What started almost ten years ago with a solar car from a TU/e student team has now really resulted in the very first solar-powered family car. Years on the drawing board, tinkering and testing preceded it, but on Wednesday the ‘mass production’ of the world’s first solar car really started. A brief overview of the evolution from the self-made student car Stella to the factory car Lightyear 0.
In the summer of 2013, a group of students from Eindhoven University of Technology proudly presented their ‘baby’: “It’s a girl and we’ll call her Stella,” said one of the students at the time.
It was the birth of the very first solar-powered family car. There was room for four people in the car, the maximum speed was 70 kilometers per hour.
First contours of Lightyear visible
The car was built for the international solar race through Australia later that year. With success: the team from Eindhoven immediately took the title in the family car category. And at the introduction, the ambitions were immediately sky-high: the car had to and would be taken into production in the future.
Stella was further developed and the Stella Vie, Lux and Era family expanded.
The range was increased to 1000 kilometers, an extra seat was added and the first contours of the Lightyear 0 gradually became visible: the car got a rounder roof. Good for the aerodynamics of the car.
Only 946 times 0
In 2016, five students from the team founded Lightyear. The first prototype was presented three years later.
In 2022, after years of drawing, tinkering and calculating, the very first solar car will actually be taken into production in Finland: The Lightyear 0.
A maximum of 946 will be produced. You have to pull out your wallet for it. The futuristic car costs 250,000 euros.
