Automaker Lightyear has started production of its first solar car. Almost fifty years after the disappearance of DAF, the Netherlands is officially a new car brand richer. However, the 250,000 euro Lightyear 0 does not run off the line in its hometown Helmond or at Nedcar in Limburg, but is made in Finland. ‘An affordable solar car is our next step.’
Forget what you know about traditional car factories. In hall 7 of Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki, Finland, you don’t see endless conveyor belts delivering one new car after another. In extremely efficient production houses of brands such as Volkswagen, Kia or Tesla, assembling a new model nowadays takes about ten hours. But in this place, more than two hours’ drive northwest of Helsinki, they don’t build a car for the masses. The new Lightyear 0 is being assembled here since today. One copy a week, for now.
The start is tentative, but the fact that the solar cell car from Helmond is actually in production marks a new chapter in the Dutch car industry. Vooruit, family business Donkervoort builds spectacular sports cars and in Zutphen the Burton still runs off the production line, but otherwise there are no real Dutch car brands anymore. Spyker, reanimated by Victor Muller, recently went down ingloriously again. The only large-scale car factory in our country, VDL Nedcar in Born, Limburg, will produce BMW and Mini models until 2023. More than 46 years after the last passenger car from DAF, there is now hope again on the horizon in the form of the Lightyear 0. Albeit from Finland.
‘Valmet better than VDL Nedcar’
“Yes, I would also have liked it better if our Dutch car were built in the Netherlands,” agrees Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear. “That makes the picture just that little bit more complete, for your feeling. But we spent more than a year trying to find the best production partner for the Lightyear 0, and Valmet Automotive really came out on top. They have, also compared to VDL Nedcar, a lot of experience in working with starting car brands and show a clear focus on an electric future. Our two companies fit together very well in terms of mission and approach. I had never been to this production hall myself before, but I am pleased that we can continue to build our future with this serious party.”
The Finnish factory is also not a small automaker, by the way. Valmet’s 4,500 employees previously produced models such as the Opel Calibra, the Porsche Cayman and the Fisker Karma, and the current Mercedes-Benz A-class is currently being produced there. But the construction of the Lightyear 0 is a different story, says Valmet CEO Olaf Bongwald.
“The Lightyear 0 once again raises the bar for us as a producer, because this is the first solar cell car that actually goes into series production,” he says in conversation with our car editors. Solar cells, electric motors embedded in the wheels, super-light materials: we must now turn the progressive technology developed by the Lightyear team in the Netherlands into a reliable, well-functioning whole. That’s a bigger challenge than you think. That is why we are starting step by step.” Incidentally, Valmet wants to scale up production in the second quarter of 2023 to five Lightyears per week.
‘Rocket to the Moon’
According to Bongwald, the fact that Lightyear has reached the production start at all deserves a great compliment. “Most aspiring car brands die long before the production stage. From now on, Lightyear is no longer a promise, but proof that there is a healthy future in building smart, extremely energy-efficient electric cars with solar cell technology.” Lex Hoefsloot, who laid the foundation for the brand six years ago with four fellow students, does not speak of a milestone but of a ‘moonshot moment’. “We all really got a rocket to the moon, in my opinion.”
It is only logical that Lightyear starts small. The first Tesla Roadster was once nothing more than a converted Lotus with an electric motor. Because Lightyear wants to grow quickly, the 5.08 meter long 0 is very expensive and exclusive: Hoefsloot says to date it has had 150 orders from (mainly Dutch) customers who each pay no less than 250,000 euros for their car. The Dutch company wants to use these revenues to gain experience in order to introduce a solar cell car in 2025 that ‘the average consumer’ should be able to afford. That Lightyear 2 should cost about 50,000 euros. Whether that will succeed is another matter, but as of today, Lightyear deserves the benefit of the doubt.
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