Solar electric car can run for 7 months without charging

Lightyear, a Dutch start-up, recently introduced the Lightyear 0 electric vehicle equipped with solar panels.

Lightyear 0 has an elongated design, weighs 1,575 kg, and is more than 5m long, equivalent to BMW Series-7. The roof is designed with an aerodynamic rear bevel with a wind resistance coefficient of only 0.19, on par with current sports cars.

The most striking feature of this electric vehicle is the curved solar panels that allow it to charge itself at any time. These integrated solar panels cannot fully charge the car's battery, but it can be charged gradually and continuously when the car runs on a sunny day.

Lightyear says the solar panels can trickle-charge continuously with a capacity of up to 1.05 kW under ideal conditions.

In the summer, solar panels allow the electric vehicle to increase its range by up to 70 kilometers per day. In case the user only travels 35km per day to go to work, the car can be used for up to 7 months before needing to be charged.

According to Lightyear's estimates, thanks to its aerodynamic design and high-performance electric motor in the wheels, the electric vehicle can travel 625 km on a single charge of electricity. When traveling at a speed of 110 km/h, the car can travel 560km on a single charge.

Lightyear 0 is equipped with a 60kWh battery pack and has fast charging technology. The car is equipped with 4 electric motors that provide 174 horsepower and 1,720 Nm of torque. Lightyear 0 can accelerate from 0-100 km / h in 10 seconds. The maximum speed of the vehicle is 160km/h.

Lightyear 0's interior is quite simple and uses mostly eco-friendly materials such as recycled plastic bottles, foam insulation beads, leather made from plants.

The car is decorated with a 10.1-inch central touch screen running on the Android Automotive operating system. In addition, the car is also integrated with Android Auto system, Apple CarPlay, software update feature over the network.

Lightyear said that the company will produce 946 of these solar electric vehicles and will start reaching users from November 2022. The retail price of this solar electric car is about $263,262, much higher than the Tesla Model S ($129,990 Plaid version), the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan ($102,310). If all cars are sold out, the solar electric vehicle model that is more suitable for the majority of customers will be produced again and have a starting price of EUR 30,000 (about 32,000 USD, about 731 million VND) in early 2025.