The bankrupt solar car company Lightyear from Helmond is making a new start in a slimmed-down form. The curator will let you know. Part of the company’s stocks will be sold in the near future. There are also a number of show models of the first model Lightyear 0.
A special auction will be held this month to earn money to pay off creditors. On a viewing day on Wednesday 19 April, interested parties can come and see the cars in person, curator Reinoud van Oeijen says.
Approval restart plan
It was already announced in February that Lightyear would make a restart. A group of private investors raised eight million euros in one day to make this possible. Then there was still a small blow to the arm. The trustee first had to approve the restart plan.
Van Oeijen says he has now given his approval. “It was a very complicated process,” he said in a statement. “However, we were able to do this in a relatively short time. With many different interests and a complicated structure, it was not easy.”
One hundred employees
The solar car company went bankrupt a while ago, because the production of the solar car Lightyear 0 became too expensive. The restart will take place in a completely new company. That must build the Lightyear 2, a cheaper version of the solar car.
According to previous reports, the new company will have room for about a hundred employees. Originally, more than six hundred people worked for the company. “We have tried to represent the interests of employees from the Netherlands and abroad as well as possible,” says Van Oeijen. “At the same time, we also tried to limit the damage to the creditors as much as possible. This way there was a chance of a restart.”
All patents of Lightyear and solar cell subsidiary Lightyear Layer from Venray will also be transferred to the new company. It will be named Lightyear Technologies.
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