Lightyear One - from solar racer to commercial product
 

Students from the Technical University Eindhoven have built a line of family class solar racers called Stella.
Only recently they presented its last incarnation, the Stella Vie.
They won the World Solar Challenge Cruiser Class twice.

As the goal is to build cars that can be practically used, and are road legal for that matter, many wonder what it would be like to actually own one.
But there were no plans to sell them to the public.

That may change soon.
A group of ex-students of the TUE who were part of Solar Team Eindhoven have formed a company named Lightyear.

A few shots of their Lightyear One virtual prototype:

http://media.autoweek.nl/m/bfxy7y6bil03.jpg

It has a battery range of 400 to 800 km, depending on battery pack options.

http://media.autoweek.nl/m/s1vypdjbk1ke.jpg

The solar cells cover the entire roof and back.

http://media.autoweek.nl/m/obaya20btf7m.jpg

It won't be cheap: "Starting from €119,000 excluding taxes."

Choke, choke: "It won't be cheap: "Starting from €119,000 excluding taxes."

If it is (nearly) self-powered, then it will cost a lot, yes. But the design looks very good indeed, so maybe a regular BEV version with PV panels for your house would be reasonable?

I think they first need to learn how to create actual images of their car, rather than a few red & white streaks on a black background.

Then they need some basic math to figure out that those solar cells aren't going to produce enough power to run the car.

You read anything about who they are and why they think it will work, no?

Sticking 2 square meter worth of 23% efficiency solar cells on a standard BEV is not going to result in a practical charge-free car. If you cover a Tesla with solar cells you get about 2000 free miles per year, tops. It is not worth it.

So they will use a design not unlike the solar racers, with expensive solar cells, batteries with extreme power to weight ratio and lost of super light materials; they expect to keep the weight well below one metric tonne.

But most of all it needs to be a practical car, more than the Stella racecars are. You can get the groceries in those, or do a weekend trip with the family, but they are compromised by the race design. Still, the Stella Vie is not that bad looking.
If the Lightyear One can retain half the efficiency of Stella Vie then they will easily match their aim.

It's called "Burlesque Marketing," borrowed from the oldest profession, tease'em with just enough of a glimpse to get them interested (pasties not included).

Lightyear presented a prototype of the Lightyear One at dawn this morning, and Electrek was quick to pick it up:

https://electrek.co/2019/06/25/lightyear-one-solar-electric-car-range/
https://i1.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-con...trip=all&ssl=1

Quick picks:
- 450 miles (725 km) of WLTP range
- approx. 5 square meter of solar panels (50 sqft)
- Up to 20,000 km (12,500 miles) per year added range from its solar panels
- up to 12 km of range per hour added from its panels
- 5 seats
- 4 hub motors (!) on tall and narrow wheels. So no gears, diffs, drive axles.
https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploa...esize=1024,571
- 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 10 seconds

The first series of 500 cars will be more expensive than any Tesla you can buy today. But then you have a car you'd never have to charge if you don't drive too much.
Even if you do charge it, it does not take much as it has a relatively small battery (size not disclosed yet) though it can charge at up to 60 kW at level 3 chargers.

At least it doesn't look too bad.
https://electrek.co/wp-content/uploa...rip=all&w=1000

First delivery expected somewhere in 2021.

I'm sorry, I am having a huge problem moving numbers around to make this work.
My 1/4 mile calculator choked.

The solar is putting out way more power, the car weighs too little, the CofD is nonexistent. 6ish miles on solar recharge????? 0 to 60 in ten??

Yeah it will be self powered if you live some where that has sun 365 days a year and drive less than 10 miles a day.
I highly doubt the solar panels will add 12,500 miles per year.
That's 34 miles per day. That would take about 7.5kw per day in a normal electric car. That's the equivalent of about 1,500w worth of panels.
That's the surface area of 5 of my 39 x 76 inch 295w solar panels. That's like 103 square feet facing the sun at all times.
So nothing adds up here.

Unless they figure you are going to drive 25 mph in the city and still get an unprecedented 10 miles per kwh (that means never using the heat or A/C).
Yeah nothing adds up unless they have some huge super secret technological advantage.

The Sunpower 360watt panels (22.2% efficiency) are 1558mm x 1046mm = 1.63 sq meters. That means the 5 sq meters on the Lightyear would be 1100W. Which is a lot to fit on a car, but not impossible.

My 10kW solar panels produce as much as 68kWh in a day, so that is about 7.4kWh a day. If their 12,500 miles / year is real, that is about 218Wh / mile, which is quite believable. We average about 200Wh / mile on our e-Golf.

12,500 miles a year = 34.2 miles / day.

Another news post on the Lightyear: https://insideevs.com/news/356497/so...one-prototype/

https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/M1...-prototype.jpg

My favorite thing to do with a car more expensive than a Tesla is to not park it in a garage, and instead let it bake somewhere hot where nature can have her fancy with it.

So, this is worse than a Tesla in every regard (except drag, perhaps), and people will want to purchase this because?

If a car can't be outside - then what good is it? I park all my cars outside, all the time. So, if it can get some charge while it's parked - then great!

Didn't say a car can't be outside; rather I said that when it's parked, the proper place is in the garage where its protected from nature.

An EV can get a charge while parked via the charging port. Forcing charging through the tiny straw that is the installed solar is ludacris (without the mode selection).

This car should appeal to tens of people. A neat engineering exercise, but of no practical value.

More information on the Lightyear One:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSbWwn_YCr8

With a estimated 60kWh battery and a WLTP range of 450 miles would make it BY FAR the most efficient electric car sold today. In fact, at 133Wh / mile it betters even the EV1.

So, there's that.

They mention the peak solar capacity is 1.25kW, and that can charge 10-12 km/hour.

Even without the solar panels, is like to see that car produced. Real aero is beautiful.

That is a beautiful car and one I would consider owning should it ever make production. It betters what even a G1 Insight EV would be capable of, as well as being a much more practical vehicle for more than two people.

https://yt3.ggpht.com/a/AGF-l796cP20...ffffff-rj-k-no
You rang?

I expect this will be like the Volkswagen XL1: a wildly expensive eco-halo car produced in very limited numbers, all of which will be snapped up by wealthy enthusiasts who never drive them.

I hope not, but to date we have no evidence that points otherwise. :(

Call me a Negative Nancy on this one. I love Pro Types … Just like I like the Elon Musk and Tesla Fan Boys. Many promises on emerging Technology and introductions. The hype surrounding this vehicle is positive "which is a good thing" However , I am a nuts /bolts/washers/fabrication/ motor/ materials/design/ engineering/ manufacturing/ etc. kinda guy and see limited mention of specifications … … 450 range mention but I need more.

That's where hypermiling comes in. ;)

I wonder if this car has a direct heating windshield defroster? Because that is far more efficient than blowing hot air on it.

Let's see if it turns into a real car or another eilo.

At about 20 times the price of an Elio, and yet orders coming in, they have the means to build them and break even while doing so - something Elio realistically could never achieve, even if they had their production line running.

This is not an one man fancy. It is a whole team of ex-students who built the Stella solar race car. They can build more cars.

1250W peak was reported in a couple of places. Transport evolved was one of them ... can't locate the second. Maybe Fully Charged? Taking that at face value, and using peak only ...

(correction from fully charged video 10 - 12 km per how) 7 miles per hour charging at 1250W gives 178 w/h per mile

I think the solar panels are cutting-edge efficient. A separate converter for each seems excessive (as has been reported) .. perhaps smaller groups of cells to boost maybe 5V up to a useful voltage?

Their design for extreme low Cd is useful to anyone looking to make improvements ... ecomodders may be inspired? Hyper-efficiency in any form is good!

10 seconds for 0 - 100 kph ... on hub motors .. is tough to swallow. But I guess we'll see. If they found someone with hub motors that don't need to be replaced more often than the tires - that's some *REAL* progress.

The 'average daily driving' ... I hate that description since it averages your non-driving days with your driving days .. may be covered by solar only. I think that detracts from what they have been able to do with their design.

A luxury car, no compromises (.. ok, maybe minimal..) ... but it is not finished being designed yet. The prototype allows for real-world testing ... it will get better in the prototype stage just as Teslas do. Then it will get worse when the reality of producing 500 of them requires some things to be done differently. Fabrication of the vehicle, as many of you know (I just read about it), is like a different world.

body
 

With the narrow rubber,quasi-camera mirrors,and such,is it around Cd 0.19?

Some British sites and Wikipedia are reporting 0.20, but Lightyear's own website and press materials don't say anything except "the best aerodynamic coefficient of any car on the market."

I have my reservation, shut up and take my money...

Over the decades I have wasted more money and time trying to build something like this with a whole lot less polish than this team is offering!

https://www.youtube.com/user/mpgtrikes

https://youtu.be/KEjVQAxKVyk

Dude, you’re missing the versatility of a Tesla: The Tesla Toaster which rapid roasts the occupants to a satisfying crunch in moments; or with the Autopilot-Kiri to create sashimi from those occupants during rapid acceleration to cut the roof off at the pillar base under a convenient 53’ van.

And then delivers.

Leave no local alien-hybrid “human” hungry. Let the dinner carts roll by.

.

Have they built any preproduction vars yet?

Yeah I hadn't heard anything about hub motors lately. Assumed the problem with the hub motors wearing out faster than the tires was fixed. No?

I haven't read about anything new in the hub motor arena in a while now.

My mechanical understanding is rather limited. But I recall the bearings ... and tight tolerances on the rotor/stator pairs .. being the issue.

Since hub motors have been around for a long time on bikes and scooters, I thought that the bearing-only-being-on-one-side, for the car hub motors, explanation made some sense.

Maybe the ultra-light overall weight reduces the wear? I'm not familiar with how bearings wear ... but most stuff that is mechanical does not appear to have linear relationships between wear and pressure, or wear and torque, or whatever.

Anyone read anything new on hub motors recently?

I tried to dig some. Looks like the only vehicles hub motors are really used in are bikes, very slow moving very large machinery and concept cars.
If they are used in a car application, they still don't appear to last very long.

Meanwhile in Tokyo...

https://insideevs.com/news/358458/toyota-tests-prius-phv-solar-charging/
https://cdn.motor1.com/images/mgl/GP...r-demo-car.jpg

I was experimenting with putting solar panels on vehicles back around 2010. Not just a solar panel, enough to accomplish something like powering 12v accessories.
A large company like Toyota doing it now doesn't impress me much.

It is just that if you combine a very efficient vehicle (4th gen plug-in Prius) with very efficient solar panels (34% - that's crazy) over a large area (even the back window and spoiler) you get something that does add several miles a day.
One sunny day is all it takes to charge its plugin battery from almost empty to almost full.

The studded panels look weird though. Not a permanent fixture?

I didn't have to stud my panels.
How much more do 34% panels cost over standard 22 to 24%?
When I looked it up several years to go over 30% cost 10x more than standard 20 and 22% available at the time and to exceed 40% cost 40x more than std.

I am still waiting on the

Elio (glorified Can-Am)to be made in old hummer plant in Shreveport /(made in Mexico)

I would make a solar carport or mobile solar charging trailer in order to get most voltage and bang for my bucks

Those roof panels on a prius would cost some Dollars aka Doll Hairs to replace ...if solar cell /PV where there there now Tesla and others would go there there

The problem with the solar carport idea is... when the sun is shining all day, my car is sitting in a shadeless parking lot at work 5/7ths of the week. So you would also need to have a whole battery for the garage somewhat larger than the one in the car to actually charge your car from that. And of course, my house is surrounded by 70-85' tall trees that make solar non cost effective.

Sounds like you need to cut down a bunch of trees if you want to save the world.