Driving 10,000 kilometres a year without a charging station

editors

27 October 2017

3 min

Dutch company Lightyear is working on a car equipped with solar panels. The company expects the Lightyear One to be able to cover around 10,000 kilometres a year in the Netherlands, without the need to connect the vehicle to a charging station.

A variety of electric vehicles have been available for some time, including Tesla's Model S, Model X and Model 3, BMW's i3 and i7 and Nissan's Leaf. However, these vehicles all need to be charged using a charging station and a plug. This is not a problem in areas where sufficient charging stations are available, but can cause problems in areas where these stations are hardly available. It is estimated that only 3% of the world's population lives within 100 kilometres of a charging station.

Solar panels

Experiments with solar panel-equipped cars have also been going on for some time. For instance, the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid is optionally available with the Solar Pack, which integrates solar panels into the roof of the vehicle. However, as the name of this vehicle suggests, the Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid is a hybrid car and is therefore also equipped with a fuel engine. As such, the Lightyear One is unique and is intended to be the first commercially available all-electric vehicle with solar panels.

Like other electric vehicles, the Lightyear One is equipped with a battery, which allows it to store energy generated using the solar panels. Thanks to this battery, the vehicle can also drive during the night, for example. Because the Lightyear One's solar panels generate energy from the sun, the number of kilometres users can drive per year on solar power varies by region. For example, Lightyear states that in sunny Hawaii, the vehicle can drive 20,000 kilometres per year on solar power, while in Amsterdam it will be around 10,000 kilometres.

400 to 800 kilometres range

Incidentally, it is also possible to charge the vehicle using a charging station, something the company says is only necessary for long journeys and during winter. Lightyear states that the Lightyear One can handle any "normal plug". Lightyear reports that the vehicle can travel 400 to 800 kilometres on a single battery charge, which depends on the battery configuration the user chooses.

The Lightyear One will cost 119,000 euros, excluding tax. In practice, this means paying 24,990 euros over the vehicle. No BPM has to be paid on new electric vehicles purchased in the Netherlands, something that will be maintained at least until 2020. This means that the Lightyear One will initially be available from 143,990 euros. By comparison, a Tesla P100D without options is available in the Netherlands from 149,685 euros at the time of writing.

Price could drop sharply in the long run

Incidentally, Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear, recently indicated on a broadcast of De Wereld Draait Door that he expects the price of solar-paneled vehicles to drop significantly in the long run. Hoefsloot even expects Lightyear's vehicles could become cheaper than other electric vehicles. This is due to the smaller battery used in the vehicles, which is possible thanks to the use of solar panels. In electric vehicles, the battery is usually the most expensive component, so the cost price of electric vehicles with solar panels could be lower than that of 'traditional' electric cars.

Hoefsloot was previously a member of Solar Team Eindhoven, a team from TU Eindhoven that built the Stella and Stella Lux. These vehicles both use solar panels to generate energy for the electric motor. Both the Stella and Stella Lux participated in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge Cruiser Class, where the team managed to become world champions in 2013 and 2015. Hoefsloot founded Lightyear with four other members of Solar Team Eindhoven: Qurein Biewenga, Koen van Ham, Martijn Lammers and Arjo van der Ham.