Lightyear, a manufacturer of solar-powered electric vehicles, said that it is ceasing production of its premium Lightyear 0, a flagship model that retails for €250,000. Despite only beginning to produce the car three months ago, Lightyear is reorganising to concentrate on creating the Lightyear 2, which will sell for about €40,000.
The announcement comes as several manufacturers of electric vehicles postpone production and delivery dates due to a number of macroeconomic difficulties, including a lack of semiconductors, a lack of batteries, and increased material costs as a result of inflation. Throwing money into an incredibly expensive model simply doesn’t make sense from a commercial standpoint, particularly in light of consumer recession fears and EV startups’ struggles to get cars off the production line.
The Lightyear 0 was always meant to be a prototype for new technology that would be produced in small numbers. In a press statement, Lightyear claimed that in order to make its cars a reality, “several difficulties” had to be solved. The business did not disclose the difficulties, but stated that the Lightyear 0 had to pass away in order for the Lightyear 2 to live up to its potential.
Lex Hoefsloot, the CEO and co-founder of Lightyear, said in a statement, “We are now refocusing all of our work toward constructing Lightyear 2 in order to make it available to clients on schedule.
At CES earlier this month, Lightyear unveiled the waitlist for Lightyear 2, a five-seat hatchback with a 500-mile range claim. Although the company hasn’t released many details about the vehicle, a company representative told TechCrunch that the Lightyear 2 has already received over 40,000 reservations from individual buyers and about 20,000 pre-orders from fleet owners like international leasing and car-sharing companies Leaseplan, MyWheels, Arval, and Athlon.
At the end of 2025, mass-market Lightyear 2 manufacture is expected to begin. Considering that the Lightyear 0, for which 150 units have already been pre-ordered, won’t be built, it’s unclear whether the business plans to advance that manufacturing date. A Lightyear representative told TechCrunch earlier this month that the company’s first customer had seen the first Lightyear 0 that had been made. Since November, the company has been producing one car each week, and later this year, it planned to increase output to one car per week.
Lightyear did not reply to TechCrunch in time to offer a comment on the 2s’ production schedule or whether it would make up for its 0 sales.
In a press release, Lightyear did state that it has asked “the court to open suspension of payment proceedings in respect to Atlas Technologies B.V., our operating company responsible for the production of the Lightyear 0.” The business did not specify the court to which it made the request for a suspension, but according to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, businesses can ask to have their debts frozen for a period of 18 months to allow for reorganisation.
To stay solvent, Lightyear will probably try to raise more cash. Lightyear 0’s manufacturing was set to begin when the business raised $81 million in September, but Hoefsloot added that the company intends to “conclude certain major investments in the coming weeks in order to scale up” the vehicle for a larger market.
Lightyear makes an all-solar-powered vehicle called the Lightyear 0 (formerly known as the Lightyear One). Initial plans called for production to begin in 2021 with a starting cost of €250,000 incl. VAT (US$296,000). In December 2022, the first units were delivered.
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