Holland’s Lightyear announced this week that it has opened the waitlist for its second production model, the Lightyear 2. Coming on the heels of the highly limited, $263,000 Lightyear 0, the startup will aim for a mass market audience with this $40,000 follow-up model.
“Lightyear 2 will fast-track our mission of delivering clean mobility to everyone, everywhere,” says Lex Hoefsloot, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear. “This is the first EV that allows consumers to prioritize sustainability, without compromising on practicality.”
Despite the much lower price, the Lightyear 2 will feature its predecessor’s marquee technology, a plethora of solar panels. These panels, according to the company, allow the sedan to charge three times less than a comparable electric vehicle.
Lightyear claims that thanks to the solar panels, owners could go up to 800 km (497 miles) between charges in “real-world” conditions. Although it’s unclear if that’s a WLTP-equivalent estimate or a guess based on average daily driving and weather conditions, the automaker claimed last year that the Lightyear 0 could regain 43 miles (70 km) of range per day thanks to its solar panels. It argues that owners who don’t need to drive very frequently, might almost never need to charge their vehicles.
More: Thanks To Solar Panels, The $263,000 Lightyear 0 Can Go Up To Seven Months Between Charges
“By harnessing the power of the sun, Lightyear 2 elevates the electric driving experience and reduces reliance on strained electricity grids,” says Hoefsloot. “In fact, while Lightyear 2 vehicles require less charging from the electricity grid than a conventional EV, they also flip the script by providing clean energy back into the grid.”
Thanks to its solar panels and its aerodynamic shape, the Lightyear 2 can also reduce the size of its batteries, which the company claims gives the car the smallest energy footprint on the market, half that of a conventional EV.
Photos of the interior, and other details like power ratings, have not yet been shared, and it’s unclear exactly how the automaker is cutting roughly $200,000 off the price of the Lightyear 0 for its new car. Production, though, isn’t expected to start until 2025, so plenty of things could change between now and then.
When it does go into production, Lightyear says it will first target sales in the U.K., the EU, and the U.S. Prices are expected to start at €40,000 (£35,298 at current exchange rates) in Europe, while Car and Driver reports that the firm is targeting a price of under $40,000 in the U.S.
The automaker says that it already has 21,000 pre-orders for the Lightyear 2 from ride-sharing partners like LeasePlan, Arval, and others. Ultimately, though, Autocar reports that the automaker expects to build 100,000 cars per year, once production is up and running.
