Electric Car Can Drive 70 Kilometers on Solar Power Alone
Dutch company Lightyear has designed an electric car that can travel up to 70 kilometers a day on solar power alone. The company hopes the car can provide an efficient option for environmentally friendly travel with less need to rely on special charging facilities.
The car has been named Lightyear 0, after the company's goal to have the world drive the distance of one light-year on solar power by 2035. It will be the world's first production-ready car powered partly by the sun.
With 5 square meters of solar panels on the roof and hood of the vehicle, the car's battery can charge 10 kilometers of range for every hour of sunshine while parked or driving. The car can also be charged from a regular home power socket just like any electric vehicle, charging the battery with 32 kilometers of range per hour.
However, to charge more quickly, electric vehicles need special charging facilities. And Lightyear CEO Lex Hoefsloot believes that current charging facilities won't be able to keep up with the growing demand for electric cars.
But using the sun as a power source means the Lightyear 0 can be driven for weeks or months without needing to charge the battery — depending on the distance you drive each day. For a daily commute of 35 kilometers in a sunny country, the car won't need charging for up to seven months, according to the developers. In cloudy climates like in the Netherlands, the car would need charging an average of every two months, they say.
Without solar power, the range of the battery alone is estimated at about 625 kilometers.
Although saving money on fuel is a long-term benefit of the Lightyear 0, the immediate costs are pretty high. With the first models costing $262,000, the car is more than four times more expensive than the Tesla Model 3 Long Range, which can drive about 575 kilometers on a single charge.
Lightyear says it aims to release a cheaper model by 2025, which it hopes will cost around $31,000.
