I did this to my grandparents golf cart years ago. A solar panel roof, a bit larger than the roof that comes on a 4 seat cart. They only had to "balance" charge it once a month to keep the lead acid batteries at "optimal" charge. They ran it everyday for years. Now they're 97 and 98 and have no interest, but they had fun with it, and used to brag about it to all the people who had to plug in nightly.
what did you study to learn how to do that? I'd like to be able to build that sort of stuff in the future, but to build it I need to know what I'm doing.
@@alexhamilton3522 I grew up on a farm in the 70's, 80's. I was the "maintenance tech" for my Grandparents starting at age 12. Running farm equipment when I was 8. Field tractors so big, I needed a ladder to get up to the steps. Some people like me have an aptitude for all things mechanical. But my stupid I-phone confounds me daily. I barely made it through high school, too much work to be done.
@@doghouse416 Well if it comes as any consolation, I never finished my high school either. I was one of the poorest kids in that joint lol, but that's not saying much since it was considered "elite." Got out when I was 18 at 10th grade. But if I wanted to finish I would have been around 23. Yeah... no. I dropped out and got two degrees. One slightly more useful than the other (history) but not really appreciated for its true value it can give (makes sense, sense they got rid of civics and philosophy in the 60s for public schools. Can't blame the symptoms though, just the root). Now I'm going back for Computer Information Systems, Networking, as that's more hands on and I've always been a touch and learn kind of guy. Thing is though, even though I consider myself a historian laughably enough, I love all the tech stuff, and I like to repair things too. But creating things instead of just coming up with ideas has always been hard. I think I might continue my education eventually and go back to working physics, or even AI. Hell maybe the damn economic system. I just like taking big things, and fixing them. But making crap like that sounds cool too. So thanks for your story. Just because we never finished school doesn't mean we aren't good at something lol. It all begins when you are young. Skills bud and bloom. And uh... don't worry about the iphone, a lot of tech nowadays, makes me feel like I'm old, even if I'm only nearing my thirties. Things were definitely simpler back then. And I prefer flip phones. They just don't seem to really sell them to often anymore.
I really hope this is a turning point for the way EV's are built, I live in Arizona and have asked the question for years "why hasn't any manufacturer put solar panels on an electric car for the parts of the world that have an abundance of sunlight?" To me this just seems logical.
Solar panels don't belong on the roof of vehicle. It just does not make sense. Solar panels are best in sunny places with the right angle of inclination to collect as much electricity as possible. That energy can be used to charge batteries.
@@funbert01 solar panels can make sense when the battery is small. There is a technology based on the moths eyeball where light from any angle can be used to increase efficiency of the panel. They car will not be able to run on the power without a battery. Maximum solar energy isn't enough per sq ft. But it can charge from it. Many urban dwellers do not have access to electricity and this would help.
@@funbert01 Rubbish, any extra charge is good charge. Here in Australia, people run out of petrol in our vast outback regions and die because they try and walk out, with solar panels on an electric vehicle they have a chance of travelling a few extra miles a day by car using the charging provided by the panels. Also, Australia has held a solar race challenge for as long as I can remember, over 50 years, solar powered cars racing over thousands of miles, so it makes a LOT of sense to have solar panels on cars, some already do.... I bet if you could pick up a gallon of free fuel every few hundred miles you wouldn't refuse ....
That is the issue. There is like 2 or 3 places in the civilized world where this would work and you can't build a car manufacturer with all that investment in a factory and the sourcing of materials and electronics and whatnot, only to sell your cars to people in Arizona, apparently Colorado (which I am dubious about, to be honest) and Australia. It is just not a viable business model. Even regular EVs like the Teslas have trouble selling outside of the USA because nowhere else in the world, outside of US Suburbia, do enough people have garages and thus a place where they can comfortably charge their EVs over night.
@@larrycanepa It might be sunny, but how much energy is actually delivered by that sunshine? The fact that Colorado is known for its skiing and snowboarding industry suggests that there can't be much energy dumped by sunlight, or else that snow wouldn't be there, obviously. The problem with sunshine in mountainous regions is that there technically might be lots of it, but it is very unevenly distributed. How much of it falls on areas where humans actually live? How much is blocked by the mountains and how often do you drive your car on the south-side of a mountain? In mountainous regions most people live in valleys and valleys naturally get less sunlight. What good are record amounts of sunlight to you and your EV if it shines on some mountain top 1000 feet above you?
@@TrangleC The sunniest area may be the Front Range, where most people live. The snow image is completely off - most of the state ranges from semi-arid to desert. Completely cloudy days are rare and cloudless days are the norm. And because of the elevation, the sun carries more energy. We offset our house's electric consumption with a fairly small solar array.
Hats off to Lightyear. To start a new car company and to get it so close to actual production is a major acheivement in itself even without the groudbreaking efficiency and design. Fingers crossed they can endure the financial pain of getting it produced and delivered so they can move on to more models. Tesla have shown it can be done and Lucid, Rivian et al are bravely treading the same expensive path.
@@JackScarlett1 So true!! The few that have made it so far have started by modifying another company's product to help keep costs down. The first Tesla Roadster, for example, was just a rebadged Lotus with some revisions. To build a car from scratch with all the engineering, safety certifications, tooling costs, and QC testing involved is just maniacal.
Do you know who will be making this. There are companies you probably haven't heard of like Magna Steyr who make thousands of cars for different companies. When Sony (obviously not a car company) wanted an EV making guess who they went to.
The idea is sound, yes the price is eye watering, but no different to what other startups have tried to do, the real issue is what comes next. Good luck to them and hope they break through. As a concept it’s excellent.
Thankfully, unlike many other startup EV's, they aren't going to be on their own to ramp up manufacturing. Valmet Automotive, who will be manufacturing these, has a lot of experience building cars for Mercedes and other brands. I really hope this hyper-efficiency trend will catch on and props to Lightyear for paving the way
That’s it. I’m going to saw the back off my Nissan E-NV200 and put a teardrop shaped body on it, covered in solar panels. Great episode guys. I too hope this gives a nudge to the auto industry, in the direction of efficiency. Good luck Lightyear.
There certainly are startups tackling this market from the other end. Funnily enough, the 2 that come to mind first are also solar EVs. Think the Sono Sion and the Aptera.
The 'stats' on this car are precisely what EV enthusiasts expect from a new generation of EV vehicles. Going 0-60 in 2 seconds is not actually important even though we don't expect to give 2 weeks notice to go 55 mph either. We'll be happy to save the 'time machine' for the next generation. Put these specs in a $25K-$30K vehicle and lets get on with life. Don't make it expensive or overly complicated...remember...your grand-parents may need to drive these cars too.
@Mose Schrute "So popular with Women who don't pay their electric bill."?? I think you have a bit of Misogyny showing. Might want to increase the size of your tightey-whitey's to cover it up and let some blood flow back to your heart and brain 🧠
I used to ride fast bikes, still do but now slower:(I'm 66): Worked as test driver for BMW, after you've done 0-60 in 3,2 secs. a few times; the novelty wears off, unless you can afford new tyres every few weeks, YES affordable is what we now need:
Closest thing at the present is the Aptera, starting at $26k. It has solar and is very efficient to drive, though it's only got two seats and it's a much more conspicuous design
in my country Indonesia, this car could go more than a year before it need to charge. By the way, i love how this channel produce their video.. so enlightening and yet entertaining a lot. Kudos for production team!!!
Love it. And yes, wouldn't it be nice to have an affordable EV that just accelerated steadily to 60 (100kmh) in 9 or 10 seconds but fit European roads and parking bays. One that had efficiency at its heart. One with solar panels to top it up when parked like the Lightyear. Also, I wonder if Lightyear have considered doing something with Hymer the motorhome manufacturer? An EV version of one of their campers with banks of solar on the roof could allow you to drive on EV, camp up and charge for a week and then set off again. Enough of my pipedreams.
A month ago they did a video about a Solar Campervan. Made by students at Eindhoven University, which is the same uni that the Lightyear founders went to. Eindhoven is taking the Solar Challenge races and turning the students participating in them into the next generation of automotive engineers. Really exciting stuff!
@@tabottietjen3186 I didn't realise the Sion was for sale. I thought it was still in development. Unfortunately it's not sold in my jurisdiction. The Aptera looks a bit wacky and I'm not sure I could ever drive it. But it's good to see others doing the solar thing, and thanks for letting me know :)
When I was young most cars had a -0-60 acceleration time of more than 10 seconds, and a car that could accelerate from 0-60 in 10 seconds or less was considered a fast car. EV's from the likes of Testla accelerate at an astounding rate compared to this. I think that such performance capabilities may well be a misallocation of design priorities, they are certainly fashionable which is likely why manufacturers feel compelled to produce vehicles with them but if peoples mindset were to change from this 'racecar performance' mentality I think that it would definitely be a good thing and a more practical / utilitarian outlook. The same thing applies to things like roadholding and cornering ability, narrow tyres have less rolling resistance and who cares if your wheels are heavier because they have hub motors in them and so are less reactive to bumps, their still quite good enough for anything other than a racetrack. We need to change our priorities and judge 'performance' differently.
Fast acceleration is a 'free' byproduct of electric traction. The motors are by their nature capable of maximum torque at zero revolutions. They are already in the 90 percent efficiency range so no worries there.
The reason why Tesla focused and still focuses on acceleration is because electric vehicles for the longest time were slow (also small, and ugly). EVs were laughed at as being not much faster than golf carts or forklifts, so that stigma had to be destroyed. Tesla's Roadster and Model S family sedan with its mind-blowing acceleration accomplished that and brought early adopters into the EV sector. Now that's it's been established that EVs can out-accelerate any ICE car, the next focus will be on efficiency for long ranges and convenient fast charging (350 kW, cheaper and better batteries, and wireless induction charging). Give it a few more years and it will make absolutely no economic sense any more to buy an ICE car.
I agree completely that there is far too much emphasis on the 0 to 60 specs. 99% of people never use those specs after maybe trying it once on an empty road just to try it. But after that, there is no real world need for going to 60 that fast. You can’t safely drive 60 on the on ramps to highways, and it takes between 6 and 12 seconds to go through most on ramps. Thus, 0 to 60 in faster than seven seconds is not needed nor beneficial on a highway. If a traffic jam brings you to a stop, you have no chance of accelerating to 60 faster than 10 seconds because the congested traffic ahead of you won’t do faster than that ever. It’s also not needed or really beneficial off of highways. I live in a small city with a lot of four-lane and six lane roads, so I am frequently at a stoplight with one or two cars next to me. I am usually in a big rush so I usually press the pedal to the metal on my weak powered gas Kia soul and 99.5% of the time I am down the road much faster than the other vehicles, and 65% of the time I am down the road far faster than the other vehicles. The small city is quite affluent and mostly suburban and I live in the third of the city that is the most affluent, so there are lots of nice cars that have killer 0 to 60 specs. But only 1% of people use them. I think one reason is that fast acceleration does not feel comfortable to the body. A second reason is that fast acceleration is not safe and thus is more stressful. So it really pisses me off that so many car reviewer‘s put such a huge emphasis on the 0 to 60 specs, and convey to the public that they won’t be happy without killer specs. In fact people will be plenty happy without them and would actually be happier without them because they could give the saved money to the needy and feel great about that, or have better efficiency to fight climate change and feel great about that. I also dislike that many of the reviewers base some of their rating on the 0 to 60 specs
I think it's kind of ironic that a company that set out to make driving more environmental friendly, would make vehicles that WASTE tons of energy by using oversized motors that suck way more energy out of the batteries than would be needed for normal driving, because people want to show off the unnecessary fast acceleration. 😅🤦♂
Mindblowed by your video! I live in Portugal, although the price is far beyond what I could dream to buy, the technology and the possibilities of driving without almost using electricity for the grid makes me smile. This is the true environmental friendly car! Less drag, 7month without charge for a 70 km comute, which is around my daily mileage, which can carry 4 to 5 people. This is a dream!
Let me ask you Pedro and all the good people who live in Portugal, does Summer last seven months?…! (15:33 time mark) I don’t think so, therefore the numbers / specs that he is giving you are skewed to make the car sound more enticing than it really is so pretty much unrealistic!… More lipstick on a pig!
@@Doing_it_right_the_first_time doesn't lasg 7 month, but we have sun prety much all year! eve the cloudy day are not to many. A great place to spend time in any season
it still uses toxic batteries with a very short shelf-life, no? So how is it eco-friendly? Stop falling for people's money-making schemes, where they sell you a hyped, relatively cheap product, where the replacement parts are massively expensive and you can only buy them from that 1 company. Subscription services for cars, what i call them. Inefficient, toy, battery cars are most definitely not the future and are most definitely not eco-friendly. The future was already invented about 122 years ago but we are too blinded by glorifying a rich dude's money-making scheme (Musk's) and now we just applaud the companies joining in on the fab, making minor improvements to a useless product that is taking advantage of people's good will for a cleaner future. You know what the main case of pollution is, right? It's production... we just need to stop buying shit that have a planned-obsolescence of like 2-10 years (like mobile phones) and need to support technology that has a very long shelf life and that can easily and cheaply be maintained.
@@VenomBGR So 300,000 - 500,000 miles is a short shelf life? That is what Tesla rates their batteries for. They still work to, just have beyond 80% degradation which is reused for stationary use, such as home backup power where weight and size arent really an issue. Or just recycle them into new batteries using 90% of the material.
@@ryanpetree6475 i dont care about mileage ,cause 90% of the time ,i don;t use a car and it's just gonna sit there and batteries go bad even when not used. They give about 8 years of battery life, which i assume is more like 5 years of actually keeping the original charge. So, basically ,the car is usable for about 5 years before you have to completely change the batteries, at which point most people will just sell the and buy a new one (the biggest cause of pollution). Also recycling batteries is good cause it reuses the materials, so they don;'t have to be mined but it doesn't reuse the actual toxic elements, right? And i also assume that even a recycled battery is expensive as hell. What i;m saying is that this is most definitely not a practical or really eco-friendly vehicle - it's just a gimmick.
This is where it all started. The next generation of electric cars focused on efficiency and not some stupid designs with no attention being given to aerodynamics. It's been always a treat to watch fully charged videos. Keep up the good work. All the best to lightyear.
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from.. What a wank...
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from.. What a wank...
You know this teardrop shape has been around for nearly hundred years, right? And so are the closed wheel arches. Never seen a Citroen DS or CX? Or a Talbot-Lago T150-C ?
The Tesla Model 3 is highly aerodynamic, to the point where you would need to be driving very fast for the aerodynamics on this car to make a difference. Then, there is handling. Have you ever heard of unsprung weight. It drastically affects the handling of the car. Also, all the heat generated when the wheel-motors are acting as brakes will be trapped in the motors, reducing the life and efficiency of the motors. Then, there are tolerances that are affected by heat expansion, not to mention the problems of constant wetness and dirt seeking to enter any cooling channel for the motors. This thing sounds like a massive maintenance headache, and on the only part of the drivetrain more expensive than the batteries. This is one of those designs that works perfectly, "in theory". Oh, and I forgot one more thing. How is it going to work in extremes of cold, wet, snowy, icy weather with little sun. So I bought this thing in the South and I'm moving to Canada. What now? All the features just turned into expensive gimmicks that are likely to break, and expensively at that. Any piece of technology that must perform at the very edge of its capabilities isn't going to provide a reasonable return on investment.
It's a beautiful world as long as you don't live where they mine or process the minerals to make the batteries. Read up on the pollution pushed off onto the third world.
@@RaymondCore That's the point of making more efficient cars though, less battery but still more range. I agree that mining is a major issue, but not as much as oil is. We need to reduce our car-dependence overall if we are going to have any chance of mitigating the climate catastrophe we're heading in to, but the cars we do need still need to be as efficient as possible.
Efficiency is the key metric for any EV technology, and Lightyear is definitely taking it beyond any current standards.. Congratulations to these Dutch pioneers! Looking forward to the Euro 30k mass model, I will definitely buy it as soon as it is available
I remember admiring Tesla's vehicles for their efficiency and minimal drag. It's amazing that the Lightyear looks just as good and has left Tesla in the dust in regards to efficiency. Though none of this matters if no one buys it. God knows I can't afford a $250,000 vehicle. So I am curious how this type of car scales to the sub $40,000 market, and what will need to sacrificed to achieve that price.
@@Scott93312 It looks brilliant but if you have a close look at the interior, it is, despite being preproduction, a terribly bad made interior of low quality, fit and finish.
i want a brand new utilitarian car with decent range and power with basic amenities for 15k. cause thats what a good entry level skoda skala provides. until we reach this quality, price and utility you can forget about electric cars
Please let the whole team know that the transition at 7:46 was amazing and that some viewers noticed ❤️ I love this car, hopefully Lightyear will let me set a world record with it 😏
Absolutely. Potential game changers. It's great to see companies take advantage of the blank sheet that electrification of cars has offered. These two are on my shopping list - for when I win the lottery!! 😉
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from.. What a wank...
@@graemejohnson9025 hmmm, I just get the feeling that maybe you might not like this car...? You would not be working in the fossil fuel industry by any chance would you, or a mechanic? Maybe be you should watch Engineering Explained on solar cars?
Aptera is bringing a 2 person car to market that only uses 100 Watts per mile, can with solar panels get up to 1000 miles per charge, and currently starts roughly between $25-50k depending on options.
@@estp23010 While that would be really cool, it would kind of defeat what the Aptera is a bout. It's as small and light as possible for the average commuter's needs. 3 wheels would also make 4 passengers highly unlikely and you're right back to something like the Lightyear.
I really hope you are correct. I nearly put a deposit down for an Aptera 14 or 15 years ago. Glad I didn't as I now have a wife and 2 children and we are happy as a 1 car household. So a 2 seater is no use to us.
Love the solar aspect. My cars sit in the sun all damn day and don't even charge the 12v starter battery. I did put a 5w panel on the dash of my truck to keep the starter battery charged, and the battery lasted 15yrs, but I guess there's no money to be made when things last a long time. Let me know when the price hits 30k :)
Thanks Fully Charged to bringing a car like this to the forefront. All the best to them as a startup, and it’s a big step in the right direction away from horrible SUVs that I hope the big manufacturers will pick up on and make more mainstream.
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from.. What a wank...
The idea that you can sell it to areas that don’t have charging infrastructure is truely amazing that blew my mind ! Well done, there are truely lessons to be learnt and applied to all cars here.
Having a car with 50-70km of solar range - probably less on a car that will cost 30.000€ because of the smaller surface - if this company still exists in 5 years - for third world countries, sounds great and morally superior on paper. But let's be fair, it is not realistic. It would mean that you couldn't go to work if you have three days of cloudy weather. Compare that what a any cheap simple diesel of gasoline car does, everyday, sun or no sun, especially in those difficult areas with parts and gas stations everywhere and people are really not going to switch to this EV in those regions. Really not. I'm not even talking about maintenance and repairs. EV's are way too much "such a romantic story, let's save the planet" and far too less "but what about real life, real people, real circumstances?"
@@caleidoo I agree in regards to a lot of the world. The computer in control of everything means limited service options (I'm currently dealing with that with my PHEV I can't take it to any mechanic like I could my old ICE, only the dealership it came from). A couple of decades ago there was a doco on the TV here in Australia called 'the Bush Mechanics' about Aboriginal people living in extremely remote communities (we're talking a 3-4 hour drive to the next community and a 10 hour drive to a large town) and there most people in the community had enough mechanical knowledge to get the cars running in some fashion (one particularly memorable episode involved a broken drive shaft so they cut down a small tree and used it as a replacement) even the current ICE cars are too computerised for that sort of situation. Although, there are larger cities in countries where there is no fast charging network and this could be an option for someone who wants an EV but can only charge at home, if you don't have a long commute most EVs can be topped up enough overnight on a normal socket to maintain charge.
@@caleidoo You do realise that it's a myth that solar panels don't charge on cloudy days ? Electric cars also only have a handful of moving parts, so far LESS maintenance, why don't you just admit you don't know what you're talking about and hate electric vehicles . Education is the key mate..
I drove Model S’s for 7 years, and they were fun and fast….for me. I quickly learnt that instant torque is great for the driver but deeply unpleasant for passengers unless very carefully used. This is where I see the disconnect in the way that Tesla is taking its cars now. Making them super fast but then adding automation and weird interaction elements (Yoke I’m taking to you) and justifying on the basis that you won’t drive it. I get that there was a job of dispelling the EV’s are slow myth, but it is good to see the drive for efficiency come to the fore and reality is this is more like the car you would want to be a ‘robotaxi’ of the future.
@@Q5000 Well of course I did! Personally I hated it, but I put on every time my daughter was in the car. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely loved the car, to drive and the throttle mapping on the Tesla makes all other EV’s disappointing in comparison. The disconnect I see is automating/changing a car to make it less pleasant to drive whilst making it faster and less pleasant to be a passenger in. If they kept making it better to drive but had the ability to switch down that would be fine, but that’s not what they are doing at the moment, as I see it. The main point I was making though is that for a robotaxi service quickest off the line isn’t necessary and so there is a place for cars like this.
I wish the companies success, I love the direction in which they are headed, efficiency and sustainability are quite under appreciated in the car world.
Proud of the Dutch people who made this car! I live in the Netherlands myself and I like it that a car from my country is presented on such a big TH-cam channel!
Haha...jazeker! Dacht precies tzelfde toen ik dit zag.Hup Holland Hup👍😁(En dan te bedenken dat t hier meestal kloteweer is....Petje af voor deze bouwers.Duidelijk dromers met visie...Helemaal te gek!!
I sat in the car at Fully Charged Amsterdam and loved the minimal design language of everything inside. Very appealing to desigers or architects, much as a Saab 900
As a cyclist who loves long rides, I've been thinking about aerodynamics for years. Free speed. Free distance. I've wanted an efficient car like this for a long time.
As as Dutchman myself I can't help but be really proud of this company and their achievement. Its so cool to see a car company taking the industry in another direction. Instead of just bigger batteries and overly engineerd hunks of SUV, this seems like a much more elegant and sustainable solution to our energy crisis. I'm bias ofcourse but I believe this is the most innovative thing to happen to cars since Tesla came out with the original roadster. This is what is going to take us forward. Real, practical solutions. I hope there's enough rich folkes interested in the 0, to support their continued endeavours so we can eventually have a mass market hyper efficient solar ev. Now that sounds like the future.
Goede avond! With you Victor! Komt allemaal van de gezonde competitie van TUE en TUD in al die zonneraces in Australie. Eigenlijk allemaal opgezet door Wubbo Ockels 20 jaar geleden.
@@mischadebrouwer9855 Ja ik ben er van op de hoogte. Nederland doet het al vele jaren goed in Australië. Ik vind het tof om te zien dat het niet is gebleven bij een wedstrijd maar dat het nu ook echt een verandering aan het maken is in de wereld.
Back in the 1800's they would have sold you snake oil to cure all your problems lol. What is that old saying... Oh yeah there is a fool born every minute... You were one of them ... But the real problem is not that you were born a fool.. The real problem is there are so many of you... And you breed...
@@JKennedy442 Dude smarten up. They are completely impractical... Ever think about what you will do when the power goes out? Oh, your power doesn't go out often you say... well its about to once everyone owns an electric car. You really have not thought any of this out have you lol... pathetic...
There is a race to get the first cars out to reservation holders, the Sono Sion may be just in front of the Aptera & Lightyear as they are building 37 pre production test vehicles, the Aptera has just shown off it's gamma / preproduction prototype that may put it just in front of Lightyear, especially as Aptera are fitting out their production facility
Because solar is not reliable or efficient per sqr footage vs wattage output needed. They have been trying for years. Notice that this guy is in spain or somewhere. In other parst of the world the weather varies. Some countries have monsoon seasons to contend with. We wont even mention some northern areas , where is overwhelmingly dark. Solar suits a certain window of performance and activity. Usually better static and focused, not generally what cars do. If you take that car to Austraila on a run eg, how much dust partical contaminante on a run does it take to affect the power capacity. ie when it bgets dirty. There also has to be some capacitance silo storage within. What effect does these variations in charge capacity have on the system lifespan?
@@ckm567zmm4 The solar charging is a trickle charge to give enough charge to cover a significant part of average use. If you take another solar car, the Aptera, that will generate enough power from the onboard solar PV to power the car for a little more than average car use in the states, the Aptera website has a charge calculator that gives a rough estimate of miles per day from the max solar PV for the rest of the world outside California (although broad figures, not street by street...). Even if the Aptera is only sold into sunny areas of the world, then having a car that does not need to be plugged in to charge for maybe half of motorists, will remove the carbon footprint of each car it replaces giving a great carbon benefit to our planet. The Lightyear will achieve something useful for the planet by having a car that for many users requires no externally generated power for a useful part of its driving. Perhaps the Lightyears 2, 3 & 4 will bring greater benefit as they intend to follow Tesla's path of starting with the luxurious, to generate capital to cover the development costs of a more affordable version, leading eventually to mass market cars. The other benefit of both this & the Aptera is that both are creating super efficient cars... Hence a battery electric car that uses far less energy than most other cars at the moment even if you rarely use the solar PV to trickle charge the traction battery, which in itself a great move forward for transport. But then just going from ICE powered to battery electric cars will cut the energy requirements of car transport by 80% with no other change apart from ICE to BEV. More on this by Answers with Joe videos, the one on hydrogen cars.
I don't think people understand . This is all flim-flan. Creating a prototype is significantly different from a salable production model hitting top marks on all use quadrants. Solar's basic issue comes down to chemical reactions of the cell. We just havent created one that is supper efficient to make this workable en mass used in this format (car). Without support. chemical reactions take a finite amount of time to occur, that's why we need a larger surface area for the S-CELL to generate enough power. The chances are they are going to find new materials or create composites that will have super efficiency. This is why we still predominantly use a cumbsution engine. There is a lot of power produced for a small area. Same as rockets. The new EV's work becuse of stored potential energy in the batteries ( created pre-hand) Think of a man in a sinking boat with many holes and a bucket. He is tring to bail out enough water to keep the boat afloat. But his problem is he has only one small bucket. There is only so fast a man can work I admire the push for a total solar car (like ...Logan's Run). However as many have said here until we find a super responsive material or find a way to catalyze the solar energy process at greater speed and scale for a small surface area , this is a wish. I am sckeptical of all these claims. I know GM and many companines are trying to catch up and surpass tesla. They will create any prototype and push for publicity. We are currently not comparing egss with eggs. Tesla's vision worked because he understood that a power storage is needed.. ie the battery. For many reasons solar is not quite there yet to replace the power ratio of the cumbstion engine. without a storage silo. I'd like to really see the stats and analysis of this charge only 9 times a year. Becuase there is some magic going on. I smell Theranos style promo going on. Yes, you can improve efficency , but a lot of wishful thinking is going on here. Without significant material breakthrough , this is all I wish and speculate. It's like trying to crack water and run it in a JIT way sufficent to power a significant mass like a car. You just can't do it. Not yet anyway. There must be some other tech involved to make it possible. We know that pressure changes the boiling point of water. Science has exploited that. We need something similar to allow an efficency multiplier in the current materials of today's solar cells. if not another element-sandwich (composite) is is needed. You can't cheat physics... well not yet anyway. Look, i'm not saying the work so far is not interesting. But please all keep your physics, electronics, conservation of energy heads on. Before this car gets to a reasonable price for the average user. Before it passes all the quadrants required to make it a viable product for the masses, I suspect this design will mutate significantly or have many compromises attached, making it only a useable product for the few.
@@ckm567zmm4 they're not breaking physics with this car, they just have different goals than most other manufacturers. Tesla's are all about horsepower and being the fastest thing on the road which is why they need gigantic batteries and inefficient aerodynamics to increase roadholding. The lightyear is much slower with much less downforce and traction which means the efficiency goes way up increasing the range you can get from the same amount of solar energy. Aptera is even lighter and more aero efficient again but doesn't have as much room for solar panels. People have been racing 100% solar powered cars across Australia since the 80s (or even earlier?) Its not some crazy new technology, just a different way of applying the latest advancements to a road-going vehicle. If you live in a place with less sun or have a week of bad weather obviously you'll get less range from the solar, but it also has batteries that you can charge from the grid like any other EV and it's still more efficient than any other EV
i love efficiency! so much so that when looking for my next commuting vehicle i went past EVs, past micro EVs, past electric scooters and landed on an electric bike. it is just unbeatable! ;)
The solar sounds like it is a niche subject. It will be very useful in select sunny areas, but overall solar is more efficient when not attached to a car. But this car being designed around efficiency, not mere power, is such a game changer. What many people don't realise is just how much energy EV's need. To put things into perspective, if every car in the world was electric right now, worldwide electricity consumption would more than double. Electricity is neither cheap nor is the grid infinite. This car might not be more than a tech demo. But it might just spark a movement absolutely necessary to bring individual transport, where unavoidable, into the future.
I'm sure that you CAN drive 70km on the energy captured by the solar panels, but it's an "up to" figure in ideal conditions and would be at an unrealistically low speed, so that the Wh per km figure would be much lower. At the claimed 104 Wh per km, you would need to have harvested 7.28kWh, to drive 70km. Given the standard figure for maximum solar insolation of 1000W per square meter and giving lightyear's panels a very generous efficiency of 25%, They would need to be exposed to full sun for 5.83 hours to harvest that energy. But that's assuming they were close to the optimum incidence ange for the whole time. Instead, given how they're mounted on the vehicle, they're almost never at the optimum angle. It would also assume that the vehicle is not going to be shaded by, for instance, a building, which is unrealistic. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Data logs of harvested energy, along with location data would go a long way to proving this.
While I have always had wishful thoughts towards the "solar car", I have to agree with Paul Compton that much of the stats seem extremely challenging to realistically achieve; and that is putting it mildly. I applaud Lightyear engineers for seeing it through all these years. I wish them great luck... They are going to need a lot of luck to actually start cranking these beauties out for the mass market.
Unfortunately I have to agree that the solar aspect is almost pointless until panel efficiency gets up to 35/40% which is a while off yet. Domestic and commercial solar installation and battery storage with ev chargers allowing excess solar diversion with very efficient cars make the most sense. The efficiency is very impressive though.
I agree with Jack. This system with a super efficient car plus significant charging from solar is a large part of the answer for range expansion. Imagine charging 9 times a year! Imagine applying this tech to a 30kwh battery compact car that the rest of us could afford!
People moaning about the price are not getting the point here. When this way of thinking is scaled for the masses, it will be cheap enough for everyone to own. I love it! Thanks for sharing.
Truly incredible! I am so pumped for not only this vehicle, but the future of EVs in general. One thing I noticed during the video though, that I feel compelled to mention... At ~ 16:43 Roel Grooten (vehicle architect) displays just how unnecessarily difficult touchscreens are to use in a moving vehicle. He has to support his hand using the top edge of the screen, then rocks his hand back and forth not once, not twice.. but three times to successfully press the button associated with regen (I think?). While this looks like a slight annoyance with a passenger operating the touchscreen, the difficulty of use skyrockets for the driver, to the point of being possibly dangerous. Why not use physical buttons for literally everything the driver might need to use while in transit, and leave the touchscreen controls for anything else/less important. These buttons could be off-the-shelf parts, and easily replaceable, housed in one or two button clusters. The advantage of physical buttons is well on display in any vehicle made earlier than ~2005, in that, the driver can 'learn' each button, toggle, and lever's location, so that the driver may intuitively use them while in transit. I'm sorry, but I sincerely cannot stand touchscreens just in daily life, on my cellphone, or for my aftermarket stereo in my 2002 Toyota... Stop using touchscreens in new production cars please.
As a resident of Eindhoven, this car makes me incredibly proud! Now if only the city of Eindhoven can install more charge points and change our district heating to green sourced energy, I'd be in heaven.
When I reached the end of this video my mouth was dry... jaw was on the ground for most of it. The stats are crazy! The world needs more of these. Well done to the creators!!!
Great episode. There is another way, however, to solar power your EV and that is to charge it in your garage from the solar panels on your roof or from a renewably powered grid. However, for many people their car is a statement - "this is who I am". Because of that I think they will sell them. I really like this style. A brilliant design creates its own beauty.
FINALLY!!! Someone with the education and means to do it has used their brains and the Obvious answers to make a car that WILL be a game changer, if enough people who are able to support the fundraiser Will! I'm SO excited and hopeful for the future of transportation 😃
Wow the numbers are great on this car, thanks for breaking down the inwheel motors, and the stats. A lot of people aren't grasping what all this means, yes it's expensive but there are pieces of this car that will help other cars too.
The world needs 250k cars lol. A cheap 20k gas car would always be cheaper to maintain and use... 🥴🥴🥴🥴. 25k-30k is the entry level that Evs need to get to. Anyone recall that everyone was saying EVs would become cheaper than gas cars by now 🥴🥴🥴
@@lee1130fromtwitter yeah obviously the price needs to be at the right level. All m saying is the solar and light weight part is what people need to rid the planet of toxic emissions. I hope you can understand that point. You obviously had a brain fart on the last one.
Impressive! On my holiday trip from Amsterdam to Interlaken and back, the consumption of my Zoe was 12,7kw/100km. or 4,893 mile per kw, including airco / 100km/h speed. I think pretty impressive. Between Netherlands to Swiss 3 times charged on public chargers, total cost of this: € 35,-.!!! Believe it or not. After good preparation of course. Not one second regret that I bought an EV. Succes!
All the best and hoping for a successful company. Like someone said: “It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself”
"... But is made exponentially easier if you have a cult who will blindly give you their money..." Elon's greatest achievement was being a cult leader. Honestly.
@@hieroglyph321 Elon didn't had cult back in the 2008 when tesla was going to go bankrupt when he was trying to finalize model S and ramp up production to release in 2011-2012. The government didn't help either. It was Daimler which invested in several shares and elon's existing closely related share holders doubled their positions along with elon going all in to save the company. The cult came later, wayyy later.
It's a damn good looking car, sort of reminds me of an old DS with the slopping back. Made so it won't rust and and has a great range, looks to be well made plus the design and specs make the newest tesla's look dated. That is a car I would be happy to own.
Reminds me of solar car expos thirty some years ago. Many of these ideas were advanced then in homemade cars. Why it has taken so long for them to show up again in a prototype for consumers, I cannot understand. Glad to see efficiency and photovoltaics coupled together once again.
Probably government don't like it. Seems something bad always happens when people invent something that REALLY helps the people. I bet 1 million bucks they could have created long lasting efficient cars a long time ago.
The oil companies and the governments work together to subdue and bury new alternatives. First they start with bribes of extortionate amounts then if that doesn't work they use other means to stop you. Research the Joe fuel cell from Australia , when another man used the plans and started using it in America he and his family were directly threatened to stop using it and to stop talking about it to other people by men who clearly worked for the oil companies/government agency. This is because it is classed as a threat to the economy and hence then classed as a threat to national security and once that old line is triggered the government will do anything in their power to silence someone. To confirm this for yourselves also research the US government patent Office vault where ideas and inventions that might threaten the economy are immediately seized and the inventors told they will be given 25 year's in prison and a huge fine if they talk about it. Things that have been seized are for one example of many, solar panels that produce over a certain efficiency of electricity. This seems absurd and conspiracy based but its actual fact and you can look it all yourself. Remember a threat to the economy is a threat to national security that is the premise they operate on. If you want to live in a utopia of free energy it won't be on this planet.
Part of that is those solar car expo demonstrators/concepts, and the solar race series as not actually practical for real world use. Super lightweight without in the early days the most recent advances in composite materials so they are a bit too fragile and/or hard to make. To get the aerodynamic efficiency low enough to go anywhere with older less efficient motor and electronics means very little interior space, to lower the rolling resistance super skinny tyres that are just not able to provide enough grip to really suit real world use. Then there is the big one of just how far and fast battery tech has been improving in the last few decades - sure lithium chemistries existed but the ability to mass produce such tiny energy dense battery durable enough to be at all practical and all the tweaks to the chemistry to make them better suited to a wider range of tasks didn't. So now you can make your engineering choices to create an affordable(ish) practical for daily use 'family car' EV, had there been anybody listening to the science not the oil lobbyists though the 80's and 90's these things could be developed a little quicker I expect, with all the money that would be thrown at it. But still only so far you can get as there are so many little iterative technological or manufacturing method improvements required to get there, and those won't just come because money is being thrown at trying to make an EV, lots of it will come from ideas in other industries and even sports. So @MrR4ge89 is correct a long lasting efficent 'car' could have been made a long time ago - infact some where. Yes they were ICE powered, but the hyper efficeient ICE cars of decades ago were sometimes up at the 70mpg sort of ballpark in the real world - Still rather impressive now, and more so when you realize how primitive their engines are. However being light, noisy, uncomfortable, very small - usually 2 seats and a tiny boot at best, and unable to pass modern crash safety etc its easy to argue they were not really practical. A great choice as a second car for those few folks that have the money to have two vehicles, one that can actually take the kids to school and bring the grocery back and the hyper efficient impractical one just for the one persons daily commuting to work perhaps..
@@foldionepapyrus3441 The point of my post was that these ideas were around at least 30 years ago, yes, just in prototypes. But to now ballyhoo an engine for each wheel and capping the wheels to prevent air drag and putting photovoltaics on as much of the car body as possible, is, in MHO simply ingenuous. Also, did you see the movie, "What happened to the electric car?" A beautiful functioning sedan WAS available sometime in the 90,s and was taken off the market & taken from people who owned them & smashed.
Great idea for sunny climates. When you do the UK review it would be interesting to see how much of a charge you would get from the panels in summer and winter.
You have a good point there. UK sunshine is very unpredictable but bear in mind most cars spend at least three quarters of their life parked up doing nothing. We would just have to make sure we park in a open area that gets some sunlight.
Modern solar panels don't need sunshine, just daylight, to generate some charge. As others have pointed out, cars spend a large proportion of their time parked. Will be interesting to see the data on how much solar charge is obtainable in variable UK weather conditions and what that, combined with the efficiency, will mean in terms of reduced grid charging.
I had a dream of this car years ago, but the entire body was made into Solar panels. Nice to see this car becoming a reality now. Wish you much success 👍
You use the word 'reality' I don't think it means what you think it means. 'Reality' means it will actually exist with the capabilities as stated. Whereas this is all a bit, well, hype.
@@caleidoo Ha ha, yes you're right, but I didn't say it solved the problems, I said it 'addresses them', meaning it's a step in the right direction . . .
Incredible. With my commute I wouldn't need to charge it during summer nearly at all. And given how much I need car now (remote work), I would barely need to charge it - only for longer trips but even then they are few in between days.
The old Ioniq, which is about 5 years old, was not far off this efficiency and was around 30k. Things don't seem to have moved on much. I definitely would like to see efficiency as the top priority for evs though and not just bigger and bigger batteries to lump around.
The original Ioniq (don't call it old, it's still a young, modern car even though they no longer sell it) had a coefficient of drag of .23, the Lightyear 0 has one of .19. So if the fronal area was the same, the Lightyear would be more efficient. However, I generally speaking get a much lower consumption on my Ioniq than they did in this first drive, but then again, I do my best to drive efficient, not fast.
@@Hans-gb4mv I've just watched the whole thing and we get around 6.2mi/kWh out of our Ioniq in the summer and we live in a hilly area. Not quite as efficient as I thought it would be.
@@Hans-gb4mv I suspect you're comfortably achieving approximately 5 miles/KWH, which is only 20% less than this car. I also imagine your car ... COST LESS than 15% of what this car cost.
You have no idea how happy this car makes me. Like switching your crappy lighting at home to LEDs, efficiency is the key to making things better. Not since the brainstorming around the i3 design (we need to make it light🤔🤔🤔, carbon fibre shell it is then) has the engineering of a car got me so excited. We’ll done Lightyear. You are the kings of our time ❤️
good luck with LED lighting ..you've obviously not done your homework. stock up on spare retinas and glaucoma meds, plus something for switchmode supplies, oh, and a shedload of 'blueblocker' glasses .
Sorry but you can't build a solar cells without huge oil powered drills unfortunately battery power hasn't reached a point where it can put out enough power to run mining operations necessary to extract the things solar panels require
Completely agree, this just feels like a propaganda piece. Where is the skepticism regarding their claims? Such a massive increase in range is massively suspect to me. The claims of how much the solar panels will charge also sounds suspect to me. I'll believe it when I see people doing drive to zero tests and people who have lived with the car for months and when I can buy one of these for the claimed 30k. Before that, its just another press release with hype claims.
@@TehCheese Agree. This was the best week of the year for solar performance, summer solstice. All test drivers were told to coast at the same straight. Is it 100 % flat or with a minor, not noticeable, decline? The same consumption should be reachable with a Hyundai Ioniq or a Model 3 with these road conditions.
Love Robert's bit at the end 🤣 This is an amazing car. I love that they're doing this to prove a point to the cart industry just like Tesla did when they proved Electric cars are better than ICE. Eagerly looking forward to the Lightyear 1 😃
The OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Dedication) to reducing drag through state of the art aerodynamics and suspension, reducing rolling resistance to the lowest in the industry, really sets this early access electric vehicle apart from everything that's been done up to this point in the history of car manufacturers. What the Tucker Torpedo did to gasoline powered car manufacturing, the Lightyear 0 will do to electric vehicle engineering practices.
The ‘eco-community’ is always been focused on efficiency and saving weight etc. It was very surprising that when electric cars finally became popular, big lumpy electric SUV’s started hitting the markets. Lightyear is one of the first who understand this focus.
That made sense for so many reasons. First, SUVs are best sellers. It literally saved companies from going bankrupt (Porsche, amongst others), the moment they offered an SUV in their line-up. So they knew a SUV EV would sell more than a small sedan EV. Secondly, there is more money to be made with premium cars, which includes luxurious SUV's and fast non-SUV EV cars. And lastly, it's more easy to fit a big battery in a taller vehicle, that's why so many EV's are SUV's or at least crossovers.
Awesome! I'd love to know whether they're considering coating the glass such that it also acts as PV converting the light outside visible spectrum (IR & UV) into electricity and at the same time preventing the interior of the car from getting insanely hot, because you're deliberately parking such that you avoid being in shade.
I have been longing for this type of car to appear! 😊⚡️☀️⚡️👍🏻 Together with Aptera it seems like they are the only ones that truly strives for efficiency powered by the sun. But their background in solar-racing makes them even more capable and focused than Aptera. This shape and size of car makes it so suitable and usable for any users. Aptera is also impressive and cool, but in an other way. Really imoressive! 😄☀️⚡️👍🏻 Hopes this will wake the SUV-makers up a bit, and push them in the right direction! ♻️🌱☀️⚡️👍🏻
9:24, there are a whooping 661W of solar power harvested in Spain in June, WOW! This 0.66kWh every hour (which of course will vary due to the car and sun changing position will help A LOT. That's what they mean that it will take months before charges🤣 meanwhile, you buy a model 3, a house AND 10kw or more of PV for your roof with all that money in some countries that have actually sun and you really charge you car with solar consistently.
I love these videos. it brings out all the uneducated knuckle draggers that seem to have a penchant for embarrassing themselves in front of the world, well done genius...!
@@MickH60 thanks, now we just have to wait the stats and impressioms from the people that ACTUALLY get to spend all this money for this car😂 quick question, does it support fast rapid charging? If the sun is enough one would expect that this feature would be redundant...?
Great concept! Reminds me a lot of hiw I drive my old Ioniq with small battery. I have them on my watchlist once they come up with car for masses :) They should definitely introduce wheel pedals for quick regen changes like Hyundai has. Better for changing it fast than having to go to screen menus.
Innovation has to start somewhere. Its amazing to see technology move forward. Hopefully the used EV car market comes down to the normal used car market prices someday. Maybe then I can afford one, prob be about the time EVs are being phased out for the next big thing. Now if only they can install millions of places to plug them all in for all of us city dwellers without houses and garages, or really even any sort of dedicated parking, and a way to keep people from unplugging my car as it sits in a random spot 2 blocks away down the dark alley... and another spot for my gfs car.
FWIW I bought My 2014 Leaf SL (originally $38k) in 2016 as a CPO with 21k mi for $14k! This car has earned $25.00/month After paying its electricity and $299.00 car payment! This was calculated to breakeven @ $2.00 gasoline price. My usage model: I drove 3 trips a day 17 miles from home (34 mi round trip X 3 = about 100 mi a day! and I wasn't going very far away from home!) NOW: IT EARNS much more as the car payment ended in 2021 and gas is about $5.00 / gallon! Now I need a new Battery $9700 Plus shipping from Yesa-Battery in HK Plus installation. But this will be an upgrade from 24kWh to 40kWh. Nissan however will not $ell me a 40kWh battery at all for it! They make one and it works! But, NO! They will not sell it. Current range less than 59 miles. Usable, more like 45 miles. Also, Then I had to replace with upgraded Telematics for $200.00 and It is already worthless needs upgrade to 4g or 5g and is no longer supported! I still LIKE the basic car! It still earns close to $600-$800 per month in fuel I no longer have to buy! I'm driving less Also Less range!!
Reminds me of the Citroen CX next door had when I was growing up - compared to the boxy 80s tat that surrounded it, it looked amazing! If Lightyear can translate this into an everyday competitor for the boring, heavy wasteful junk that's currently on the road then good luck, they'll need it, admirable as this one is!
I'm curious how much of a beating those motors will take being in the wheels. There won't be much cushioning from vibration since the suspension won't be smoothing it out.
They do fine. Air in the tyres is enough to dampen vibrations, but just don't hit kerbs head on at 100 kmh. I have a large hub motor on my ebike and it handles mountain tracks just fine for the last 6 years.
For sure, inventors of this are not familiar of concept of unsprang mass. Suspension will be unable to handle any bump on the road, as this mass will send wheels flying and hit body of the car so strong. Also, it will loose traction. Awful idea.
@@dezelvol It'll be fine for the intended application, as the advantages outweigh any disadvantages. The added mass of the motor isn't a huge amount and is still small compared to the rest of the body. The inventors will forget more than you'll ever know, because they are the ones doing it, unlike some random bloke opining on the net.
Nice machine, especially for all the work on efficiency....A company that has worked on the low-end proposal of this concept (light vehicle, solar panels etc) is the 2017 German company Sono Motors, with the Sion, with production starting in 2023. Price is just below the USD 30 k mark with about 14 000 pre-orders. Goof luck to Lightyear, Sono and to all these brave young innovators.
This is the car I've been dreaming about for a decade. Wow, cannot wait for the everyday version to be released! Incredible numbers, what will the energy companies think about it though???🤔
Probably they'd actually like it... Energy companies nowadays don't know where to get all the energy from. Too much usage and grids are struggling to cope
I did this to my grandparents golf cart years ago. A solar panel roof, a bit larger than the roof that comes on a 4 seat cart. They only had to "balance" charge it once a month to keep the lead acid batteries at "optimal" charge. They ran it everyday for years. Now they're 97 and 98 and have no interest, but they had fun with it, and used to brag about it to all the people who had to plug in nightly.
what did you study to learn how to do that? I'd like to be able to build that sort of stuff in the future, but to build it I need to know what I'm doing.
@@alexhamilton3522 I grew up on a farm in the 70's, 80's. I was the "maintenance tech" for my Grandparents starting at age 12. Running farm equipment when I was 8. Field tractors so big, I needed a ladder to get up to the steps. Some people like me have an aptitude for all things mechanical. But my stupid I-phone confounds me daily. I barely made it through high school, too much work to be done.
@@doghouse416 Well if it comes as any consolation, I never finished my high school either. I was one of the poorest kids in that joint lol, but that's not saying much since it was considered "elite." Got out when I was 18 at 10th grade. But if I wanted to finish I would have been around 23. Yeah... no.
I dropped out and got two degrees. One slightly more useful than the other (history) but not really appreciated for its true value it can give (makes sense, sense they got rid of civics and philosophy in the 60s for public schools. Can't blame the symptoms though, just the root).
Now I'm going back for Computer Information Systems, Networking, as that's more hands on and I've always been a touch and learn kind of guy. Thing is though, even though I consider myself a historian laughably enough, I love all the tech stuff, and I like to repair things too. But creating things instead of just coming up with ideas has always been hard. I think I might continue my education eventually and go back to working physics, or even AI. Hell maybe the damn economic system. I just like taking big things, and fixing them. But making crap like that sounds cool too. So thanks for your story.
Just because we never finished school doesn't mean we aren't good at something lol. It all begins when you are young. Skills bud and bloom.
And uh... don't worry about the iphone, a lot of tech nowadays, makes me feel like I'm old, even if I'm only nearing my thirties. Things were definitely simpler back then. And I prefer flip phones. They just don't seem to really sell them to often anymore.
I really hope this is a turning point for the way EV's are built, I live in Arizona and have asked the question for years "why hasn't any manufacturer put solar panels on an electric car for the parts of the world that have an abundance of sunlight?" To me this just seems logical.
Solar panels don't belong on the roof of vehicle. It just does not make sense. Solar panels are best in sunny places with the right angle of inclination to collect as much electricity as possible. That energy can be used to charge batteries.
Solar panels don’t last long at all and they’re made of highly highly toxic materials.
@@funbert01 solar panels can make sense when the battery is small. There is a technology based on the moths eyeball where light from any angle can be used to increase efficiency of the panel. They car will not be able to run on the power without a battery. Maximum solar energy isn't enough per sq ft. But it can charge from it. Many urban dwellers do not have access to electricity and this would help.
If you missed what they taught you at school, then your life will be full of miracles and paradoxes.
@@funbert01 Rubbish, any extra charge is good charge. Here in Australia, people run out of petrol in our vast outback regions and die because they try and walk out, with solar panels on an electric vehicle they have a chance of travelling a few extra miles a day by car using the charging provided by the panels.
Also, Australia has held a solar race challenge for as long as I can remember, over 50 years, solar powered cars racing over thousands of miles, so it makes a LOT of sense to have solar panels on cars, some already do....
I bet if you could pick up a gallon of free fuel every few hundred miles you wouldn't refuse ....
A reasonably priced consumer version of this would do well here in Australia with the amount of sun we have.
Here in the U.S. in Colorado as well. We are one of the sunniest states so I think this would be a big winner.
@@larrycanepa heh, it always thought it constantly snowed there...gee.. thanks Southpark.
That is the issue. There is like 2 or 3 places in the civilized world where this would work and you can't build a car manufacturer with all that investment in a factory and the sourcing of materials and electronics and whatnot, only to sell your cars to people in Arizona, apparently Colorado (which I am dubious about, to be honest) and Australia.
It is just not a viable business model.
Even regular EVs like the Teslas have trouble selling outside of the USA because nowhere else in the world, outside of US Suburbia, do enough people have garages and thus a place where they can comfortably charge their EVs over night.
@@larrycanepa It might be sunny, but how much energy is actually delivered by that sunshine? The fact that Colorado is known for its skiing and snowboarding industry suggests that there can't be much energy dumped by sunlight, or else that snow wouldn't be there, obviously.
The problem with sunshine in mountainous regions is that there technically might be lots of it, but it is very unevenly distributed. How much of it falls on areas where humans actually live? How much is blocked by the mountains and how often do you drive your car on the south-side of a mountain?
In mountainous regions most people live in valleys and valleys naturally get less sunlight. What good are record amounts of sunlight to you and your EV if it shines on some mountain top 1000 feet above you?
@@TrangleC
The sunniest area may be the Front Range, where most people live. The snow image is completely off - most of the state ranges from semi-arid to desert. Completely cloudy days are rare and cloudless days are the norm. And because of the elevation, the sun carries more energy. We offset our house's electric consumption with a fairly small solar array.
Hats off to Lightyear. To start a new car company and to get it so close to actual production is a major acheivement in itself even without the groudbreaking efficiency and design. Fingers crossed they can endure the financial pain of getting it produced and delivered so they can move on to more models.
Tesla have shown it can be done and Lucid, Rivian et al are bravely treading the same expensive path.
You truly do have to be INSANE to launch a new car brand - the up-front cost is colossal and so few survive. But I have high hopes for this lot
@@JackScarlett1 So true!! The few that have made it so far have started by modifying another company's product to help keep costs down. The first Tesla Roadster, for example, was just a rebadged Lotus with some revisions. To build a car from scratch with all the engineering, safety certifications, tooling costs, and QC testing involved is just maniacal.
Do you know who will be making this. There are companies you probably haven't heard of like Magna Steyr who make thousands of cars for different companies. When Sony (obviously not a car company) wanted an EV making guess who they went to.
yeah sure,
i bolted a 10w solar panel to my roof and it drove 8000km without charging!
it is okay for tesla to make an off brand car that does better.
The idea is sound, yes the price is eye watering, but no different to what other startups have tried to do, the real issue is what comes next. Good luck to them and hope they break through. As a concept it’s excellent.
Spot on. The tricky bit comes next. I'm crossing my fingers for them!
Thankfully, unlike many other startup EV's, they aren't going to be on their own to ramp up manufacturing. Valmet Automotive, who will be manufacturing these, has a lot of experience building cars for Mercedes and other brands. I really hope this hyper-efficiency trend will catch on and props to Lightyear for paving the way
That’s it. I’m going to saw the back off my Nissan E-NV200 and put a teardrop shaped body on it, covered in solar panels. Great episode guys. I too hope this gives a nudge to the auto industry, in the direction of efficiency. Good luck Lightyear.
@@keithforster2615 Won't be efficient enough
There certainly are startups tackling this market from the other end. Funnily enough, the 2 that come to mind first are also solar EVs. Think the Sono Sion and the Aptera.
The 'stats' on this car are precisely what EV enthusiasts expect from a new generation of EV vehicles. Going 0-60 in 2 seconds is not actually important even though we don't expect to give 2 weeks notice to go 55 mph either. We'll be happy to save the 'time machine' for the next generation. Put these specs in a $25K-$30K vehicle and lets get on with life. Don't make it expensive or overly complicated...remember...your grand-parents may need to drive these cars too.
@Mose Schrute "So popular with Women who don't pay their electric bill."?? I think you have a bit of Misogyny showing. Might want to increase the size of your tightey-whitey's to cover it up and let some blood flow back to your heart and brain 🧠
yep and if you drive little u basically dont have any expenses other than insurance. U could purely drive off of the sun.
I used to ride fast bikes, still do but now slower:(I'm 66): Worked as test driver for BMW, after you've done 0-60 in 3,2 secs. a few times; the novelty wears off, unless you can afford new tyres every few weeks, YES affordable is what we now need:
@@robinredshanks9096 Heh it's good to slow down a bit when you get older :). Was it fun job at BMW?
Closest thing at the present is the Aptera, starting at $26k. It has solar and is very efficient to drive, though it's only got two seats and it's a much more conspicuous design
in my country Indonesia, this car could go more than a year before it need to charge. By the way, i love how this channel produce their video.. so enlightening and yet entertaining a lot. Kudos for production team!!!
Love it. And yes, wouldn't it be nice to have an affordable EV that just accelerated steadily to 60 (100kmh) in 9 or 10 seconds but fit European roads and parking bays. One that had efficiency at its heart. One with solar panels to top it up when parked like the Lightyear.
Also, I wonder if Lightyear have considered doing something with Hymer the motorhome manufacturer? An EV version of one of their campers with banks of solar on the roof could allow you to drive on EV, camp up and charge for a week and then set off again.
Enough of my pipedreams.
A month ago they did a video about a Solar Campervan. Made by students at Eindhoven University, which is the same uni that the Lightyear founders went to. Eindhoven is taking the Solar Challenge races and turning the students participating in them into the next generation of automotive engineers. Really exciting stuff!
Check out the Fisker Ocean Extreme. Solar roof, great car deliveries in Nov this year
Sion & Aptera both are affordable solar cars
@@tabottietjen3186 I didn't realise the Sion was for sale. I thought it was still in development. Unfortunately it's not sold in my jurisdiction. The Aptera looks a bit wacky and I'm not sure I could ever drive it. But it's good to see others doing the solar thing, and thanks for letting me know :)
You should follow Xbus then. An affordable solar van (German made) hitting the market later this year I believe. They als have camper models.
When I was young most cars had a -0-60 acceleration time of more than 10 seconds, and a car that could accelerate from 0-60 in 10 seconds or less was considered a fast car.
EV's from the likes of Testla accelerate at an astounding rate compared to this.
I think that such performance capabilities may well be a misallocation of design priorities, they are certainly fashionable which is likely why manufacturers feel compelled to produce vehicles with them but if peoples mindset were to change from this 'racecar performance' mentality I think that it would definitely be a good thing and a more practical / utilitarian outlook.
The same thing applies to things like roadholding and cornering ability, narrow tyres have less rolling resistance and who cares if your wheels are heavier because they have hub motors in them and so are less reactive to bumps, their still quite good enough for anything other than a racetrack.
We need to change our priorities and judge 'performance' differently.
Priorities of companies change through money 😂 My plan is to buy an efficient car whoever makes it! But it needs to be durable for me!
Fast acceleration is a 'free' byproduct of electric traction. The motors are by their nature capable of maximum torque at zero revolutions. They are already in the 90 percent efficiency range so no worries there.
The reason why Tesla focused and still focuses on acceleration is because electric vehicles for the longest time were slow (also small, and ugly). EVs were laughed at as being not much faster than golf carts or forklifts, so that stigma had to be destroyed.
Tesla's Roadster and Model S family sedan with its mind-blowing acceleration accomplished that and brought early adopters into the EV sector.
Now that's it's been established that EVs can out-accelerate any ICE car, the next focus will be on efficiency for long ranges and convenient fast charging (350 kW, cheaper and better batteries, and wireless induction charging). Give it a few more years and it will make absolutely no economic sense any more to buy an ICE car.
I agree completely that there is far too much emphasis on the 0 to 60 specs. 99% of people never use those specs after maybe trying it once on an empty road just to try it. But after that, there is no real world need for going to 60 that fast. You can’t safely drive 60 on the on ramps to highways, and it takes between 6 and 12 seconds to go through most on ramps. Thus, 0 to 60 in faster than seven seconds is not needed nor beneficial on a highway. If a traffic jam brings you to a stop, you have no chance of accelerating to 60 faster than 10 seconds because the congested traffic ahead of you won’t do faster than that ever.
It’s also not needed or really beneficial off of highways. I live in a small city with a lot of four-lane and six lane roads, so I am frequently at a stoplight with one or two cars next to me. I am usually in a big rush so I usually press the pedal to the metal on my weak powered gas Kia soul and 99.5% of the time I am down the road much faster than the other vehicles, and 65% of the time I am down the road far faster than the other vehicles. The small city is quite affluent and mostly suburban and I live in the third of the city that is the most affluent, so there are lots of nice cars that have killer 0 to 60 specs. But only 1% of people use them.
I think one reason is that fast acceleration does not feel comfortable to the body. A second reason is that fast acceleration is not safe and thus is more stressful. So it really pisses me off that so many car reviewer‘s put such a huge emphasis on the 0 to 60 specs, and convey to the public that they won’t be happy without killer specs. In fact people will be plenty happy without them and would actually be happier without them because they could give the saved money to the needy and feel great about that, or have better efficiency to fight climate change and feel great about that.
I also dislike that many of the reviewers base some of their rating on the 0 to 60 specs
I think it's kind of ironic that a company that set out to make driving more environmental friendly, would make vehicles that WASTE tons of energy by using oversized motors that suck way more energy out of the batteries than would be needed for normal driving, because people want to show off the unnecessary fast acceleration. 😅🤦♂
Mindblowed by your video!
I live in Portugal, although the price is far beyond what I could dream to buy, the technology and the possibilities of driving without almost using electricity for the grid makes me smile. This is the true environmental friendly car!
Less drag, 7month without charge for a 70 km comute, which is around my daily mileage, which can carry 4 to 5 people. This is a dream!
Let me ask you Pedro and all the good people who live in Portugal, does Summer last seven months?…! (15:33 time mark) I don’t think so, therefore the numbers / specs that he is giving you are skewed to make the car sound more enticing than it really is so pretty much unrealistic!… More lipstick on a pig!
@@Doing_it_right_the_first_time doesn't lasg 7 month, but we have sun prety much all year!
eve the cloudy day are not to many. A great place to spend time in any season
it still uses toxic batteries with a very short shelf-life, no? So how is it eco-friendly? Stop falling for people's money-making schemes, where they sell you a hyped, relatively cheap product, where the replacement parts are massively expensive and you can only buy them from that 1 company. Subscription services for cars, what i call them. Inefficient, toy, battery cars are most definitely not the future and are most definitely not eco-friendly. The future was already invented about 122 years ago but we are too blinded by glorifying a rich dude's money-making scheme (Musk's) and now we just applaud the companies joining in on the fab, making minor improvements to a useless product that is taking advantage of people's good will for a cleaner future.
You know what the main case of pollution is, right? It's production... we just need to stop buying shit that have a planned-obsolescence of like 2-10 years (like mobile phones) and need to support technology that has a very long shelf life and that can easily and cheaply be maintained.
@@VenomBGR So 300,000 - 500,000 miles is a short shelf life? That is what Tesla rates their batteries for. They still work to, just have beyond 80% degradation which is reused for stationary use, such as home backup power where weight and size arent really an issue. Or just recycle them into new batteries using 90% of the material.
@@ryanpetree6475 i dont care about mileage ,cause 90% of the time ,i don;t use a car and it's just gonna sit there and batteries go bad even when not used. They give about 8 years of battery life, which i assume is more like 5 years of actually keeping the original charge. So, basically ,the car is usable for about 5 years before you have to completely change the batteries, at which point most people will just sell the and buy a new one (the biggest cause of pollution).
Also recycling batteries is good cause it reuses the materials, so they don;'t have to be mined but it doesn't reuse the actual toxic elements, right? And i also assume that even a recycled battery is expensive as hell.
What i;m saying is that this is most definitely not a practical or really eco-friendly vehicle - it's just a gimmick.
This is where it all started. The next generation of electric cars focused on efficiency and not some stupid designs with no attention being given to aerodynamics. It's been always a treat to watch fully charged videos. Keep up the good work. All the best to lightyear.
It's not where it started, it's copy and paste from other companies who innovated.
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from..
What a wank...
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from..
What a wank...
You know this teardrop shape has been around for nearly hundred years, right? And so are the closed wheel arches. Never seen a Citroen DS or CX? Or a Talbot-Lago T150-C ?
The Tesla Model 3 is highly aerodynamic, to the point where you would need to be driving very fast for the aerodynamics on this car to make a difference. Then, there is handling. Have you ever heard of unsprung weight. It drastically affects the handling of the car. Also, all the heat generated when the wheel-motors are acting as brakes will be trapped in the motors, reducing the life and efficiency of the motors. Then, there are tolerances that are affected by heat expansion, not to mention the problems of constant wetness and dirt seeking to enter any cooling channel for the motors. This thing sounds like a massive maintenance headache, and on the only part of the drivetrain more expensive than the batteries.
This is one of those designs that works perfectly, "in theory". Oh, and I forgot one more thing. How is it going to work in extremes of cold, wet, snowy, icy weather with little sun. So I bought this thing in the South and I'm moving to Canada. What now? All the features just turned into expensive gimmicks that are likely to break, and expensively at that.
Any piece of technology that must perform at the very edge of its capabilities isn't going to provide a reasonable return on investment.
Cannot wait to witness how most transport will be like this. It's a beautiful world, which is ahead of us!
It's a beautiful world as long as you don't live where they mine or process the minerals to make the batteries. Read up on the pollution pushed off onto the third world.
@@RaymondCore That's the point of making more efficient cars though, less battery but still more range. I agree that mining is a major issue, but not as much as oil is. We need to reduce our car-dependence overall if we are going to have any chance of mitigating the climate catastrophe we're heading in to, but the cars we do need still need to be as efficient as possible.
Efficiency is the key metric for any EV technology, and Lightyear is definitely taking it beyond any current standards.. Congratulations to these Dutch pioneers! Looking forward to the Euro 30k mass model, I will definitely buy it as soon as it is available
Not only efficiency. Also charging infrastructure, new lightweight materials and better batteries as well as regulations.
Some people need cargo space, so if all future EV cars are going to have this teardrop shape, a lot of people are not going to buy those.
@@caleidoo Audi A7, Audi A5, Tesla Model S?
I remember admiring Tesla's vehicles for their efficiency and minimal drag. It's amazing that the Lightyear looks just as good and has left Tesla in the dust in regards to efficiency. Though none of this matters if no one buys it. God knows I can't afford a $250,000 vehicle. So I am curious how this type of car scales to the sub $40,000 market, and what will need to sacrificed to achieve that price.
@@Scott93312 It looks brilliant but if you have a close look at the interior, it is, despite being preproduction, a terribly bad made interior of low quality, fit and finish.
Nice! That’s more like it!! A sub $30,000 version of this is what most of us want & need.
i want a brand new utilitarian car with decent range and power with basic amenities for 15k. cause thats what a good entry level skoda skala provides. until we reach this quality, price and utility you can forget about electric cars
yeah.. getting from $250k to $30k should only take about 20 years.. lets see if they survive that long
the full carbon fiber body is the issue. We could probably get a nice lightweight and inexpensive version made of cardboard.
@@rokko_fable paper mache car 😂😂
@@johnsmith-cw3wo too far. too far man. it needs to at least support the battery and solar panels 🤔😆
Please let the whole team know that the transition at 7:46 was amazing and that some viewers noticed ❤️
I love this car, hopefully Lightyear will let me set a world record with it 😏
Yeah that was done very nicely!
It was cool!
Super cool!
Did somebody tell them its just a show about electric cars right?...They didn't have to go this hard
Lightyear 2 and Aptera are the 2 cars I am MASSIVELY looking forward to seeing on the road. (In the US especially)
And Sono Motors.
Would be great if Fully Charged had another look at the Aptera, it is not far behind the Lightyear Zero in terms of hitting the market
Absolutely. Potential game changers. It's great to see companies take advantage of the blank sheet that electrification of cars has offered. These two are on my shopping list - for when I win the lottery!! 😉
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from..
What a wank...
@@graemejohnson9025 hmmm, I just get the feeling that maybe you might not like this car...? You would not be working in the fossil fuel industry by any chance would you, or a mechanic?
Maybe be you should watch Engineering Explained on solar cars?
Aptera is bringing a 2 person car to market that only uses 100 Watts per mile, can with solar panels get up to 1000 miles per charge, and currently starts roughly between $25-50k depending on options.
They really need to make a 4 seater though!
@@estp23010 While that would be really cool, it would kind of defeat what the Aptera is a bout. It's as small and light as possible for the average commuter's needs. 3 wheels would also make 4 passengers highly unlikely and you're right back to something like the Lightyear.
HOW MUCH..? jeez, you .must be ROLLING in money..! !
This is actually a car unlike aptera which is like a 3 wheeler auto
I really hope you are correct. I nearly put a deposit down for an Aptera 14 or 15 years ago. Glad I didn't as I now have a wife and 2 children and we are happy as a 1 car household. So a 2 seater is no use to us.
Love the solar aspect. My cars sit in the sun all damn day and don't even charge the 12v starter battery. I did put a 5w panel on the dash of my truck to keep the starter battery charged, and the battery lasted 15yrs, but I guess there's no money to be made when things last a long time. Let me know when the price hits 30k :)
the battery wont last forever dude
Thanks Fully Charged to bringing a car like this to the forefront. All the best to them as a startup, and it’s a big step in the right direction away from horrible SUVs that I hope the big manufacturers will pick up on and make more mainstream.
Co2 blurting transporter is used to transport this vehicle, co2 blurting equipment is used to create the vegan interior, co2 blurting equipment is used to manufacture it, and the materials it's made from..
What a wank...
The idea that you can sell it to areas that don’t have charging infrastructure is truely amazing that blew my mind ! Well done, there are truely lessons to be learnt and applied to all cars here.
Having a car with 50-70km of solar range - probably less on a car that will cost 30.000€ because of the smaller surface - if this company still exists in 5 years - for third world countries, sounds great and morally superior on paper. But let's be fair, it is not realistic. It would mean that you couldn't go to work if you have three days of cloudy weather. Compare that what a any cheap simple diesel of gasoline car does, everyday, sun or no sun, especially in those difficult areas with parts and gas stations everywhere and people are really not going to switch to this EV in those regions. Really not. I'm not even talking about maintenance and repairs. EV's are way too much "such a romantic story, let's save the planet" and far too less "but what about real life, real people, real circumstances?"
@@caleidoo I agree in regards to a lot of the world. The computer in control of everything means limited service options (I'm currently dealing with that with my PHEV I can't take it to any mechanic like I could my old ICE, only the dealership it came from). A couple of decades ago there was a doco on the TV here in Australia called 'the Bush Mechanics' about Aboriginal people living in extremely remote communities (we're talking a 3-4 hour drive to the next community and a 10 hour drive to a large town) and there most people in the community had enough mechanical knowledge to get the cars running in some fashion (one particularly memorable episode involved a broken drive shaft so they cut down a small tree and used it as a replacement) even the current ICE cars are too computerised for that sort of situation.
Although, there are larger cities in countries where there is no fast charging network and this could be an option for someone who wants an EV but can only charge at home, if you don't have a long commute most EVs can be topped up enough overnight on a normal socket to maintain charge.
@@caleidoo You do realise that it's a myth that solar panels don't charge on cloudy days ? Electric cars also only have a handful of moving parts, so far LESS maintenance, why don't you just admit you don't know what you're talking about and hate electric vehicles . Education is the key mate..
I drove Model S’s for 7 years, and they were fun and fast….for me. I quickly learnt that instant torque is great for the driver but deeply unpleasant for passengers unless very carefully used. This is where I see the disconnect in the way that Tesla is taking its cars now. Making them super fast but then adding automation and weird interaction elements (Yoke I’m taking to you) and justifying on the basis that you won’t drive it. I get that there was a job of dispelling the EV’s are slow myth, but it is good to see the drive for efficiency come to the fore and reality is this is more like the car you would want to be a ‘robotaxi’ of the future.
I take it you didn't explore your settings enough to find chill mode in those 7 years?
@@Q5000 Well of course I did! Personally I hated it, but I put on every time my daughter was in the car. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely loved the car, to drive and the throttle mapping on the Tesla makes all other EV’s disappointing in comparison. The disconnect I see is automating/changing a car to make it less pleasant to drive whilst making it faster and less pleasant to be a passenger in. If they kept making it better to drive but had the ability to switch down that would be fine, but that’s not what they are doing at the moment, as I see it. The main point I was making though is that for a robotaxi service quickest off the line isn’t necessary and so there is a place for cars like this.
Production quality on these videos is getting insanely good
The guy needs to wave his arms around more then the video would get it's point across much more efficiently.
ROTFLOL!!
I wish the companies success, I love the direction in which they are headed, efficiency and sustainability are quite under appreciated in the car world.
Looks pretty amazing. Great production. Your Chief Transition Officer was on point! 7:42
Proud of the Dutch people who made this car! I live in the Netherlands myself and I like it that a car from my country is presented on such a big TH-cam channel!
Congrats! I hope they do well and expand into more affordable versions. =D
Haha...jazeker! Dacht precies tzelfde toen ik dit zag.Hup Holland Hup👍😁(En dan te bedenken dat t hier meestal kloteweer is....Petje af voor deze bouwers.Duidelijk dromers met visie...Helemaal te gek!!
I sat in the car at Fully Charged Amsterdam and loved the minimal design language of everything inside. Very appealing to desigers or architects, much as a Saab 900
This and the eqXX look so similar.
As a cyclist who loves long rides, I've been thinking about aerodynamics for years. Free speed. Free distance. I've wanted an efficient car like this for a long time.
This is what we need. A focus on efficiency. Aptera is the more affordable, more efficient version of this!
The Aptera is the game changer in my opinion. It's got it all right, just needs to launch internationally
I would pay $5k more for available back seats, and a little less efficiency in the Lightyear compared to the Aptera
@@TheAwesomeSam The Aptera is something like $35K compared to Lightyears $250K.
Love the ideas behind this car, I really hope more manufacturers focus more on efficiency. Very exciting concept
The 7 months between charges in Portugal is incredible! I hope this is a game changer
As as Dutchman myself I can't help but be really proud of this company and their achievement. Its so cool to see a car company taking the industry in another direction. Instead of just bigger batteries and overly engineerd hunks of SUV, this seems like a much more elegant and sustainable solution to our energy crisis.
I'm bias ofcourse but I believe this is the most innovative thing to happen to cars since Tesla came out with the original roadster. This is what is going to take us forward. Real, practical solutions.
I hope there's enough rich folkes interested in the 0, to support their continued endeavours so we can eventually have a mass market hyper efficient solar ev. Now that sounds like the future.
You should be proud. It's an inspiring company run by some genuinely lovely people. I wish them every success.
Goede avond! With you Victor! Komt allemaal van de gezonde competitie van TUE en TUD in al die zonneraces in Australie. Eigenlijk allemaal opgezet door Wubbo Ockels 20 jaar geleden.
@@mischadebrouwer9855 Ja ik ben er van op de hoogte. Nederland doet het al vele jaren goed in Australië. Ik vind het tof om te zien dat het niet is gebleven bij een wedstrijd maar dat het nu ook echt een verandering aan het maken is in de wereld.
@@JackScarlett1 A comment from the one and only. Keep up the good work lad! I always love the segments you do!
Good luck to Lightyear, I hope they achieve everything they set out to achieve
Wow, this car and the Aptera are leading the way. So excited for the future.
This is the first EV that I've actually seen that I say, "Dang... that's actually practical!" I look forward to the cheaper models.
Look up Aptera. It's this but MUCH cheaper and only two seats and three wheels and a top range of 1000 miles.
Back in the 1800's they would have sold you snake oil to cure all your problems lol. What is that old saying... Oh yeah there is a fool born every minute... You were one of them ... But the real problem is not that you were born a fool.. The real problem is there are so many of you... And you breed...
Sounds like you haven't been looking very hard ;-)
The only thing impractical about an EV is if you can't charge at work or home. Otherwise, long road trips are a bit longer.
@@JKennedy442 Dude smarten up. They are completely impractical... Ever think about what you will do when the power goes out? Oh, your power doesn't go out often you say... well its about to once everyone owns an electric car. You really have not thought any of this out have you lol... pathetic...
What a beautiful production. I enjoyed this video, and the car is a bonus.
Wow the amount of thought that went into this car show in every aspect. Increadable .
I dont understand why its taken so long for someone to do this, it makes so much sense! Long live Lightyear
There is a race to get the first cars out to reservation holders, the Sono Sion may be just in front of the Aptera & Lightyear as they are building 37 pre production test vehicles, the Aptera has just shown off it's gamma / preproduction prototype that may put it just in front of Lightyear, especially as Aptera are fitting out their production facility
Because solar is not reliable or efficient per sqr footage vs wattage output needed. They have been trying for years. Notice that this guy is in spain or somewhere. In other parst of the world the weather varies. Some countries have monsoon seasons to contend with. We wont even mention some northern areas , where is overwhelmingly dark.
Solar suits a certain window of performance and activity. Usually better static and focused, not generally what cars do.
If you take that car to Austraila on a run eg, how much dust partical contaminante on a run does it take to affect the power capacity. ie when it bgets dirty. There also has to be some capacitance silo storage within. What effect does these variations in charge capacity have on the system lifespan?
@@ckm567zmm4 The solar charging is a trickle charge to give enough charge to cover a significant part of average use. If you take another solar car, the Aptera, that will generate enough power from the onboard solar PV to power the car for a little more than average car use in the states, the Aptera website has a charge calculator that gives a rough estimate of miles per day from the max solar PV for the rest of the world outside California (although broad figures, not street by street...). Even if the Aptera is only sold into sunny areas of the world, then having a car that does not need to be plugged in to charge for maybe half of motorists, will remove the carbon footprint of each car it replaces giving a great carbon benefit to our planet. The Lightyear will achieve something useful for the planet by having a car that for many users requires no externally generated power for a useful part of its driving. Perhaps the Lightyears 2, 3 & 4 will bring greater benefit as they intend to follow Tesla's path of starting with the luxurious, to generate capital to cover the development costs of a more affordable version, leading eventually to mass market cars.
The other benefit of both this & the Aptera is that both are creating super efficient cars... Hence a battery electric car that uses far less energy than most other cars at the moment even if you rarely use the solar PV to trickle charge the traction battery, which in itself a great move forward for transport. But then just going from ICE powered to battery electric cars will cut the energy requirements of car transport by 80% with no other change apart from ICE to BEV. More on this by Answers with Joe videos, the one on hydrogen cars.
I don't think people understand . This is all flim-flan. Creating a prototype is significantly different from a salable production model hitting top marks on all use quadrants.
Solar's basic issue comes down to chemical reactions of the cell. We just havent created one that is supper efficient to make this workable en mass used in this format (car).
Without support.
chemical reactions take a finite amount of time to occur, that's why we need a larger surface area for the S-CELL to generate enough power. The chances are they are going to find new materials or create composites that will have super efficiency.
This is why we still predominantly use a cumbsution engine. There is a lot of power produced for a small area. Same as rockets.
The new EV's work becuse of stored potential energy in the batteries ( created pre-hand)
Think of a man in a sinking boat with many holes and a bucket. He is tring to bail out enough water to keep the boat afloat. But his problem is he has only one small bucket. There is only so fast a man can work
I admire the push for a total solar car (like ...Logan's Run). However as many have said here until we find a super responsive material or find a way to catalyze the solar energy process at greater speed and scale for a small surface area , this is a wish.
I am sckeptical of all these claims. I know GM and many companines are trying to catch up and surpass tesla. They will create any prototype and push for publicity. We are currently not comparing egss with eggs.
Tesla's vision worked because he understood that a power storage is needed.. ie the battery. For many reasons solar is not quite there yet to replace the power ratio of the cumbstion engine. without a storage silo.
I'd like to really see the stats and analysis of this charge only 9 times a year. Becuase there is some magic going on. I smell Theranos style promo going on.
Yes, you can improve efficency , but a lot of wishful thinking is going on here. Without significant material breakthrough , this is all I wish and speculate.
It's like trying to crack water and run it in a JIT way sufficent to power a significant mass like a car. You just can't do it. Not yet anyway. There must be some other tech involved to make it possible.
We know that pressure changes the boiling point of water. Science has exploited that. We need something similar to allow an efficency multiplier in the current materials of today's solar cells. if not another element-sandwich (composite) is is needed. You can't cheat physics... well not yet anyway.
Look, i'm not saying the work so far is not interesting. But please all keep your physics, electronics, conservation of energy heads on.
Before this car gets to a reasonable price for the average user. Before it passes all the quadrants required to make it a viable product for the masses, I suspect this design will mutate significantly or have many compromises attached, making it only a useable product for the few.
@@ckm567zmm4 they're not breaking physics with this car, they just have different goals than most other manufacturers.
Tesla's are all about horsepower and being the fastest thing on the road which is why they need gigantic batteries and inefficient aerodynamics to increase roadholding. The lightyear is much slower with much less downforce and traction which means the efficiency goes way up increasing the range you can get from the same amount of solar energy. Aptera is even lighter and more aero efficient again but doesn't have as much room for solar panels.
People have been racing 100% solar powered cars across Australia since the 80s (or even earlier?) Its not some crazy new technology, just a different way of applying the latest advancements to a road-going vehicle.
If you live in a place with less sun or have a week of bad weather obviously you'll get less range from the solar, but it also has batteries that you can charge from the grid like any other EV and it's still more efficient than any other EV
i love efficiency! so much so that when looking for my next commuting vehicle i went past EVs, past micro EVs, past electric scooters and landed on an electric bike.
it is just unbeatable! ;)
Yes, my stromer e-bike does about 12Wh/ km as it is... but imagine this engine in a small low one person airfoil shaped vehicle.
The solar sounds like it is a niche subject. It will be very useful in select sunny areas, but overall solar is more efficient when not attached to a car.
But this car being designed around efficiency, not mere power, is such a game changer. What many people don't realise is just how much energy EV's need. To put things into perspective, if every car in the world was electric right now, worldwide electricity consumption would more than double. Electricity is neither cheap nor is the grid infinite.
This car might not be more than a tech demo. But it might just spark a movement absolutely necessary to bring individual transport, where unavoidable, into the future.
I'm sure that you CAN drive 70km on the energy captured by the solar panels, but it's an "up to" figure in ideal conditions and would be at an unrealistically low speed, so that the Wh per km figure would be much lower.
At the claimed 104 Wh per km, you would need to have harvested 7.28kWh, to drive 70km.
Given the standard figure for maximum solar insolation of 1000W per square meter and giving lightyear's panels a very generous efficiency of 25%, They would need to be exposed to full sun for 5.83 hours to harvest that energy. But that's assuming they were close to the optimum incidence ange for the whole time. Instead, given how they're mounted on the vehicle, they're almost never at the optimum angle. It would also assume that the vehicle is not going to be shaded by, for instance, a building, which is unrealistic.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Data logs of harvested energy, along with location data would go a long way to proving this.
While I have always had wishful thoughts towards the "solar car", I have to agree with Paul Compton that much of the stats seem extremely challenging to realistically achieve; and that is putting it mildly.
I applaud Lightyear engineers for seeing it through all these years. I wish them great luck... They are going to need a lot of luck to actually start cranking these beauties out for the mass market.
The sun turns around a parked car.
Unfortunately I have to agree that the solar aspect is almost pointless until panel efficiency gets up to 35/40% which is a while off yet. Domestic and commercial solar installation and battery storage with ev chargers allowing excess solar diversion with very efficient cars make the most sense. The efficiency is very impressive though.
@@dutchdna that's the real innovation here, I like going in forwards but hate reversing out of a space
@@MJSEN Compare what we can do today to what we could do 10 years ago and it will tell you that in 10 more years this a very viable concept.
Oh that transition from the model toy car to the real one with the drone angle…. cheers!!! Delightful, as always!
It actually weighs more than I expected - I was expecting 1200 Kg - which makes the efficiency all that more impressive.
I agree with Jack. This system with a super efficient car plus significant charging from solar is a large part of the answer for range expansion. Imagine charging 9 times a year! Imagine applying this tech to a 30kwh battery compact car that the rest of us could afford!
@Promotional Inc. Did you listen to the entire video??
Great episode!
Fantastic music score!!
FC has developed this kind of videos to one of a kind peace of art😃👍!
People moaning about the price are not getting the point here. When this way of thinking is scaled for the masses, it will be cheap enough for everyone to own. I love it! Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant, pure and simple! Look forward to this working its way down to the likes of regular drivers! Well put together Jack 👍
i hope you're young. it's going to be 30 years before any efficient EV is affordable for regular drivers.
Truly incredible! I am so pumped for not only this vehicle, but the future of EVs in general.
One thing I noticed during the video though, that I feel compelled to mention...
At ~ 16:43 Roel Grooten (vehicle architect) displays just how unnecessarily difficult touchscreens are to use in a moving vehicle. He has to support his hand using the top edge of the screen, then rocks his hand back and forth not once, not twice.. but three times to successfully press the button associated with regen (I think?). While this looks like a slight annoyance with a passenger operating the touchscreen, the difficulty of use skyrockets for the driver, to the point of being possibly dangerous.
Why not use physical buttons for literally everything the driver might need to use while in transit, and leave the touchscreen controls for anything else/less important.
These buttons could be off-the-shelf parts, and easily replaceable, housed in one or two button clusters.
The advantage of physical buttons is well on display in any vehicle made earlier than ~2005, in that, the driver can 'learn' each button, toggle, and lever's location, so that the driver may intuitively use them while in transit.
I'm sorry, but I sincerely cannot stand touchscreens just in daily life, on my cellphone, or for my aftermarket stereo in my 2002 Toyota...
Stop using touchscreens in new production cars please.
I agree with this
They use them because it reduces the cost so radically, but it's not as tangible as an actual switch.
As a resident of Eindhoven, this car makes me incredibly proud! Now if only the city of Eindhoven can install more charge points and change our district heating to green sourced energy, I'd be in heaven.
When I reached the end of this video my mouth was dry... jaw was on the ground for most of it. The stats are crazy! The world needs more of these. Well done to the creators!!!
I suspect the stats are bollocks
Great episode. There is another way, however, to solar power your EV and that is to charge it in your garage from the solar panels on your roof or from a renewably powered grid. However, for many people their car is a statement - "this is who I am". Because of that I think they will sell them. I really like this style. A brilliant design creates its own beauty.
Light year & Aptera will go head to head in becoming world's most efficient cars some day can't wait to see them both succeed .
Jack gets better and better every episode, and this show is like Top Gear, only better. Great work production team.
Lol
I disagree
@@Vikrum_ i did not like the presentation mate,I liked the car,not the guy
@@petergbrics7260 I liked him better in the show where he travels around with his father.
Yeah he’s very competent
I absolutely love it❤️ and i rly hope it's the start of a new generation of ev 🤞
FINALLY!!! Someone with the education and means to do it has used their brains and the Obvious answers to make a car that WILL be a game changer, if enough people who are able to support the fundraiser Will! I'm SO excited and hopeful for the future of transportation 😃
Wow the numbers are great on this car, thanks for breaking down the inwheel motors, and the stats. A lot of people aren't grasping what all this means, yes it's expensive but there are pieces of this car that will help other cars too.
This is what the world needs. We need real engineering. Move forward and forget bigger and better.
The world needs 250k cars lol. A cheap 20k gas car would always be cheaper to maintain and use... 🥴🥴🥴🥴. 25k-30k is the entry level that Evs need to get to. Anyone recall that everyone was saying EVs would become cheaper than gas cars by now 🥴🥴🥴
@@lee1130fromtwitter yeah obviously the price needs to be at the right level. All m saying is the solar and light weight part is what people need to rid the planet of toxic emissions. I hope you can understand that point. You obviously had a brain fart on the last one.
Impressive! On my holiday trip from Amsterdam to Interlaken and back, the consumption of my Zoe was 12,7kw/100km. or 4,893 mile per kw, including airco / 100km/h speed. I think pretty impressive. Between Netherlands to Swiss 3 times charged on public chargers, total cost of this: € 35,-.!!! Believe it or not. After good preparation of course. Not one second regret that I bought an EV. Succes!
Hey Robert, Jack’s really brilliant 🤩
Robert, top man.
Jack is excellent! Way better than that washed up old guy Lewlin or whatever his name is.
I would dearly love to see James May do a proper review of this car.
Top level stuff to the team of Lightyear.
"As aerodynamic as Kryton's Face" 🤣 That made my Day!
And yes, I read it with Rimmer's voice in my Head.
All the best and hoping for a successful company. Like someone said: “It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself”
"... But is made exponentially easier if you have a cult who will blindly give you their money..."
Elon's greatest achievement was being a cult leader. Honestly.
@@hieroglyph321 Elon didn't had cult back in the 2008 when tesla was going to go bankrupt when he was trying to finalize model S and ramp up production to release in 2011-2012. The government didn't help either. It was Daimler which invested in several shares and elon's existing closely related share holders doubled their positions along with elon going all in to save the company. The cult came later, wayyy later.
It's a damn good looking car, sort of reminds me of an old DS with the slopping back. Made so it won't rust and and has a great range, looks to be well made plus the design and specs make the newest tesla's look dated.
That is a car I would be happy to own.
Nicely produced video. Good job with the music.
Reminds me of solar car expos thirty some years ago. Many of these ideas were advanced then in homemade cars. Why it has taken so long for them to show up again in a prototype for consumers, I cannot understand. Glad to see efficiency and photovoltaics coupled together once again.
Probably government don't like it. Seems something bad always happens when people invent something that REALLY helps the people. I bet 1 million bucks they could have created long lasting efficient cars a long time ago.
Well said!
The oil companies and the governments work together to subdue and bury new alternatives. First they start with bribes of extortionate amounts then if that doesn't work they use other means to stop you.
Research the Joe fuel cell from Australia , when another man used the plans and started using it in America he and his family were directly threatened to stop using it and to stop talking about it to other people by men who clearly worked for the oil companies/government agency.
This is because it is classed as a threat to the economy and hence then classed as a threat to national security and once that old line is triggered the government will do anything in their power to silence someone.
To confirm this for yourselves also research the US government patent Office vault where ideas and inventions that might threaten the economy are immediately seized and the inventors told they will be given 25 year's in prison and a huge fine if they talk about it.
Things that have been seized are for one example of many, solar panels that produce over a certain efficiency of electricity.
This seems absurd and conspiracy based but its actual fact and you can look it all yourself.
Remember a threat to the economy is a threat to national security that is the premise they operate on.
If you want to live in a utopia of free energy it won't be on this planet.
Part of that is those solar car expo demonstrators/concepts, and the solar race series as not actually practical for real world use. Super lightweight without in the early days the most recent advances in composite materials so they are a bit too fragile and/or hard to make. To get the aerodynamic efficiency low enough to go anywhere with older less efficient motor and electronics means very little interior space, to lower the rolling resistance super skinny tyres that are just not able to provide enough grip to really suit real world use. Then there is the big one of just how far and fast battery tech has been improving in the last few decades - sure lithium chemistries existed but the ability to mass produce such tiny energy dense battery durable enough to be at all practical and all the tweaks to the chemistry to make them better suited to a wider range of tasks didn't.
So now you can make your engineering choices to create an affordable(ish) practical for daily use 'family car' EV, had there been anybody listening to the science not the oil lobbyists though the 80's and 90's these things could be developed a little quicker I expect, with all the money that would be thrown at it. But still only so far you can get as there are so many little iterative technological or manufacturing method improvements required to get there, and those won't just come because money is being thrown at trying to make an EV, lots of it will come from ideas in other industries and even sports.
So @MrR4ge89 is correct a long lasting efficent 'car' could have been made a long time ago - infact some where. Yes they were ICE powered, but the hyper efficeient ICE cars of decades ago were sometimes up at the 70mpg sort of ballpark in the real world - Still rather impressive now, and more so when you realize how primitive their engines are. However being light, noisy, uncomfortable, very small - usually 2 seats and a tiny boot at best, and unable to pass modern crash safety etc its easy to argue they were not really practical. A great choice as a second car for those few folks that have the money to have two vehicles, one that can actually take the kids to school and bring the grocery back and the hyper efficient impractical one just for the one persons daily commuting to work perhaps..
@@foldionepapyrus3441 The point of my post was that these ideas were around at least 30 years ago, yes, just in prototypes. But to now ballyhoo an engine for each wheel and capping the wheels to prevent air drag and putting photovoltaics on as much of the car body as possible, is, in MHO simply ingenuous. Also, did you see the movie, "What happened to the electric car?" A beautiful functioning sedan WAS available sometime in the 90,s and was taken off the market & taken from people who owned them & smashed.
Great idea for sunny climates. When you do the UK review it would be interesting to see how much of a charge you would get from the panels in summer and winter.
You have a good point there. UK sunshine is very unpredictable but bear in mind most cars spend at least three quarters of their life parked up doing nothing. We would just have to make sure we park in a open area that gets some sunlight.
@@recumbentrocks2929 you could probably optimise the charge by parking in a certain orientation too.
There's the channel tunnel, you can just drive to Spain to charge it up.
@@Martin-se3ij haha. Love it!
Modern solar panels don't need sunshine, just daylight, to generate some charge. As others have pointed out, cars spend a large proportion of their time parked. Will be interesting to see the data on how much solar charge is obtainable in variable UK weather conditions and what that, combined with the efficiency, will mean in terms of reduced grid charging.
Absolutely brilliant.
I had a dream of this car years ago, but the entire body was made into Solar panels. Nice to see this car becoming a reality now.
Wish you much success 👍
Aptera is a solar car too and it is affordable. It has two seats though. But I'm thinking on buying it nonetheless.
Me too! Isn't it wonderful to see it coming to life?
You use the word 'reality' I don't think it means what you think it means. 'Reality' means it will actually exist with the capabilities as stated. Whereas this is all a bit, well, hype.
At last, a company and a car that addresses the real world problems that face us !!
A 250.000€ car. Yeah, that solves the real world problems.
@@caleidoo
Ha ha, yes you're right, but I didn't say it solved the problems, I said it 'addresses them', meaning it's a step in the right direction . . .
Great video! yes I also really hope this is the way forward too.
I'd love to have a car like this. I don't need my car every day, so I might actually get away with pretty much never charging it.
$250k would buy a lot of charging.
@@macrumpton that is not the point. 250k would also buy a lot of public transportation tickets.
" It's s a quarter million dollars and i don't care" 🤣
Alternator on each wheel,
Cars have alternators they keep the batteries charged.
Have a look at the Sion
Incredible. With my commute I wouldn't need to charge it during summer nearly at all. And given how much I need car now (remote work), I would barely need to charge it - only for longer trips but even then they are few in between days.
Fantastic concept and video!
The old Ioniq, which is about 5 years old, was not far off this efficiency and was around 30k. Things don't seem to have moved on much. I definitely would like to see efficiency as the top priority for evs though and not just bigger and bigger batteries to lump around.
The original Ioniq (don't call it old, it's still a young, modern car even though they no longer sell it) had a coefficient of drag of .23, the Lightyear 0 has one of .19. So if the fronal area was the same, the Lightyear would be more efficient. However, I generally speaking get a much lower consumption on my Ioniq than they did in this first drive, but then again, I do my best to drive efficient, not fast.
@@Hans-gb4mv I've just watched the whole thing and we get around 6.2mi/kWh out of our Ioniq in the summer and we live in a hilly area. Not quite as efficient as I thought it would be.
@@Hans-gb4mv I suspect you're comfortably achieving approximately 5 miles/KWH, which is only 20% less than this car. I also imagine your car ... COST LESS than 15% of what this car cost.
@@RPRosen-ki2fk The range is also half of this car. Cant realy compare them.
@@remco6816 I totally disagree, when you factor in how much less the Ioniq costs ... you can compare them.
You have no idea how happy this car makes me. Like switching your crappy lighting at home to LEDs, efficiency is the key to making things better. Not since the brainstorming around the i3 design (we need to make it light🤔🤔🤔, carbon fibre shell it is then) has the engineering of a car got me so excited. We’ll done Lightyear. You are the kings of our time ❤️
good luck with LED lighting ..you've obviously not done your homework. stock up on spare retinas and glaucoma meds, plus something for switchmode supplies, oh, and a shedload of 'blueblocker' glasses .
FINALLY! Something the oil / energy giants have zero control over. They'll love this!
Sorry but you can't build a solar cells without huge oil powered drills unfortunately battery power hasn't reached a point where it can put out enough power to run mining operations necessary to extract the things solar panels require
That is why I think it will never be massed produced.
Yes, Three years after Robert went to get its exclusive first look, here is Jack looking at it ready for mass production.
Touch of the Citroen CX there, so if electric cars are going to be that good looking, bring it on!
Jack Scarlett could charm paint off a wall. His likeability factor is off the charts.
I'd like to see a full review with in depth range tests. Not a hyper controlled press review.
Completely agree, this just feels like a propaganda piece. Where is the skepticism regarding their claims? Such a massive increase in range is massively suspect to me. The claims of how much the solar panels will charge also sounds suspect to me. I'll believe it when I see people doing drive to zero tests and people who have lived with the car for months and when I can buy one of these for the claimed 30k. Before that, its just another press release with hype claims.
@@TehCheese Agree. This was the best week of the year for solar performance, summer solstice. All test drivers were told to coast at the same straight. Is it 100 % flat or with a minor, not noticeable, decline? The same consumption should be reachable with a Hyundai Ioniq or a Model 3 with these road conditions.
Love Robert's bit at the end 🤣
This is an amazing car. I love that they're doing this to prove a point to the cart industry just like Tesla did when they proved Electric cars are better than ICE. Eagerly looking forward to the Lightyear 1 😃
A $250,000 cannot be call a game-changer much less THE game changer. I certainly haven't been waiting on a $250,000 electric car. Hype much?,
The OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Dedication) to reducing drag through state of the art aerodynamics and suspension, reducing rolling resistance to the lowest in the industry, really sets this early access electric vehicle apart from everything that's been done up to this point in the history of car manufacturers. What the Tucker Torpedo did to gasoline powered car manufacturing, the Lightyear 0 will do to electric vehicle engineering practices.
Apart from Aptera, or any number of other EV startups who also had a laser like focus on aerodynamics ???
The ‘eco-community’ is always been focused on efficiency and saving weight etc. It was very surprising that when electric cars finally became popular, big lumpy electric SUV’s started hitting the markets. Lightyear is one of the first who understand this focus.
That made sense for so many reasons. First, SUVs are best sellers. It literally saved companies from going bankrupt (Porsche, amongst others), the moment they offered an SUV in their line-up. So they knew a SUV EV would sell more than a small sedan EV. Secondly, there is more money to be made with premium cars, which includes luxurious SUV's and fast non-SUV EV cars. And lastly, it's more easy to fit a big battery in a taller vehicle, that's why so many EV's are SUV's or at least crossovers.
@@caleidoo Good points! 🤓👍
This show has gone from a reasonable and fun take on electric vehicles to glib hyperbole! Bring back Robert!
Awesome! I'd love to know whether they're considering coating the glass such that it also acts as PV converting the light outside visible spectrum (IR & UV) into electricity and at the same time preventing the interior of the car from getting insanely hot, because you're deliberately parking such that you avoid being in shade.
Yes that's absolutely the right thing to do.
Remember that solar panels aren't that efficient under high temperatures.
I have been longing for this type of car to appear! 😊⚡️☀️⚡️👍🏻 Together with Aptera it seems like they are the only ones that truly strives for efficiency powered by the sun. But their background in solar-racing makes them even more capable and focused than Aptera. This shape and size of car makes it so suitable and usable for any users. Aptera is also impressive and cool, but in an other way. Really imoressive! 😄☀️⚡️👍🏻 Hopes this will wake the SUV-makers up a bit, and push them in the right direction! ♻️🌱☀️⚡️👍🏻
It really is stunning. The vegan interior is so appreciated.
if my income sextuples I'll happily buy one
9:24, there are a whooping 661W of solar power harvested in Spain in June, WOW! This 0.66kWh every hour (which of course will vary due to the car and sun changing position will help A LOT. That's what they mean that it will take months before charges🤣 meanwhile, you buy a model 3, a house AND 10kw or more of PV for your roof with all that money in some countries that have actually sun and you really charge you car with solar consistently.
The air conditioner will consume 1kW.
I love these videos. it brings out all the uneducated knuckle draggers that seem to have a penchant for embarrassing themselves in front of the world, well done genius...!
@@MickH60 thanks, now we just have to wait the stats and impressioms from the people that ACTUALLY get to spend all this money for this car😂 quick question, does it support fast rapid charging? If the sun is enough one would expect that this feature would be redundant...?
@@MickH60 I am not sure I understand. Are you talking about yourself?
Great concept! Reminds me a lot of hiw I drive my old Ioniq with small battery. I have them on my watchlist once they come up with car for masses :) They should definitely introduce wheel pedals for quick regen changes like Hyundai has. Better for changing it fast than having to go to screen menus.
I love seeing the options available between models.
Innovation has to start somewhere. Its amazing to see technology move forward. Hopefully the used EV car market comes down to the normal used car market prices someday. Maybe then I can afford one, prob be about the time EVs are being phased out for the next big thing.
Now if only they can install millions of places to plug them all in for all of us city dwellers without houses and garages, or really even any sort of dedicated parking, and a way to keep people from unplugging my car as it sits in a random spot 2 blocks away down the dark alley... and another spot for my gfs car.
FWIW I bought My 2014 Leaf SL (originally $38k) in 2016 as a CPO with 21k mi for $14k! This car has earned $25.00/month After paying its electricity and $299.00 car payment! This was calculated to breakeven @ $2.00 gasoline price. My usage model: I drove 3 trips a day 17 miles from home (34 mi round trip X 3 = about 100 mi a day! and I wasn't going very far away from home!) NOW: IT EARNS much more as the car payment ended in 2021 and gas is about $5.00 / gallon! Now I need a new Battery $9700 Plus shipping from Yesa-Battery in HK Plus installation. But this will be an upgrade from 24kWh to 40kWh. Nissan however will not $ell me a 40kWh battery at all for it! They make one and it works! But, NO!
They will not sell it. Current range less than 59 miles. Usable, more like 45 miles. Also, Then I had to replace with upgraded Telematics for $200.00 and It is already worthless needs upgrade to 4g or 5g and is no longer supported! I still LIKE the basic car! It still earns close to $600-$800 per month in fuel I no longer have to buy! I'm driving less Also Less range!!
The videography on this channel is on a different level. Keep it up guys!
Is that a random Red Dwarf reference? Why yes. Yes it is. Chef's kiss.
Reminds me of the Citroen CX next door had when I was growing up - compared to the boxy 80s tat that surrounded it, it looked amazing! If Lightyear can translate this into an everyday competitor for the boring, heavy wasteful junk that's currently on the road then good luck, they'll need it, admirable as this one is!
I'm curious how much of a beating those motors will take being in the wheels. There won't be much cushioning from vibration since the suspension won't be smoothing it out.
They do fine. Air in the tyres is enough to dampen vibrations, but just don't hit kerbs head on at 100 kmh.
I have a large hub motor on my ebike and it handles mountain tracks just fine for the last 6 years.
For sure, inventors of this are not familiar of concept of unsprang mass. Suspension will be unable to handle any bump on the road, as this mass will send wheels flying and hit body of the car so strong. Also, it will loose traction. Awful idea.
@@dezelvol It'll be fine for the intended application, as the advantages outweigh any disadvantages. The added mass of the motor isn't a huge amount and is still small compared to the rest of the body.
The inventors will forget more than you'll ever know, because they are the ones doing it, unlike some random bloke opining on the net.
Nice machine, especially for all the work on efficiency....A company that has worked on the low-end proposal of this concept (light vehicle, solar panels etc) is the 2017 German company Sono Motors, with the Sion, with production starting in 2023. Price is just below the USD 30 k mark with about 14 000 pre-orders. Goof luck to Lightyear, Sono and to all these brave young innovators.
Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Aptera Please do an episode with Aptera
Which is also cool, but only a two-seater.
Sono Sion, Aptera, Lightyear... Third real production car. Solar is really catching on!
Are any of them actually shipping?
it's great, but it's $260,000 USD and you cant get in in the USA. cant wait for the next lightyear.
This is the car I've been dreaming about for a decade. Wow, cannot wait for the everyday version to be released! Incredible numbers, what will the energy companies think about it though???🤔
Pretty sure no one cares what the energy companies think about it.
Probably they'd actually like it... Energy companies nowadays don't know where to get all the energy from. Too much usage and grids are struggling to cope
Everyday version? thats funny.
@@scstudios8 why, they said the plans are to make an ev with solar in future for €30k. Didn't you watch the video?
@@AlbertaGeek well, they have the power to lobby this into oblivion tho 😅